Hi all,

Just a bit confused about this.

Yesterday I setup logging in through putty client with keys, and password disabled, could log in from all machines on my network (xp and 7) with putty.

When I finished I shut down the server.

Today I turned on the server box and thought I'd try logging in through putty. It kept telling me the server was rejecting my key.

I plugged in a monitor and keyboard into the server and logged in via password then had no problem logging in through putty client.

Question is, every time I shut the server down do I have to plug in the monitor and keyboard, then login, to be able to login remotely?

I was just about to setup WOL but wanted to know how to resolve this.

Thanks.

Should I have some kind of auto login at boot up with minimal privileges?
If so how?

Cheers

What is the OS of the server that you must login locally to before you are able to ssh to it?

It's a ubuntu server 10.10 I'm trying to log into to from a windows xp desktop and windows 7 laptop

did sshd start with the right configuration?

Not 100% sure of the Ubuntu commands, but I know older Debian distros used 'update-rc.d'... Try running "sudo update-rc.d sshd defaults"

Reboot the server and see if it is running prior to having to login an x session.

I'm not really sure why sshd wouldn't be running properly until you login... rather than it just not working at runlevel 5. Then again, I've never really understood a lot of the Ubuntu 'features'.

Did you encrypt your /home/<USERNAME>? If you did that would explain why you are required to login first.

I'm currently running a headless Ubuntu 10.10 server as well.
I have no problems logging into ssh upon initial start so I'm not really sure how to diagnose your problem.

What I can add to the conversation is to suggest the installation of a vnc variant so that you don't have to connect a keyboard and monitor every time you need to diagnose a problem.

Good luck.

Thanks for your help guys, can't remember what I did but it's been working for a while