Setting up Visual Studio Code to use SSH keys from Windows to Linux

First, we need to make sure that your account has ssh keys generated

Skip if you know this has already been done once or risk overwritting your existing keys


Right click the Start Menu icon and open a NON-Admin Terminal, PowerShell, or Command Prompt depending on your version of windows.


Type in

ssh-keygen.exe

and hit enter until it stops asking questions.


Paste in the command

notepad ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

into the command prompt and hit Tab and then enter.

image


If you do not hit tab, this will not work!

Notepad will open with your SSH Key, copy it to your clipboard and close the window.


Enter this key into the Authorized Keys file of the required servers relative account or give to your Server Admin to enter. This is not covered in this guide.


Make sure to install the RemoteSSH plugin from Microsoft


Once installed, click the icon in the bottom left


At the top of Code pops up an input window. Select Connect to Host


And then select Add New SSH Host


Enter in your information in the following format replacing root with your username and xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with the external IP of the server you are connecting to.

ssh root@70.98.99.14 -A

ssh root@70.98.99.14 -p 222 -A


If you need to specify a port, use the following format instead replacing 2222 with the port you were given.


Press Enter to confirm and enter again on the top option.


You should see this pop up in the bottom left.


Depending on the system you are in, when you first try to connect, a vscode-server will be set up and configured on your server.

In linux that can be in /Home/<user>/.vscode-server

If you are on windows, check what that is.

The first solution is to try the extension command: Remote-SSH: kill VS Code Server on Host

Open the command pallet (CTRL + SHIFT + P or COMMAND + SHIFT + P (mac) ).

And type Remote kill :

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Then try to connect again! (That will kill the server on the host! Which will make it start again on the next try)