(yet-unknown) server key, but just checking all possible locations, not finding the key, and giving up. I have seen a similar effect on a system that had a /dev/tty entry that was not world-writeable (thus the ssh client couldn't open it to ask for a confirmation). The effect will also happen if you have "StrictHostKeyChecking yes" in ssh_config - set that to "ask", otherwise it will fail if the key isn't known in advance. gert -- USENET is *not* the non-clickable part of WWW! //www.muc.de/~gert/ Gert Doering - Munich, Germany gert at greenie.muc.de fax: +49-89-35655025 gert.doering at physik.tu-muenchen.de