I added the public SSH key to the authorized_keys file. ssh localhost should log me in without asking for the password.
I did that and tried t
Listing a public key in .ssh/authorized_keys is necessary, but not sufficient for sshd (server) to accept it. If your private key is passphrase-protected, you'll need to give ssh (client) the passphrase every time. Or you can use ssh-agent, or a GNOME equivalent.
Your updated trace is consistent with a passphrase-protected private key. See ssh-agent, or use ssh-keygen -p.