openssh sshd replies : "Permission denied, please try again.", after attempting password login.

Make sure "PasswordAuthentication yes" is set in your sshd config file. Does your machine use PAM? (then check PAM setup). Your openssh may not be compiled to support PAM in which case does your machine use MD5 hashed passwords? (Hint: look in /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow and see if the password hashes are rather long and begin something like"$1$i..."). In that case try recompiling openssh with MD5 support (this is also good for standard linux installs): ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc/ssh --enable-ipv6 --with-md5-passwords . Thanks to SSH FAQ