'Too many authentication failures' nuisance

[Chris Green]

On Sat, Aug 10, 2024 at 03:13:19PM +0100, Chris Green wrote:
> I have several ssh keys in the ~/.ssh directory of my desktop machine.
> As a result whenever I try to connect to a system which uses password
> authentication I get the "Too many authentication failures" error.
> 
> Yes, I know I can get round this by setting PreferredAuthentications
> but this is rather a nuisance to have to do individually for all
> systems that use password authentication.  It also means that I have
> to do it for a 'casual' ssh access to a system which I'm unlikely to
> access more than once.
> 
> Is there any way around this problem? 
> 
A little further clarification, I think this is because all the keys
get loaded into ssh-agent when my system boots (xubuntu GUI).  Thus
'ssh-add -L' lists six keys, and it's this that causes the "Too many
authentication failures" error.

-- 
Chris Green