Cannot get key-based authentication to work

[nighthawk]

So on my Linux client, I generated a key pair:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa – b 4096

I even added a passphrase to it.  I the appended the public key into the authorized.crt (on server of course) as follows:

$ cat my_key.pub >> authorized.crt

Indeed, the authorized.crt file has the text (i.e. public key) in it I would expect after this.  I restarted the NoMachine service (if this is even necessary) and began to configure the client side of things.

On my client, in the main window, I see an icon present that was discovered by the software that points to the PC running the NoMachine service.  I edit the connection to use the key-based authentication, point it to the private key, then attempt to connect.  I get a prompt to enter the user name and passphrase for the private key.  To no avail, this doesn’t allow me to connect.

I can only remote into the NoMachine service PC if I do username-assword authentication.  I try the same username to log in with the key-based authentication FYI…

Overall, I’ve set up SSH and Git servers and such using SSH key pairs, and not sure what’s going on here with NoMachine.  What else am I missing?

[Britgirl]

Hi, it looks more of an issue related to configuration of your set-up. We’re not aware of issues with RSA keys and NX protocol. Did you take a look at this article?

How to set up key based authentication with NX protocol
https://knowledgebase.nomachine.com/AR02L00785

If you’ve followed the tips there, maybe tell us the connecting client distribution and version, and then tell us what OS and version it is on the server side. It would also be useful to know what NoMachine product you’ve installed on the server side, and the version of the NoMachine software (both sides). Thanks.

[nighthawk]

Hi @Britgirl, I don’t see how the link you provided addresses my issue.  My client is Linux and my server is Linux.  I installed the version that is free of cost.

I’m not sure of the version, I gave up on this.  I followed the instructions on several sites and posts here and to no avail, I couldn’t get a single login to work with public key authentication.  I however got username-password to work every time.

I gave up on using NoMachine and do not plan on troubleshooting anything more with this application; all of the machines I installed the software onto have had the application removed.

[Britgirl]

Sorry to hear that. The article I linked included the tips and instructions on how to set key-based authentication with the NoMachine Free Edition, explaining how to add the public key to the server, so I’m not sure why it wouldn’t address your issue. It would have been useful for us to know if one of the steps was not clear or which step didn’t work for you.

We check that NoMachine works out-of-the-box with myriad distributions and an almost endless choice of desktop environments and display managers. So it would have been useful to know which distribution(s) you are using to allow us to investigate internally to make sure that there’s not something we’ve missed.

[Author]

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