Passwordless ssh, "once and for all"...

Hello,
Number one, I have to admit that openssh has always been a bit of a "black magic" to me. The everyday stuff is a breeze (ssh scp), but I've had hell of a time setting up passwordless ssh for a little MPI cluster I have running here at school.
I got the darned thing running about a year ago, having tried various methods, I finally STUMBLED on a working setup... unfortunately a hasty rm -rf .ssh here and there really messed things up. I've now decided I should learn how to get openssh-3.1p1 setup for passwordless ssh the right way, and in such a way that I know what's going on and can properly maintain my cluster. Please note the I've been RTFMing for the past 5 hours... and am on the verge of my nerves (hence the babbling on in my post).

WHAT I NEED: passwordless login for ALL users from "master" to all "nodes" 1-14...

WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO: I've worked on the one "master" to see if I can get pswd'less ssh on there first...
-sshd creates the keys.
-I take /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key.pub and copy it into
/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts with "master" prepended
-create /etc/hosts.equiv AND /etc/ssh/hosts.equiv with "master" listed

QUESTION: Why the HECK does it keep asking me for a password to login???? Should I use protocol I ? And if so how do I enable it ( I have tried, and it would still insist on a password)

Any suggestion and/or help ARE MUCH APPRECIATED. THANK YOU,
Mike

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Mike Sowka <msowka@doe.carleton.ca> Received on Thu Dec 12 11:54:40 2002