Dual boot ssh keys
I am using a dual boot Windows 10 and Linux Mint setup on the PC that I use to connect to my server. I have setup an ssh key pair in Windows 10 and use a passphrase when logging in to the sever.
I want to try using the Linux Mint OS to login and maybe setup some kind of backup solution for my server.
What is the correct way to generate a new ssh
key pair on the Linux Mint system and add the public key to my server without breaking ssh login in Windows?
As an alternative if I copy the keys from the Windows 10 partion, how do I use the same keys
for both operating systems?
2 Replies
✓ Best Answer
As an alternative if I copy the keys from the Windows 10 partion, how do I use the same keys for both operating systems?
Just copy your Win 10 ssh key pair to the Mint partition. Presumably, the two OSs have the same IP address(es), so your Linode won't know (or care about) the difference between the two. sshd on Linux doesn't care about the OS…it only cares about IP addresses and keys.
If the the two OSs have different IP addresses, boot Mint, generate a key pair, and upload the public key to your Linode in the same way you did for Win 10. The public keys will be different for each OS.
What is the correct way to generate a new ssh key pair on the Linux Mint system and add the public key to my server without breaking ssh login in Windows?
With ssh-keygen…the same way you did for Windows.
I have setup an ssh key pair in Windows 10 and use a passphrase when logging in to the sever.
If you have cron jobs in Mint that need to ssh into your Linode (for example, to scp files there), this is going to get in the way.
As always, backups are your friend.
-- sw
Thank you stevewi