SSH Public Key
I'm so new to Linux I can still smell the new leather. I used the public key of one I generated on my Mac when I created my server. Still, I was required to make a password. I know that I can delete the password but how does the public key work when I start to build the server up? I've done nothing as yet but to create my server and the key was installed? when I created it. I have no idea what the key will do or not do when I start building the server in the next day or so. Does the key recognize my Mac or is there some part of the key that I don't know about that needs be used for a password of sorts? My first "NOOB" post here and I do feel very much like a noob!
1 Reply
mjones
Linode Staff
It sounds like you've got everything set up on your Linode, but you may still need to do a few things on the Mac side to get it working. Specifically, you need to make sure that SSH will be able to locate the key on your Mac and use it when logging in. In most cases, that's taken care of as part of the key generation, but make sure that the private key on your mac is located in:
~/.ssh/
When using the key generation instructions in our Public Key Authentication guide the private key will be called 'id_rsa' and the public key will be 'id_rsa.pub'
As long as the private key is in the right directory, and matches up with the public key on your Linode, you won't have to enter a password to log in via SSH.