Re: [savannah-help-public] Stuck trying to log onto cvs

[Bob Proulx]

Hello Jeff,

Jeff Mitchell wrote:
> I generated a key but I can't get anything to work: 
> 
> address@hidden:~/> ssh-add
> Could not open a connection to your authentication agent. 

You are not running the ssh-agent.  That is the source of the error
above.  Without knowing more about your environment it is hard to
suggest what should be happening for you.  I could point you to
various wiki documentation but it would be good to use your
distribution's documentation for the best match to your environment.

The concept is that there is an ssh-agent that holds your key that
you have decrypted in memory and it responds for you.

> And also: 
> 
> address@hidden:~/> cvs -z3 -d:ext:address@hidden:/web/noob-a-tron co 
> noob-a-tron
> address@hidden's password: 
> Permission denied, please try again.
> address@hidden's password: 

Password access is not allowed.  Therefore you will never be able to
authenticate using a password.  Also note that the cvs version control
repository is not the web site.  It does not use the web password.  And
the web site does not use ssh keys.  They are completely separate.

> Permission denied obviously means my key doesn't match anything but then
> how do I add the key? 

The permission denied is for password access to cvs.sv.gnu.org which
is definitely not allowed.

To add your key to an ssh-agent you would need to run the ssh-agent
first.

You can access the repository without using the ssh-agent but that
will require you to unencrypt your ssh rsa key for each and every
access.  Entering your ssh rsa key encyrption passphrase each and
every time gets tedious fast.

However in the above it should have asked for your ssh key first.  It
didn't.  That is odd.  And a clue.  Is your key in the standard place?

  ls -l ~/.ssh/

> address@hidden:~/> ssh-agent
> SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-dsLKuLvhRKap/agent.9416; export SSH_AUTH_SOCK;
> SSH_AGENT_PID=9417; export SSH_AGENT_PID;
> echo Agent pid 9417; 

That is not the usual way to run the ssh-agent.  If you want to do the
above then it would be:

  eval $(ssh-agent -s)

What OS are you running?  What type of environment?  X11?  Console?
What desktop environment or window manager?

That launched a new ssh-agent which put itself into the background as
a background daemon.  It printed out information that would allow
someone to connect up to it expecting that it would be eval'd back
into the shell.  But assuming you are running an X11 desktop then it
is better to have the desktop run the ssh-agent _under_ everything.

> ssh-add says cannot connect to authentication agent, is this referring
> to a system service on my PC?

Yes.

> I registered my public key and tried to log in via command line using
> my passphrase but it locked me out, too many failed attempts.

The IP ban for too many failed attempts is to block attackers.
Unfortunatley we live in a hostile world.  However the standard ban
length time is 10 minutes.  Just wait 10 minutes and try again.  I am
sure it is unblocked already by now.

What is your username?  I would like to inspect the ssh key you have
registered.

Bob