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jumpnett
Asked: 2016-01-19 15:21:40 +0800 CST

How do I configure ssh to ask me for my password in the terminal instead of in a dialog box?

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On Ubuntu Mate, whenever I try to push to github, I get a dialog asking me to "Enter password to unlock the private key", instead of it it prompting me in the terminal. How do I configure ssh to ask me for my password in the terminal instead of the dialog?

ssh

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I recently started seeing the same behaviour (for years it asked in the terminal). I think it turns out that having a id_rsa.pub in your ~/.ssh directory is what triggers the behaviour. I recently put it in there so that i could ssh-copy-id to one of my other servers. You could work around the issue by storing your public key elsewhere.

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  2. SSH Key Passphrase

    You generally want to keep an ssh-key locked with a passphrase. But you can remove the passphrase security and you will stop receiving the prompt.

    Ubuntu - GUI

    Ubuntu comes with a program called Passwords and Keys. This software will let you manage many security credentials in Ubuntu.

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    Steps to disable private key passphrase:

    1. Go to OpenSSH Keys and find the private key you use to access GitHub.
    2. Right Click the key you want to modify.
    3. Select Properties.
    4. Press Change Passphrase.
    5. Enter current passphrase.
    6. Leave the prompt empty for the next two prompts about the new passphrase. (This will leave the key unlocked permanently or until you set a new passphrase.)

    I DO NOT RECOMMEND

    Although this will stop the prompt I do not recommend keeping an ssh-key unlocked for security. If however you know this file will be secure on your private computer and you don't have access to high risk information go ahead.

    Just remember:

    "You don't necessarily know what you want to keep a secret, until it is not a secret anymore."

                                          -I forget the reference.

    Hope this helped.

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  3. man ssh-agent and ssh-add. You run ssh-add to pass the pass phrase for your private key to ssh-agent (assuming that ssh-agent is running). Whenever ssh needs a pass phrase and ssh-agent is available, ssh will ask ssh-agent for the pass phrase instead of asking you.

    Note:You need to run ssh-add for all your private keys once per session.

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