Unable to change private key access: Please attempt to unlock ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain from Keychain Access

Question

I have a private key in the login Keychain that I need to update the access control on. When attempting to save, I am asked for a password that has never been set; from reading, this is a common issue with the upgrade to El Capitan. I have ensured that the correct boxes are checked to synch the login Keychain password to the account password; I have tried changing the password (which does update the Keychain password as I am asked for it when next going into Keychain and it is accepted); I have tried running the First Aid and I get the following error:

Checked settings for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain
Keychain can't be unlocked automatically. Please attempt to unlock ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain from Keychain Access.
Unable to change password for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain. Please change password using Edit > Change Password for Keychain.

I need to be able to change the access to the private key to allow the CI to build an app from the command line.

I have been reading support forums for several hours and have been unable to find any form of solution; even deleting the keychain and rebuilding it is not guaranteed to work.

Has anyone found a solution to this issue? Is there a way to unlock ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain from Keychain Access?

Answer 1

I ended up wiping the server clean and re-installing from scratch. Not a great solution (ie a terrible resort, not a solution at all) but could not find any alternatives.