LinuxQuestions.org - pub key authentication

I've tried everything but cannot get openssh to work with public key authentication. My server is CentOS 4.2, im using ssh-2 and openssh version is 5.1. Below is the output from ssh -v (i've changed the names to protect the innocent)

Code:

debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive

debug1: Next authentication method: publickey

debug1: Offering public key: /home/john/.ssh/id_dsa

debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive

debug1: Next authentication method: keyboard-interactive

debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive

debug1: Next authentication method: password

john@server.domain.net's password:

I've jacked up my sshd_config file to no end but here is what i currently have.

Code:

Port 5348

Protocol 2

#ListenAddress 192.168.1.2

#ListenAddress ::



# HostKey for protocol version 1

#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key

# HostKeys for protocol version 2

#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key



# Lifetime and size of ephemeral version 1 server key

#KeyRegenerationInterval 1h

#ServerKeyBits 768



# Logging

#obsoletes QuietMode and FascistLogging

#SyslogFacility AUTH

SyslogFacility AUTHPRIV

#LogLevel INFO



# Authentication:



#LoginGraceTime 2m

PermitRootLogin no

StrictModes yes

MaxAuthTries 5



RSAAuthentication yes

PubkeyAuthentication yes

AuthorizedKeysFile      .ssh/authorized_keys



# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts

#RhostsRSAAuthentication no

# similar for protocol version 2

#HostbasedAuthentication no

# Change to yes if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for

# RhostsRSAAuthentication and HostbasedAuthentication

#IgnoreUserKnownHosts no

# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files

#IgnoreRhosts yes



# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!

PasswordAuthentication yes

PermitEmptyPasswords no



# Change to no to disable s/key passwords

ChallengeResponseAuthentication yes

#ChallengeResponseAuthentication no



# Kerberos options

#KerberosAuthentication no

#KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes

#KerberosTicketCleanup yes

#KerberosGetAFSToken no



# GSSAPI options

#GSSAPIAuthentication no

#GSSAPIAuthentication yes

#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes

#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes



# Set this to 'yes' to enable PAM authentication, account processing, 

# and session processing. If this is enabled, PAM authentication will 

# be allowed through the ChallengeResponseAuthentication mechanism. 

# Depending on your PAM configuration, this may bypass the setting of 

# PasswordAuthentication, PermitEmptyPasswords, and 

# "PermitRootLogin without-password". If you just want the PAM account and 

# session checks to run without PAM authentication, then enable this but set 

# ChallengeResponseAuthentication=no

#UsePAM no

#UsePAM yes



#AllowTcpForwarding yes

#GatewayPorts no

#X11Forwarding no

#X11Forwarding yes

#X11DisplayOffset 10

#X11UseLocalhost yes

#PrintMotd yes

#PrintLastLog yes

#TCPKeepAlive yes

#UseLogin no

#UsePrivilegeSeparation yes

#PermitUserEnvironment no

#Compression yes

#ClientAliveInterval 0

#ClientAliveCountMax 3

#UseDNS yes

#PidFile /var/run/sshd.pid

#MaxStartups 10

#ShowPatchLevel no



# no default banner path

Banner /etc/ssh/sshd-banner



# override default of no subsystems

Subsystem      sftp    /usr/libexec/openssh/sftp-server

NOTE: I currently have allow password so that i can ssh in to the server and edit the file. When I turn password off, I can't ssh in so I know that part works.

I've also set the permissions of the .ssh directory and authorized_keys file as prescribed thruout the web. But, I'm not sure who should be owner of these and the path. Currently the path is /root/.ssh/authorized_keys and the owner:group is john:john. I've also tried setting the path to same location as the openssh server but to no avail.

Any help?

P.S I am linux newbie