I want to save an SSH key passphrase in gnome-keyring and then use it automatically when I need it.
How to do this?
asked Nov 15, 2014 at 0:36
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3 Answers
If gnome-keyring-daemon is already running, you can use ssh-add to add your key to the service:
ssh-add /path/to/private/key
For example:
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
To save the passphrase, use seahorse-ssh-askpass from package seahorse:
cd $HOME/.ssh
/usr/lib/seahorse/seahorse-ssh-askpass my_key
Make sure that the public key is the filename of the private key plus .pub, in the example my_key.pub
To automatically use the key afterwards, see "Gnome Keyring dialog and SSH" and at first use, check "Automatically unlock this key whenever I'm logged in".
answered Nov 15, 2014 at 0:45
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6I used this command successfully with Ubuntu 10.04, it seems like it was not even required in Ubuntu 12.04, but with Ubuntu 14.04 I can't seem to be able to store my ssh key password.
seahorse-ssh-askpassjust prints the password I enter to stdout!!! Mar 20, 2017 at 11:52 -
1@asoundmove: I had the same experience on 16.04. You can use the seahorse prompt utility via
ssh-add, however:SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/lib/seahorse/seahorse-ssh-askpass ssh-add /path/to/private/key </dev/null. Redirecting standard input is required to force the use ofSSH_ASKPASS(graphical prompt).– zackseNov 12, 2018 at 22:26 -
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2@zackse - In Ubuntu (19.10 at the moment) it is
/usr/libexec/seahorse/ssh-askpass, but… yes, it adds the key to the agent and uses graphical prompt but this doesn't solve the problem. Next time I have to add the key again and enter the passphrase again…– silverdrDec 10, 2019 at 13:27 -
The important part for me was to have the public and private key pair in the same place– smac89Jun 9, 2021 at 16:20
If you are using gnome-keyring-daemon but a ssh-agent that is not managed by the keyring, you can still manually store the passphrase in the keyring and use secret-tool (via apt install libsecret-tools) and an expect script (via apt install expect) when adding the key to your agent:
# Save passphrase to keyring via same format used by seahorse-ssh-askpass
# only required if entry does not already exist in the keyring
secret-tool store --label="Unlock password for: id_ed25519" unique "ssh-store:/home/$USER/.ssh/id_ed25519"
# Load key into ssh agent
FILE="/home/$USER/.ssh/id_ed25519"
PASS=$(secret-tool lookup unique ssh-store:$FILE)
/usr/bin/expect <(echo "
spawn ssh-add $FILE
expect \"Enter passphrase for $FILE\"
send -- \"$PASS\n\"
expect eof")
# Results should look like:
Enter passphrase for /home/username/.ssh/id_ed25519:
Identity added: /home/username/.ssh/id_ed25519 (username@example.com)
