Failed to clone gitolite repo and lead to fatal error

Question

I am trying to clone the gitolite-admin.git repo from my own server after "successfully" installing gitolite (multiple ways: apt-package, github source), but it always gives the same error.

$ git clone git@******:gitolite-admin
Cloning into 'gitolite-admin'...
git@******'s password:
fatal: 'gitolite-admin' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

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My setup

• on git user
• Ubuntu 20.04

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I tried

• gitolite3 apt-package
• gitolite github version
• editing ~/.ssh/conf (from a previous stack overflow solution 8 years ago)
• access from same machine, but different user
• access from my main pc (different network)

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I read/watched

• YouTube installations (from 2013)
• solutions from multiple different websites
• applying ssh sections from gitolite
• ...and nearly the whole docs from gitolite

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What I discovered/think

• keydir for example doesnt even exist in my installation
• changing ~/.ssh/config didnt do anything
• most of previous solutions are simply outdated

I started working with gitolite only since today but already feel quite exhausted I am open for any solution offered, please help me if you can :)

Answer 1

Check first your ~git/.ssh/authorized_keys on the Gitolite server: if you want to clone a gitolite-managed repository (including the main gitolite-admin one), your public key should be:

• listed in that ~git/.ssh/authorized_keys file,
• preceded with the forced-command command="[path]/gitolite-shell (as I detail in "How do programs like gitolite work?")

Otherwise, assuming your public key is registered (not for gitolite, just for regular interactive SSH session), then your clone would be:

git clone git@******:/full/path/to/gitolite-admin

The OP justsomexanda adds in the comments:

I relinked my pub- and priv-keys.
After rechecking them I could clone "testing" but not "gitolite-admin" so I looked closer and saw that in repositories/gitolite-admins/gl-conf there was the name of my key (which I called 'myKey') but it was not the same identities which I logged in (named 'alex').
I changed the name in the conf and it worked.

So in summary: just check you name the keys right and you are using the correct identity.