Private Key Authentication Not Working

[cameronpoe01]

Hi all,

I am running NoMachine server 8.14.2 on my remote machine, and on my client I have NoMachine 8.5.3. Both machines are Ubuntu, but I have 22.04 on the server and 24.04 on my client. I followed the instructions here on setting up private key authentication: https://kb.nomachine.com/AR02L00785. However, when I try to log in, and it prompts me for a username and password, it says “authentication failed, please try again.” I don’t put anything into the passphrase prompt because I didn’t put a passphrase on my keys when I generated them. I’ve also tried this with RSA 4096 bits and ed25519, and both don’t work. I’ve been able to log in via SSH, so I don’t think it’s an issue with port forwarding etc.

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[Bilbotine]

Hi cameronpoe01,

“when I try to log in, and it prompts me for a username and password” – Please see if these instructions help, on your computer:

1. Launch the NoMachine User Interface from Programs menu or Applications and right click on a connection. Choose ‘Edit connection’  to access connection settings.

2. Be sure that NX is the selected protocol in the drop-down menu.

3. Go to the Configuration panel and choose ‘Use key-based authentication with a key you provide’, click on Modify.

4. Select the private key

5. Back to the previous panel and click on Connect

The client will prompt you for username and passphrase. If the key has no passphrase, the client will only ask for the username (there is no passphrase input field).

 

If you followed these instructions and the problem persists, it can be that it is caused by the option ‘Import the private key to the connection file’ that is checked in the client UI.

As a workaround, please uncheck the option ‘Import the private key to the connection file’ in the UI. Selecting that option is necessary only if you need to move the connection file to a different place and you need to carry on also the private key. Oherwise it’s not necessary to select it.

Please let us know if the issue is solved !

Best Wishes,

[Author]

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