1. Generate your own personal RSA key pair on the client machine using the 'ssh-keygen' command with no parameters. It will prompt you for a passphrase which you will type whenever you use this key. The new keyfiles are placed ~/.ssh.

                                                                               

#ssh-keygen -t rsa

                                                                               

  2. For security reasons, you MUST chmod -R go-rwx ~/.ssh, or you will not be able to connect to this host using RSA keys. This is because ssh sees a potential security breach and disallows access using the keys.

                                                                               

  3. ssh into your account on the server machine (you will obviously still be using password authentication at this point). Make the ~/.ssh directory and chmod it as above.

                                                                               

  4. cat your ~/.ssh/identity.pub on the client machine. You will see a very long line that should wrap when it gets to the edge of the screen. Copy and paste this line into the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the remote system. This is one of perhaps many keys that you may put in the remote authorized_keys file. Make sure you chmod ug-rwx authorized_keys.

                                     

5. Now when you ssh from the client to the server, you will be prompted for the passphrase for your new RSA key. Type it in and you will be automatically logged into the remote system. If you mistype, you will be prompted for the regular password.