ssh/rsync/cron: How to connect without password?

In order to do rsync from a cronjob it seems I need to set up pubkey authentication with a blank passphrase.

So on the client I (user_a) run ssh-keygen -t rsa to create the keys.

This creates an id_rsa private key and an id_rsa.pub public key. I copy the id_rsa.pub file to the server located at ~user_a/.ssh/authorized_hosts

On client I am using openssh-3.1p1-6
On server I am using openssh-3.5p1-6

When I run ssh -v from client this is the partial output I get, which indicates that pubkey authentication did not work as I am prompted to enter password.

---
debug1: next auth method to try is publickey
debug1: try privkey: /home/user_a/.ssh/identity
debug1: try pubkey: /home/user_a/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive
debug1: try privkey: /home/user_a/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: next auth method to try is keyboard-interactive
---

Does anyone know why this won't work? Do the openssh versions on client and server have to match? Or is there another problem?

 

 

 

 

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