I made sure the folder .ssh is chmod 700 in the N900 and the file /home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys is chmod 600.
Nokia-N900-42-11:~/.ssh# pwd /root/.ssh Nokia-N900-42-11:~/.ssh# ls -l -rw------- 1 root root 1124 Nov 27 04:05 authorized_keys -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1080 Nov 25 21:59 known_hosts Nokia-N900-42-11:~/.ssh#