garrgh! Linux and temporary credential-saving

I have my desktop PC (Mint 21) and my new server (Ubuntu Server 24 I think). I set up a ssh key to help with my server backup script (desktop requests the server does stuff then scp's the resulting backup file, etc, though TBH I still have to type in my server password a few times so is the ssh key helping much?). I set the ssh key password to be the same as the server password (I'm not sure if this is a bad idea, but anyway). I put an launcher icon on my desktop to fire up a ssh session to the server (it also changes the terminal colour scheme so I can easily tell the difference between some other terminal window I have open and that one). If it's been a while since my last login then my desktop asks for the ssh key password, but if it hasn't been "a while" (I think I logged in to my server maybe 4-5 hours ago as part of the same desktop login session), it doesn't. Muscle memory makes me type the ssh key password, but if the credential has been cached then it goes straight... Read more