ssh localhost
ssh: connect to host localhost port 22: Connection refused
First you check the Firewall status, to see if ssh (port 22) is blocked.
sudo ufw status
The Firewall shows a status of inactive, so that can’t be the problem.
Remember ssh requires a client and a server.
Let’s check if the ssh server is running
Looks like there is only an ssh-agent running, which means no ssh server is running.
sudo systemctl status ssh
Ok, it’s installed….right?
Failed to start ssh.service: Unit ssh.service is masked.
Hmmm….. Okay. There may have been a previous install of the ssh server, or there is a old or bad symlink left on our system.. Lets install open-ssh and see if that fixes our problem
sudo apt install openssh-server
Let’s start ssh and check the status of the service
sudo systemctl start ssh
sudo systemctl status ssh
I think we are finally ready to try to ssh to localhost again.
Great Success!!!