unable to git clone with gitolite3 and key authentication

[Adam Weremczuk]

Hello,

My environment:

SERVER
Debian 9.3
gitolite3 3.6.6-1
git 1:2.11.0-3+deb9u2

CLIENT
Windows 7 Pro
Putty 0.70
Pageant 0.70

This works fine from the client:

plink gitolite3@git-test info
hello userx, this is gitolite3@git-test running gitolite3 3.6.6-1 (Debian) on git 2.11.0

R W gitolite-admin
R W testing
R tmp/whatever

But this doesn't:

git clone gitolite3@git-test:gitolite-admin
Cloning into 'gitolite-admin'...
Access denied
Access denied
Access denied
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

Auth log on the server:

Jan 16 14:07:50 git-test sshd[14561]: debug1: userauth-request for user gitolite3 service ssh-connection method none [preauth]
Jan 16 14:07:50 git-test sshd[14561]: debug1: attempt 0 failures 0 [preauth]
Jan 16 14:07:50 git-test sshd[14561]: debug1: PAM: initializing for "gitolite3"
Jan 16 14:07:50 git-test sshd[14561]: debug1: PAM: setting PAM_RHOST to "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
Jan 16 14:07:50 git-test sshd[14561]: debug1: PAM: setting PAM_TTY to "ssh"
Jan 16 14:07:50 git-test sshd[14561]: debug1: userauth-request for user gitolite3 service ssh-connection method password [preauth]
Jan 16 14:07:50 git-test sshd[14561]: debug1: attempt 1 failures 0 [preauth]
...( x 6)...
Jan 16 14:07:50 git-test sshd[14561]: error: maximum authentication attempts exceeded for gitolite3 from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx port 11240 ssh2 [preauth]
Jan 16 14:07:50 git-test sshd[14561]: Disconnecting: Too many authentication failures [preauth]

Is it putty, pageant, ssh setting on the server or am I attempting something fundamentally wrong?

Please advise.

Thanks
Adam

[Jephte Clain]

hello,

my wild guess would be: git doesn't use plink as its transport ?

I don't know much about ssh on windows but that's what I would check

regards,

Jephté Clain

Adam

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Jephté CLAIN | Développeur, Intégrateur d'applications
Service Système d'Information
Direction des Systèmes d'Information
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[Adam Weremczuk]

I got key authentication working as below:

1. Removed existing git installation (downloaded from http://gitforwindows.org ).

2. Reinstalled opting for OpenSSH rather than Tortoise Plink.

3. Created C:\Users\userx\.ssh and dropped private ssh key there ("id_rsa" in OpenSSH format)
Both:
plink gitolite3@git-test info
and
git clone gitolite3@git-test:gitolite-admin
work fine after I type key's passphrase.

4. In order to avoid being prompted for a passphrase every time I used this script:
https://github.com/ericblade/ssh-agent-cmd
which invokes "%ProgramFiles%\git\usr\bin\ssh-agent.exe"
It can be permanently added to startup through a registry key or executed on demand.

[Adam Weremczuk]

The ssh-agent issue only exists on the command line in Windows.
TortoiseGit has its own version of PuTTY's plink.exe (TortoiseGitPlink.exe). At installation time, choose to use it.
Then, when you're cloning a repository for the first time, choose "Load PuTTY key" in the GUI, navigate to your .ppk file, use the URL gitolite3@<git server URL>:<reponame> and click OK.
TortoiseGit uses the .ppk file to authenticate.