Command line not letting me type password in PuTTY

Question

A picture of the screen that I am stuck at:

Operating System: Windows 7

Port: 27880

I have been setting up SSH in PuTTY to make my wiki family work, and I have experienced some problems typing the password. The command line's login is working this time, but I am currently unable to type in the password. When I try to type the password, the characters do not appear and the screen remains blank.

I talked about a previous problem with my web host's staff before the command line started working. They suggested that I had the wrong version of PuTTY. However, since the login popped up this time, I believe something else may be causing a problem. I am now looking for suggestions and solutions to get around this problem. Any suggestions?

Solution

Unlike Windows systems, Linux and Unix systems will not display * or any other character to indicate that you've entered something/anything in a password field - it simply stays totally blank. Cursor won't blink, move, etc.

The password you are being prompted for is not the user account's password, but rather the password associated wtih the public/private key pair that you are attempting to use for authentication.

Comments

[Kamil Maciorowski]

Is the issue because it asks for passphrase and you expected it to ask for password? If passphrase is what you expected, is it because what you type doesn't show? This is normal, I think. What happens when you type the passphrase and hit Enter anyway? Please edit the question and clarify.

[3D1T0R]

Looks to me like there's no issue. PuTTY sends the password to the remote computer, the remote computer doesn't show the password (this would be a security risk, someone could look over your shoulder) or * characters representing your password (still a security risk, as someone might see how long your password is and that could help them hack it), thus PuTTY doesn't display it. It's not doing what you expect because you're expecting something it's designed not to do. Just type the password (with no indication that it's working) and press enter. If you have the right password, it'll work.

[Pyro Newman]

I typed in the password and it moved on to the next line, but now I can't type the command I want to use. What is a solution to this? Do I need to type in the password again?

[Pyro Newman]

I am using Windows, yet I experience the same thing you mentioned.

[ivanivan]

@PyroNewman yes because you are accessing a Linux system.

[Kamil Maciorowski]

+1, although this Windows vs Linux thing is not strict. It's not that Windows does print, Linux doesn't. There are GUI tools in Linux that do display * or so. Linux CLI tools usually disable echo while expecting password, that's all. While connecting to a remote system, you can even set the things up, so your local terminal (not the remote shell/whatever) is responsible for displaying what you type (local echo, PuTTY should support this option as well). In this case the local terminal cannot tell if you enter passphrase or what, it always echoes.

[Pyro Newman]

If I am accessing a Linux system on a Windows, then what do I do to fix this problem?

[ivanivan]

@PyroNewman it isn't a problem. Type the passphrase for the key you are using and it enter.