What did I miss when building openssh? cannot generate ecdsa key

[Damien Miller]

Yes, your OpenSSL probably lacks EC support.

You shouldn't see the "Could not load host key" unless there is a Hostkey
line in sshd_config referencing that key.

On Wed, 1 Apr 2015, Michael Felt wrote:

> I am assuming this is a user error (and the bug, if any is in configure not
> telling me how to activate it).
> 
> I regularly see a message:
> Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
> 
> And, obviously, I have never made the key before.
> 
> I tried the following:
> ./ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -fssh_host_esdsa_key -N ""
> unknown key type ecdsa
> 
> However, the syntax says it is a known type
> 
> root at x064:[/data/prj/openbsd/openssh/openssh-6.8p1]./ssh-keygen -?
> unknown option -- ?
> usage: ssh-keygen [-q] [-b bits] [-t dsa | ecdsa | ed25519 | rsa | rsa1]
>                   [-N new_passphrase] [-C comment] [-f output_keyfile]
> ...
> 
> What did I miss?
> 
> regards,
> Michael Felt
> 
> p.s. make check|tests - they all passed.
> 
> p.p.s. - this is built against an ancient openssl, so maybe the problem is
> there.
> OpenSSH_6.8p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8k 25 Mar 2009
> 
> And, yes - I know I newer openssl is much better, but this is taking a
> system where it is at - i.e., I assume openssl is not yet upgraded. will be
> trying against openssl-1.something tomorrow.
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