gitolite setup getting FATAL: fingerprinting failed for '/tmp/Q3pnE4WVbu'

Question

I am installing gitolite on a CentOS 5.9 server. I have created the git user, then after su - git I have managed to get my public key into the ~/.ssh/ directory, I have successfully cloned the gitolite repo from github and have run gitolite/install -ln. Next step is to run gitolite setup.

git@hostname [~]# gitolite setup -pk $HOME/.ssh/micha.pub
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/git/repositories/gitolite-admin.git/
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/git/repositories/testing.git/
FATAL: fingerprinting failed for '/tmp/Q3pnE4WVbu'

Google search and a search here on SO have not helped me resolve this FATAL error, and I am now stymied.

Am I supposed to have customised the gitolite.conf file previous to running the setup? I have been following the instructions from http://gitolite.com/gitolite/progit.html as they are a little easier for noob like me to understand than the normal gitolite documentation. However these instructions make no mention of customising the .conf file.

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UPDATE: I have tried generating a new key and it still fails:

git@hostname [~]# ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "Gitolite Admin Access (not interactive)" -P "" 
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/git/.ssh/id_rsa): /home/git/.ssh/micha
/home/git/.ssh/micha already exists.
Overwrite (y/n)? y
Your identification has been saved in /home/git/.ssh/micha.
Your public key has been saved in /home/git/.ssh/micha.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
33:b6:62:8b:b9:58:07:7a:71:6a:02:a5:ff:7e:c3:3a Gitolite Admin Access (not interactive)
git@hostname [~]# gitolite setup -pk $HOME/.ssh/micha.pub
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/git/repositories/gitolite-admin.git/
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/git/repositories/testing.git/
FATAL: fingerprinting failed for '/tmp/pUKqewb66w'

I have also tried replacing $HOME with the full path, just in case the su - git had confused it. Is there some problem with my ssh install? Not sure how there would be as I am using ssh to connect to this server.

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UPDATE: It turns out gitolite was retaining the public keys I had tried to set up with previously that had failed. I then removed the all the repos, the gitolite source directory, the symlink in ~/bin and the .gitolite directory and started the install process again. I cloned the gitolite repo from github, generated a new key after deleting all the other keys that I had tried to use before. I then ran gitolite install -ln and finally

git@hostname [~]# gitolite setup -pk $HOME/admin.pub
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/git/repositories/gitolite-admin.git/
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/git/repositories/testing.git/
FATAL: fingerprinting failed for '/tmp/tsIx4cKWHj'

Still failing.

Answer 1

if you are taking the pub key from puttykeygen etc.. it will be in multi line with headers like

---- BEGIN SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----
Comment: "[email protected]"
startofkeylines
....
endofkey==
---- END SSH2 PUBLIC KEY ----

Remove the --- begin and end lines, and the Comment: line. Make all the key lines in one line. and prefix with ssh-rsa, like this:

ssh-rsa startofkeylines....endofkey==

This is what worked for me.