[SOLVED] ssh-agent support removed from kde-agent

Question

Hi all,
Since its upgrade yesterday, kde-agent does not support ssh-agent anymore (see here). I consequently can't store unlocked SSH keys anymore, because ssh-add from a konsole can't connect to ssh-agent.
The update note above mentions that the SSH agent is not needed by KDE since years. What's the recommended way to start it now ?
Thanks a lot !
Aurélien.
Last edited by aurelieng (2014-01-03 08:39:49)

Answer 1

I have been using ssh-agent with KDE on a daily basis for years and AFAIK, there is no better or more convenient way of keeping your private keys available. So in my opinion, the removal of ssh-agent, a tiny daemon that doesn't do any harm yet serves its purpose very well, was a bad idea.
I found a solution that does not run multiple ssh-agent daemons, even if KDE crashes. The solution is based on the fact that ssh-agent can be used as a wrapper around a session startup script or program. Unfortunately, my solution is very intrusive and will disappear on each KDE update. It works as follows:
# cd /usr/bin
# mv startkde startkde-inner
# cat > startkde <<- HERE
#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/startkde-inner
HERE
# chmod +x startkde
Now the ssh-agent will be started on each KDE session and there will always be only one ssh-agent per KDE session. Comments in the startkde script suggest starting ssh-agent later in the process and then killing it on logout. However, such a solution is inherently unreliable, because it will not kill your ssh-agent when the X-server or KDE crashes. The same problem applies to starting ssh-agent from profile scripts. The wrapper method resolves the issue in a quite reasonable way.
Last edited by andrej.podzimek (2014-01-08 13:27:25)