hello centos.. I am having a very annoying problem on my network right now. it looks like every time I try to add my ssh key to keychain I have to issue a command just to get my ssh subsystem communicating with the ssh-agent: I have this line in my .bashrc file $(keychain --eval --quick --quiet private_key1 private_key2 private_key3) If I try to perform ssh-add I get the message: [bluethundr at VIRTCENT01:~]#ssh-add Could not open a connection to your authentication agent. So then I try to execute ssh-agent: bluethundr at amanda:~]#exec ssh-agent bash * Warning: can't find private_key1; skipping * Warning: can't find private_key2; skipping * Warning: can't find private_key3; skipping bash: SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-cdJlgq6077/agent.6077;: No such file or directory Then I can add it. [bluethundr at amanda:~]#ssh-add Enter passphrase for /home/bluethundr/.ssh/id_rsa: Identity added: /home/bluethundr/.ssh/id_rsa (/home/bluethundr/.ssh/id_rsa) But if I ssh away from this box and then ssh back INTO it.. and then sometime later have to ssh away again it asks me for my ssh key's passphrase. See what I mean by 'annoying problem'? Thanks in advance for your help! -- GPG me!! gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys F186197B