7

I just updated my ssh key and added a passphrase, however it constantly nags me for it now, such as when I do a git (or mercurial hg) push. ssh-agent is running:

xxx  1303  1118  0 09:16 ?  00:00:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent
   /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session 
   /usr/bin/im-launch mate-session

I tried ssh-add:

> ssh-add
Identity added: /home/…/.ssh/id_rsa (/home/…/.ssh/id_rsa)
Enter passphrase for /home/…/.ssh/id_ed25519: 
Could not add identity "/home/…/.ssh/id_ed25519": 
    communication with agent failed

What is missing? 16.04 Ubuntu Mate, in case it matters.

Improve this question
2
  • echo $SSH_AUTH_SOCK -- are you sure you are connected to this ssh-agent and not the GNOME one, that might not support ED25519 keys?
    – Jakuje
    Sep 29, 2016 at 11:33
  • /run/user/1000/keyring/ssh - no idea?
    – Gringo Suave
    Sep 29, 2016 at 21:47

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
8

Edit 2018:

This was resolved in gnome-keyring by wrapping ssh-agent recently so the workarounds should not be needed anymore and everything should work out of the box.

Original workarounds for older systems:

/run/user/1000/keyring/ssh is path of Gnome keyring (seahorse), which does not support Ed25519 keys. There are two possibilities:

  1. Do not use ED25519 keys and use RSA (which should be good enough)

  2. Run real ssh-agent in your startup scripts (~/.xsession) using

     eval `ssh-agent`
Improve this answer
5
  • Interesting that seahorse does not support this. Is there an issue for this?
    – Alex
    Nov 22, 2016 at 21:11
  • 2
    There is a bug about this in GNOME bugzilla for almost three years: bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=723274
    – Jakuje
    Nov 22, 2016 at 21:54
  • 1
    .xsession didn't seem to work, looks like gnome-keyring clobbers ssh-agent: bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=775189
    – Gringo Suave
    May 3, 2017 at 19:15
  • For testing purpose you should be able to start the agent manually/in ~/.bashrc. It just overwrites the environment variable set by gnome-keyring. Similar way should be possible in some of the X startup scripts (not too familiar in these waters). Though implementing ed22519 should not be too hard since it is already available in libgcrypt. If I will have time, I will have a look into that.
    – Jakuje
    May 3, 2017 at 19:21
  • This was resolved in gnome-keyring by wrapping ssh-agent recently.
    – Jakuje
    May 21, 2018 at 9:19

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .