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I can't log into my droplet. This is another post I made about the issue that did not solve my problem, but explains some of what I have tried. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52917470/permission-denied-publickey-digital-ocean/52972508?noredirect=1#comment92856534_52972508

What I just tried:

  1. ssh-key gen. Naming the keys portfolio. Could this naming be a problem? The only keys that work on my machine are the keys with the default name id_rsa, but there cannot be more than one set with that name. There is a line in the debug that says Offering public key: RSA SHA256:blahblah /Users/ME/.ssh/id_rsa so it looks like it connecting to the wrong key??? I have tried ssh -i ~/.ssh/portfolio [email protected] to connect to a specific private key called portfolio. Nope. Permission denied (publickey).

  2. Log into server inside DO console. nano /.ssh/authorized_keys. Copy in my public key called portfolio. Got this here

  3. Create a new user and save.
  4. Test the key pair from terminal on my mac with ssh -v -i ~/.ssh/portfolio [email protected]

Big fat Permission denied (publickey). Obviously logging in does not work either. Why? The keys match and are in place yet still do not find each other.

Further debugging: Using the digital ocean console, currently the only way I can access my droplet, I see that copy/paste does not work. Pasting in a public key results in a string of totally different characters than the real key. This even happens in nano.

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  • You can access the server, so check its logs to find out why ssh authentication is failing.
    – Michael Hampton
    Nov 6, 2018 at 19:11
  • run ssh with the -vvv parameter. Look at the log files of your server. Post actual errors and your configuration, not your interpretation of it.
    – Gerald Schneider
    Nov 6, 2018 at 19:12
  • added debug log
    – Mote Zart
    Nov 6, 2018 at 19:26
  • Still, more interesting are the server logs. The permissions of the .ssh directory and the files in there could also be relevant. Also, your question is inconsistent. You claim you created and uploaded a key called portfolio, but you are not using it. sometimes you are using the root user, sometimes not.
    – Gerald Schneider
    Nov 6, 2018 at 19:33
  • The server logs are in nano in the DO console and I cannot look at them full screen or scroll through them easily. Only using the down arrow, and most of the message is off the screen. I cannot copy from here either. It's disabled. How can I get better access?
    – Mote Zart
    Nov 6, 2018 at 19:38

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I wanted to update how I solved this. The problem was that:

  1. The key was not making it to the server correctly. Or an incorrect version was making it.
  2. Once I got the correct keys placed, my local machine and the server were not finding the correct keys to match each other.

Solved 1. - ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/mykey root@MY-IP for trying to copy the public key did not work. I also tried pasting it directly into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys in the Digital Ocean console since I was locked out locally, but many of the pasted characters were wrong. Something was screwey about the pasting function there and Digital Ocean staff didn't know anything about that.

So to work locally I reset root PW on DO console then ssh [email protected] on my local machine but with a password. Then in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys I pasted in the public key and used a diff tool to make sure they were the same. This time there were.

Solved 2. - The keys still were not connecting. I could connect using only using -i flag (which means identity _file and connects the keys manually) ssh -i ~/.ssh/mykey [email protected] but I didn't want to type type this every time so I make a ~/.ssh/config.

Host myapp
    User user1
    HostName 123.456.789.10
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/mykey

Then, going ssh myappp I am able to login. Not sure why all these things are occurring. I thought maybe since I did not name them properly since id_rsa works okay, but id_rsa2 does not so not sure what would work then, but these workarounds solved this issue.

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  • The behavior you're talking about with regards to -i is exactly how the behavior is documented in the man page. There are a few default private key filenames it looks for, if you name it something else, you need to specify with -i or in your config file (which you have done). ~/.ssh/mykey is not one of the defaults.
    – user143703
    Nov 14, 2018 at 23:39
  • This workssssssssssssssssss
    – Merhawi Fissehaye
    Aug 22, 2020 at 9:29
  • Here's a link for anyone that wants a step-by-step tutorial to setting up SSH with a droplet using Visual Studio Code on Windows: medium.com/p/44afcc954d38
    – TheAltruist
    Jan 29, 2022 at 2:52
  • The droplet console has several limitations that make it unpleasant to use. As mentioned by the OP, it incorrectly formats pasted text, it can't scroll through its output, and the window size is small, and doesn't expand when maximized.
    – TheAltruist
    Jan 29, 2022 at 3:23
  • In comparison, Visual Studio Code can create, open, edit, and transfer files on the virtual machine from within the code editor like you would on your regular computer. It can run commands on multiple terminal applications in parallel. It also doesn't have any of the limitations that the droplet console had.
    – TheAltruist
    Jan 29, 2022 at 3:25
-1

For me it was simpler for my new droplet. I had not assigned the Firewall, with SSH on port 22 allowed, to the droplet.

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  • When the firewall blocks the connection you are not getting a "permission denied" error, but a timeout. Your answer doesn't match this question.
    – Gerald Schneider
    Apr 17, 2020 at 6:12
  • @Gerald Schneider Nevertheless, I got the OP error, I followed the instructions to no avail. Adding the firewall and thus its rules fixed the problem instantly.
    – Dirk Bester
    Apr 17, 2020 at 6:30

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