ssh-copy-id no identities found error

Question

I have few client systems where I need to push the ssh key and login from my server without authentication prompts.

First, on the server, I created ssh key as below which was successful

]# ssh-keygen -t rsa -N "" -f my.key

Second, tried copying the pub key but fails with no identity error. Am i doing a wrong step here?

]# ssh-copy-id my.key.pub 10.10.1.1
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: ERROR: No identities found

did you confirm that `my.key` is there with `ls -l my.key`? Is there a step you're not showing us that did a `cd`? Probably not, but just asking as your "2nd set of eyes" ;-). Good luck. — shellter, Mar 20 '14 at 12:00

score 84 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 20 '14 at 12:10

84

You need to use the -i flag:

ssh-copy-id -i my.key.pub 10.10.1.1

From the man page:

If the -i option is given then the identity file (defaults to ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) is used, regardless of whether there are any keys in your ssh-agent. Otherwise, if this: ssh-add -L provides any output, it uses that in preference to the identity file

answered Mar 20 '14 at 12:10

Josh Jolly

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I tried with -i option and pushed the key successfully to target. Also verified authorized_keys file and the key appears to be there.. Then after i tried ssh root@10.10.1.1 but still then prompts for a password.. is there anything more required here. ? ssh-copy-id -i my.key.pub 10.10.1.1 Now try logging into the machine, with "ssh '10.10.1.1'", and check in: .ssh/authorized_keys to make sure we haven't added extra keys that you weren't expecting. ~]# ssh root@10.10.1.1 root@10.10.1.1's password: – user3331975 Mar 20 '14 at 12:40
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ssh by default looks in `~/.ssh` for your keys etc. Since your `my.key` files appear to be in another directory, try `ssh -i /location/of/my.key 10.10.1.1` (or consider moving your my.key files into `~/.ssh`) – Josh Jolly Mar 20 '14 at 13:06
"Then after i tried ssh root@10.10.1.1 but still then prompts for a password." The first ssh-copy-id command is for logging in as you, not as root. You need another ssh-copy-id command for logging in as root. ssh-copy-id -i root@my.key.pub 10.10.1.1 – Underhill Sep 16 '22 at 13:10

score 81 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 10 '16 at 17:35

81

Generating ssh keys on the client solved it for me

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa

answered Mar 10 '16 at 17:35

endumiuz

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I'd say this is the one that works for the usual case (making an SSH key in the default location) – Stefan Reich Oct 24 '19 at 12:24
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Just `ssh-keygen` worked for me. No need to specify `-t rsa` . – Sopalajo de Arrierez Mar 07 '20 at 15:36
If you get the `ssh-copy-id` on a new Linux machine, it's always good to check if `ssh-keygen` has been run. – Joachim Spange Feb 20 '23 at 08:31

score 34 · Answer 3 · answered May 26 '14 at 12:14

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Run following command

# ssh-add

If it gives following error: Could not open a connection to your authentication agent

To remove this error, Run following command:

# eval `ssh-agent`

answered May 26 '14 at 12:14

SMSM

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After executing eval `ssh-agent` execute ssh-add and then ssh-copy-id and everything should work correctly. – Saradhi Jul 16 '14 at 09:29
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Thank you! I've been trying to figure out what wasn't working, but this solved it – Alcamtar Jan 29 '16 at 03:50
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the original error ```/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: ERROR: No identities found``` still persists even after running above commands – ulkas Apr 30 '19 at 14:41
Didn't help for me either – Stefan Reich Oct 24 '19 at 12:22

score 23 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 21 '17 at 13:39

The simplest way is to:

ssh-keygen
[enter]
[enter]
[enter]

cd ~/.ssh
ssh-copy-id -i id_rsa.pub USERNAME@SERVERTARGET

Att:

Its very very simple.

In manual of "ss-keygen" explains:

"DESCRIPTION ssh-keygen generates, manages and converts authentication keys for ssh(1). ssh-keygen can create RSA keys for use by SSH protocol version 1 and DSA, ECDSA or RSA keys for use by SSH protocol version 2. The type of key to be generated is specified with the -t option. If invoked without any arguments, ssh-keygen will generate an RSA key for use in SSH protocol 2 connections."

Thanks. This worked. I didn't have to generate a key as I already had one. It was changing to the .ssh directory and using that command that did it. — Sean Rasmussen, Oct 04 '20 at 16:00

score 10 · Answer 5 · edited May 02 '16 at 16:56

10

The ssh-copy-id is not able to locate the id_rsa.pub file that is generated by ssh-keygen in your system, Use the following command to complete:

find the path of the .pub file: locate *.pub
copy the path (ex: /home/user_name/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) and run the following command: ssh-copy-id -i /home/user_name/.ssh/id_rsa.pub hostname

edited May 02 '16 at 16:56

Martijn

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answered Aug 24 '15 at 14:47

Guru

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score 8 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 10 '16 at 10:59

8

You need to specify the key by using -i option.

ssh-copy-id -i your_public_key user@host

Thanks.

answered Mar 10 '16 at 10:59

Ashish Bhosle

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This is the same answer as the one posted on [March 20,2014](https://stackoverflow.com/a/22532600/3276962). – Jerry May 10 '22 at 14:58

score 7 · Answer 7 · edited Feb 15 '18 at 20:16

Old post but I came up with this problem today, ended up googling and had found myself here. I had figured it out on my own but thought I'd share my issue & solution in my case to help out anyone else who may have the same issue.

Issue:

[root@centos [username]]# ssh-keygen -t rsa

Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa):I HAD JUST HIT ENTER

/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: ERROR: No identities found

Solution:

Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa): **/home/[username]/id_rsa**

Be sure if you are doing this as root you are coping the key into the user directory you wish to login with. NOT the root user directory.

I was sshing into the machine when performing this operation, so I guess ssh-copy-id just point to the dir you are logged in as by default.

Hope this helps anyone.

score 5 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 17 '19 at 16:09

5

came up across this one, on an existing account with private key I copied manually from elsewhere. so the error is because the public key is missing

so simply generate one from private

 ssh-keygen -y -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa > ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

answered Jan 17 '19 at 16:09

Dan Kuida

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score 4 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 17 '19 at 06:03

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Actually issues in one of Ubuntu machine is ssh-keygen command was not run properly. I tried running again and navigated into /home/user1/.ssh and able to see id_rsa and id_rsa.pub keys. then tried command ssh-copy-id and it was working fine.

answered Feb 17 '19 at 06:03

BYRAKUR SURESH BABU

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 20 '20 at 17:53

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FWIW, the -i option was a red herring for me. ssh-copy-id will use ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub by default.

What was keeping it from working for me was the permissions on the ~ directory, the ~/.ssh directory, and the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the remote computer.

All three need to be set with chmod 755 ~ ~/.ssh ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, then ssh-copy-id your-remote-server.com will work.

answered Sep 20 '20 at 17:53

Mark Moore

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according to the [documentation](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/resources/troubleshooting-ssh/authentication/#fixing-key-permissions-and-ownership), permissions should be `700` and `600` accordingly. – lepe Oct 04 '21 at 03:57

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered May 10 '21 at 18:22

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I had the same issue. The problem was my ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub file being empty. I overwritten it somehow while messing around with my ssh config. The problem is solved after correcting the file.

answered May 10 '21 at 18:22

Asocia

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Dec 16 '18 at 08:10

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I had faced this problem today while setting up ssh between name node and data node in fully distributed mode between two VMs in CentOS.

The problem was faced because I ran the below command from data node instead of name node ssh-copy-id -i /home/hduser/.ssh/id_ras.pub hduser@HadoopBox2

Since the public key file did not exist in data node it threw the error.

answered Dec 16 '18 at 08:10

Vignesh Menon

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My issue was that I was running the command from `root` (via sudo, as I wanted `root` to login without password to a remote server). Ubuntu apparently was looking the key in the user's home which was missing the `.ssh` directory. It seems that `ssh-copy-id` uses that `.ssh` directory temporally in order to upload the key. Thanks to `-i /home/.../id_rsa.pub` argument, I was able to notice that. After creating that directory, I was able to upload the key and to login from `root` successfully. – lepe Oct 04 '21 at 04:11

score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Aug 05 '20 at 08:22

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Use simple ssh-keyscan hostname to find if key(s) exists on both sites:

ssh-keyscan rc1.localdomain
[or@rc2 ~]$ ssh-keyscan rc1
# rc1 SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.3
rc1 ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABI.......==

ssh-keyscan rc2.localdomain
[or@rc2 ~]$ ssh-keyscan rc2
# rac2 SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.3
rac2 ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABIwAAAQEAys7kG6pNiC.......==

edited Aug 05 '20 at 08:22

fcdt

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answered Aug 04 '20 at 10:44

HankerPL

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score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Apr 06 '22 at 00:10

0

ssh-keygen

then

sudo service ssh restart

after this, you should be able to use ssh-copy-id without having to provide any additional commands

answered Apr 06 '22 at 00:10

Amir Khalil

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Aug 03 '23 at 18:25

Might sound stupid, but for some reason the file I needed to copy did not have the correct name. It was called id_rsa.pu. Be sure the file name is exactly id_rsa.pub or tell ssh-copy-id to pickup on a specific identity file with ssh-copy-id -i path/to/identity_file.pub

score -3 · Answer 16 · answered Feb 02 '15 at 15:09

In my case it was the missing .pub extension of a key. I pasted it from clipboard and saved as mykey. The following command returned described error:

ssh-copy-id -i mykey localhost

After renaming it with mv mykey mykey.pub, works correctly.

ssh-copy-id -i mykey.pub localhost

ssh-copy-id no identities found error

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