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The following seems to be a common problem, but I have not found anything to resolve the problem in my case. I have 2 laptops ARTHUR and GALAHAD. ARTHUR is running ubuntu 16.04 (32 bit), GALAHAD is running ubuntu 18.04. I can SSH from GALAHAD to ARTHUR from a shell with no problems using Public Keys. If I try to connect to ARTHUR from GALAHAD using Remmina (via VNC) it works OK if I use password authentication in the SSH tunnelling, but this is not very secure. If I try to use Public key (automatic), after entering the SSH private key passphrase I get this message:

ssh automatic public key authentication failed: failed to read key: /home/stuart/.ssh/authorized_keys

If instead I try to use 'identity file' and select '~/.ssh/authorized_keys' I get the following message:

SSH public key authentication failed: Access denied.

I think this is not an SSH issue because I can connect using SSH from a shell, I think this is a Remmina issue. Any guidance would be much appreciated.

StuartM
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1 Answers1

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Probably an issue with Remmina not receiving the keys (or key-reading permissions) needed to make the connection. It sounds like:

  1. You are using the Remmina GUI, and
  2. Remmina is forcing you to configure something that the shell ssh command handles implicitly.

The second warning looks familiar: 'identity file' sounds like a private key. I know they call it "public key" authentication, but that may refer to ARTHUR's point of view: it will decide whether to grant access to GALAHAD based on the public key.

authorized_keys is not a private key file; it is a list of the public keys of that can sign in as the user in whose .ssh folder it is located. The file is relevant on the receiving computer, and probably does not contain the receiving computer's public key. If key-based SSH is working for you, then ARTHUR likely has an authorized_keys containing GALAHAD's public key.

If key-based SSH succeeds without specifying a key, then I expect the private key to be ~/.ssh/id_rsa (public key in id_rsa.pub, should you need it). Try using that pair in Remmina.

MBer
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