help? ssh connect w/ DSA pubkey auth keeps asking for passphrase; w/ RSA pubkey auth, all is OK

hi all,

i've:

% ssh -V
	OpenSSH_4.1p1, OpenSSL 0.9.7g 11 Apr 2005
% uname -a
	Darwin devbox 8.2.0 Darwin Kernel Version 8.2.0: Fri Jun 24 17:46:54 PDT 2005; 
root:xnu-792.2.4.obj~3/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh powerpc


i've created two ssh passphrase-less keypairs for my machine, 'devbox', one RSA 
and one DSA, using:

ssh-keygen -b 2048 -t rsa -f /usr/local/etc/ssh/rsakeys/ssh.devbox.rsa -N "" -C 
"root@devbox"
ssh-keygen -b 2048 -t dsa -f /usr/local/etc/ssh/dsakeys/ssh.devbox.dsa -N "" -C 
"root@devbox"

after propagating both pubkeys to another box ('myserver'), if i 'ssh' to 
'myserver' using the RSA key as an identity file:

        IdentityFile  /usr/local/etc/ssh/rsakeys/ssh.devbox.rsa.pub

all is OK.  i can immediately connect via pubkey auth with no error ...



however, if i try the exact same thing but, with the DSA ident file:

        IdentityFile  /usr/local/etc/ssh/dsakeys/ssh.devbox.dsa.pub


on connection attempt, i get an error:

        PEM_read_PrivateKey failed

and a request for a passphrase:

	...
	debug1: Host 'devbox.mydomain.com' is known and matches the DSA host key.
	debug1: Found key in /usr/local/etc/ssh/authorized_keys2:1
	debug2: bits set: 500/1024
	debug1: ssh_dss_verify: signature correct
	debug2: kex_derive_keys
	debug2: set_newkeys: mode 1
	debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
	debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
	debug2: set_newkeys: mode 0
	debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
	debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
	debug2: service_accept: ssh-userauth
	debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
	debug2: key: /usr/local/etc/ssh/dsakeys/ssh.devbox.dsa.pub (0x401d10)
	debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
	debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
	debug1: Offering public key: /usr/local/etc/ssh/dsakeys/ssh.devbox.dsa.pub
	debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
	debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg ssh-dss blen 818
	debug2: input_userauth_pk_ok: fp 
74:3f:c7:96:12:9e:6d:88:8e:bc:21:56:d3:40:9f:e3
	debug1: PEM_read_PrivateKey failed
	debug1: read PEM private key done: type <unknown>
	Enter passphrase for key '/usr/local/etc/ssh/dsakeys/ssh.devbox.dsa.pub':


i've googled, and all i'm finding (so far) is advice to create the DSA keys 
without passphrase ...

which, as above, i have already, i believe, done correctly, and checked & 
re-checked  ...

suggestions?

thx!

richard

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