Today I decided to try out a VPS to learn about setting up a server and other aspects outside of the shared-hosting I have used for years.

I have installed PUTTY for my SSH. I have read several threads on this forum, looked through the WIKI, and went through several other related help sites but am still unable to connect with SSH to my running Linode. I have been able to login to my specific Linode via SSH, but it asks me for another login. I enter in my user name, it says it is incorrect. I try several likely alternatives and none work.

Is there some guide I can look at? I have done numerous searches and none of the threads are of this specific help, or maybe are buried under threads with related terms.

Also, what are RSA or DSA keys and how do I find them?

When you connect to Lish, you're actually connecting to the console of your Linode, not the Linode directly. The second login is just like the login prompt you'd see if you sat down at the keyboard of a Linux box. Until you've logged in and created a regular user, you'll need to log in as root with the password you specified when deploying the distro.

To connect to your Linode directly, you would ssh as root to the IP address listed on the Network tab--again using the password you specified when deploying the distro.

If you're still having trouble, hop into the IRC channel ( http://www.linode.com/irc/index.cfm ) and we should be able to get you sorted out.

-James

When you say you're able to connect to your linode via SSH, but are asked for another password, does this mean you are connecting to "[yourusername]@[city].linode.com" (i.e. connecting to your console via SSH)? If so, that second prompt is asking for your actual system account; you can log in as root using password you defined during the setup process. If you need to reset your root pw, you can do so in the control panel here: https://www.linode.com/members/linode/utilities.cfm

The keys you're describing are use to identify you cryptographically. In public key crypto, you have a keypair consisting on a public key and a private key. The private key is just that: you keep it safe from others. You give your public key to other people and systems to allow authentication without a password (among other uses, such as exchanging encrypted documents/emails/etc). Here is a reference on SSH with keys: http://www.sshkeychain.org/mirrors/SSH-with-Keys-HOWTO/

Have you tried logging into your linode via SSH to its IP address?

Thank you for your prompt reply (I should have waited a few minutes instead of heading home, it was a quick solution). I tried with the IP originally, but I didn't use root as the login name, I used my account name. I did connect to my linode as [linodename]@[servername].linode.com and was greeted with that second login.

I got it to work and am off to follow this tutorial: http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-ubuntu-8.10

Thanks again.