[01/10/12 09:58:30] [SSH] Opening SSH connection to <server name>:22.
hudson.AbortException: The server doesn't support the password authentication
at hudson.plugins.sshslaves.SSHLauncher.openConnection(SSHLauncher.java:699)
at hudson.plugins.sshslaves.SSHLauncher.launch(SSHLauncher.java:283)
at hudson.slaves.SlaveComputer$1.call(SlaveComputer.java:200)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
[01/10/12 09:58:30] [SSH] Connection closed.

Hi,After a recent unix server upgrade to our slaves, Hudson now fails to connect over SSH to them with the above message.

I believe the issue to be that given the new servers now only support keyboard-interactive authentication, not password anymore, the connection fails.

Can we add support to the plugin to either choose an authentication type or failover to keyboard-interactive if password fails? Internally, for other apps, using the same ganymed*. ssh library we've added the same fallback and its a very easy code change .Something like:
<code>
if(connection.isAuthMethodAvailable(usr, "password"))

{ connection.authenticateWithPassword(usr, pwd); }

else if(connection.isAuthMethodAvailable(usr, "keyboard-interactive")){
connection.authenticateWithKeyboardInteractive(usr, new InteractiveCallback(){
</code>

changing following setting in /etc/sshd_config (or /etc/ssh/sshd_config) doesnt yield any change as BoKs/ Keon doesnt support password authentication at all.

1. To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
   PasswordAuthentication no