Troubleshooting SSHChain

After setting up SSHChain, the next time you log in, SSHChain should start and load your identities into the ssh-agent. To verify this, open a Terminal window and issue the following command:

ssh-add -l

If ssh-add lists each of your identities, SSHChain is set up correctly.

If ssh-add responds with

Could not open a connection to your authentication agent.
the most likely cause is that the socket path you've set via environment.plist does not match the one specified in the SSHChain Preferences dialog.

If ssh-add reports that

The agent has no identities.
this indicates that SSHChain did not find any SSH identities to add to the agent. Open Keychain Access and make sure that the SSH identities were added as password items, and that the Name field is given as ssh-agent (only entries with exactly this name field will be found by SSHChain). Also ensure that the entry is in your default keychain, since SSHChain uses the default keychain search to find the identities.

When you log in, SSHChain might display one of the following messages:

This indicates that the password specified in the keychain does not match the one for that SSH identity. Check that the Password field of the keychain item is correct, and then click Relaunch Agent to restart the agent and reload the identities.

This indicates that the specified identity file cannot be found. Check that the path specified in the Account field of the keychain item is correct, and then click Relaunch Agent to restart the agent and reload the identities.

This indicates that the authorization socket path, specified in SSHChain Preferences, already exists. A previous SSHChain or ssh-agent session did not quit cleanly, probably due to a system crash. Click Overwrite to replace the existing socket, or Configure... to specify a different socket path.

This indicates that SSHChain was not allowed to access the ssh-agent key(s) in your default Keychain. If you click Relaunch Agent, Mac OS X should ask you to authorize SSHChain to access your key(s).

SSHChain Help SSHChain Preferences