How to set the ssh key to the user git while installing gitolite on Ubuntu 10.10

Question

I am trying to configure a git server on an Ubuntu Server 10.10 with gitolite and following the tutorial On Ubuntu for Gitolite.

I first create a user git with the following command : sudo adduser git
I set a password to this user.

Then, I generate a rsa key with the command : ssh-keygen, I call it id_rsa_git.

After that, I want to associate it to the user git with the following command :

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_git.pub git@localhost

The prompt asks me the password for the user git, and after giving it (the good one), I get the following error :

Permission denied, please try again.

I cannot go further since I am pretty noob in Linux administration. Can anybody help me ?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Simply try to copy your key:

cd

sudo cp .ssh/id_rsa_git.pub ~git/.ssh/authorized_keys

If doesn't work, open an other console:

sudo su - git

cd

mkdir .ssh

You can close this console.

sudo chown git:git ~git/.ssh/authorized_keys

sudo chmod 600 ~git/.ssh/authorized_keys

And now all will be good (no need of ssh-copy-id)

Answer 2

You should not add git.pub to the authorized_keys file. You do that with gl-setup git.pub. If you add the git.pub key by your self you can have lots of problems. gl-setup does it for you and also adds it to your admin repository.

Answer 3

Try:

- going with the default naming convention (`id_rsa.pub`, not `id_rsa_git.pub`)
- passing the parameter for the public key without the `.pub` extension

For instance:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_git git@localhost

or

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa git@localhost

(if you have generated the private/public key with the default naming convention).

(Note: make sure you generate those keys as you, not as root ;) )

Answer 4

The password you have set for the user is not the same as the one you are typing at the prompt for ssh-copy-id, try resetting the password on the git account.

Alternatively you can copy the id_rsa_git.pub file to ~git/.ssh/authorized_keys and set the permissions chmod 600 ~git/.ssh/authorized_keys; chmod 700 ~git/.ssh; chown git:git ~git/.ssh, this will all need doing as root (or use sudo).