ssh “Acess denied” password doesn't work (B+), have tried new charger, sudo passwd pi, etc

Question

I have a raspi b+ with the password pi (i reset this password to check) and try to ssh using putty. I have tried raspi-config and using high-quality phone charger. Nothing works: I get this error message:

Access denied

I'm using Raspbian and trying to ssh on windows 8.1.

Any troubleshooting ideas? I have also overvolted +8 and overclocked to 1500 MHz. could this be involved?

Answer 1

You're going to need to look at stuff in the pi's root filesystem, which means either plugging in a keyboard and display or taking the SD card out.

Do the ssh thing, then check /var/log/secure to see if there is a more informative message than "Access denied". Note this file is readable only by root (try sudo cat ...). Also have a look at:

tail -n 50 /var/log/syslog | grep sshd

Finally, sshd is configured in /etc/ssh/sshd_config. By default it should be set to allow for password authentication but you can check. You need to find this line:

#PasswordAuthentication yes

It can be like that (commented out, since the default is "yes"), but it shouldn't be uncommented and set to "no". You also need:

UsePAM yes

Which is probably already there.