Problem connecting to Github with SSH in WSL

Question

I want to connect to github using SSH protocol in my WSL, i followed every single step from the github documentation here. The key was generated, I've tested my connection, but it still doesn't work. I still have to put username or password everytime i push my code to github. Can anyone help me on this?

I also did this.

# start the ssh-agent in the background
$ eval $(ssh-agent -s)
> Agent pid 59566

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

PS: I don't know if this is related or not, but I have two .ssh directories in my WSL and my bash root folder. It works in my bash because i guess VS Code generated the SSH key for me.

Edit: I guess it's the ssh-agent that's not working

Nolan Strait · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-09 02:14:06Z

7

On WSL 2, I was using SSH to commit to GitHub and found that I was asked for my password every time. After hours of searching and trying several methods (which worked with caveats I couldn't live with), this is what worked for me.

Install keychain:

sudo apt install keychain

Then add the following line to your shell's configuration file (likely ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc):

eval `keychain --quiet --eval --agents ssh id_rsa`

Now you will only have to enter your password when booting WSL!

Credit to Birk Holland with this article.

answered Sep 9, 2020 at 2:14

Nolan Strait

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bk2204 · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-13 00:22:23Z

6

If you're being prompted for a username and password, it's possible that you're trying to use the HTTPS protocol instead of SSH. You can see what the URL looks like by using git remote -v. If you want to change to use the SSH protocol, you'd use something like git remote set-url origin [email protected]:git/git.git (where git/git.git is the repository you're pushing to).

In general, trying to connect to GitHub over SSH won't prompt you for a username and password, because GitHub doesn't support password authentication over SSH.

answered Feb 13, 2020 at 0:22

bk2204

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VonC · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-12 05:46:07Z

1

This is followed by eamodio/vscode-gitlens issue 909

I am trying to use git through SSH in a WSL remote.
The SSH connection is protected with a key pair which is password-protected.
How do I start an SSH agent and input that passphrase for a shell in which GitLens operates?

By default a bash/wsl shell is opened in terminal window on WSL remote connection.
I start an SSH agent there and add the key, but it seems like this is not the shell in which GitLens is sending its git commands.

A workaround would be to regenerate those keys (after opening first a session with the existing keys) and:

make sure the new keys are not passphrase-protected
add the new public one in the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file of the WSL session.

answered Feb 12, 2020 at 5:46

VonC

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mhmmd-ysf Over a year ago

thanks! it didn't work before because i cloned the repo using HTTPS now it does

Philip · Accepted Answer · 2025-02-24 21:01:17Z

1

1️⃣ Check If Git Is Even Seeing Your SSH Config

Run:

GIT_SSH_COMMAND="ssh -v" git clone [email protected]:hpk992/your-repo.git

This enables verbose SSH debugging. Look for lines like:

debug1: Reading configuration data /home/youruser/.ssh/config
debug1: Connecting to github.com

If it's not using SSH at all, then Git is hardwired to HTTPS somewhere.

2️⃣ Check If Git Is Overriding SSH with HTTPS

Run:

git config --show-origin --get-all url."https://github.com/".insteadOf

If this returns any result, it means Git is forcing HTTPS. Remove it:

git config --global --unset-all url."https://github.com/".insteadOf
sudo git config --system --unset-all url."https://github.com/".insteadOf

answered Feb 24 at 21:01

Philip

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