How to connect to Ubuntu from Mac via SSH Keys

May 28, 2012 · by Leonard Austin · in Technical

The following instructions explains how to connect to an Ubuntu server through a mac terminal/console using ssh keys. It does not turn off the ability to login with a password (see step 7) and you cannot do this with root, see step 4.

1. Generate Mac keys. In terminal on your mac type:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048

2. Whilst still in terminal type:

nano /Users/YOURMACUSERNAME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

3. Copy the text on the screen

4. SSH into your server and type

nano /home/YOURUBUNUTUSERNAME/.ssh/authorized_keys

The Ubuntu username could be anything (except root), you cannot login using this method and root. If you need to learn how to create a new user see my other tutorial How to disable root on Ubuntu.

5. Paste into here then press

press ctrl+x

type “Y” and press enter.

6. You may not need to do this depending on your Ubunutu setup

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Make sure the following lines are as follows:

RSAAuthentication yes 
PubkeyAuthentication yes

7. Optional (Disable password login)
In the same file as step 6 if you want to turn off the ability to login with a password change the following lines: