OpenSSH

[Adam Maloney <adam@iexposure.com>]

So I'm standardizing all of our servers and workstations to OpenSSH.  I
have 2 questions.

First, when I install openssh I have to run ssh-keygen to create the
server keys.  It asks me for a passphrase.  What is this passphrase used
for?  It apparently happens after the key is generated.  Does it matter
if I enter one or not?  It says I can just leave it blank, and if I do
it doesn't complain.

Also, I've installed it on about 10 machines so far and it's worked
flawlessly.  No problems with any of them.  Now I'm installing it on one
more server, similar configuration to the others (Slack-7) and there are
no problems during compile, but when I ssh in after doing keygen and
running sshd, it says "Permission denied, please try again".  I tried it
with many different accounts, I know it's not an incorrect password
problem.  When I look at the message logs it says Failed password for
<user> from <ip>


I have no idea how to trace the problem back.  Anyone seen this?

-- 
Adam Maloney
Systems Administrator
Internet Exposure, Inc.