Putty Pageant on Linux

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

I have a VPS setup with an SSL key. I did this on my desktop / windows machine. I was able to install putty with sudo apt-get install putty. However, in order to connect to my server, I need pageant so I can load the key. How do I download pageant for linux? Is this not possible?

edit: I found this...

Seems reasonable. I will have to try it.

On linux, the recommended method for logging on using your SSH key pair is via the ssh-agent. This tool allows you to load your private key(s) into a session so that they will automatically be picked up when you attempt to make an SSH connection. Type the following command on your initial host (outside of JASMIN) to start an ssh-agent session:

$ exec ssh-agent $SHELL
You can then add your SSH private key to thessh-agent session using thessh-add command, for example:

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
This will prompt you for the passphrase that you provided when you generated your SSH key pair. Once you have adding the SSH key then it will automatically be located by your session when you make a connection to a remote server. Once your public key has been loaded into the JASMIN environment, you should be able to login simply using:

$ ssh @jasmin-login1.ceda.ac.uk (where is your CEDA user ID)
NOTE: Thessh-agent session will persist until killed or until system shutdown, even if you close the terminal in which you set it up.

Connecting via an intermediate server

Only the following systems are reachable from outside the RAL firewall, for security reasons:

SSH login machines:

jasmin-login1.ceda.ac.uk (for JASMIN users belonging to group jasmin-login)
cems-login1.cems.rl.ac.uk (for CEMS users belonging to group cems-login)
Data transfer machines (for scp/rsync-over-ssh to/from Group Workspaces):

jasmin-xfer1.ceda.ac.uk (for JASMIN users belonging to group jasmin-login)
cems-login1.cems.rl.ac.uk (for CEMS users belonging to group cems-login)
In all other cases, including the following scientific analysis machines:

jasmin-sci1.ceda.ac.uk
cems-sci1.cems.rl.ac.uk
you will need to log in via the appropriate SSH login machine as a first "hop". The -A argument of SSH will enable forwarding of the authentication agent connection so that the ssh-agent session is available to the intermediate server. For example, to get to jasmin-login1 from your local server:

$ ssh -A @jasmin-login1.ceda.ac.uk (where is your CEDA user ID)
$ ssh @jasmin-sci1.ceda.ac.uk
NB: If you are prompted for a password or passphrase for the second step, above, please go back and check that you have loaded your ssh key correctly and that you have used the -A option to enable agent forwarding. You can list the keys you currently have loaded with command:

$ ssh-add -l
Please note that if you have been granted access to a Virtual Machine on JASMIN or CEMS, you will also need to follow the access it using jasmin-login1.ceda.ac.uk / cems-login1.cems.rl.ac.uk as an intermediate server. Your session may look like this:

$ exec ssh-agent $SHELL
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
$
$ ssh -A -X @jasmin-login1.ceda.ac.uk
$ ssh -X @

Just a shame that pageant is unavailable.. I would much rather have the ssl key loaded behind a few clicks, rather than a bunch of commands. Is this really the only way to do it?

2

This is a pretty awkward way to use ssh. Imagine every sysadmin using 10 commands to do a basic ssh login.

Read the manual:

man ssh

You don't need putty or pageant on linux. Those are windows programs. You will find ssh and ssh-agent in the repo of any distro.

EDIT: post here if you're still having trouble after reading the manual.

1 Like
3

You do not need to install PuTTY on linux just use SSH. PuTTY is an SSH and telnet client designed for the Windows platform. The method you have posted is not to use ssh but rather how to set up a server and change the ssh key.

the comand to use ssh is as follows:
ssh -p port_number remote_host example ssh -p 22 [email protected]
ssh remote_username@remote_host example ssh [email protected]

4

I got it now guys. I read the manual and was able to do it just fine. Thanks for the help.