# Chef-solo : Your private key could not be loaded from /etc/chef/client.pem

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-solo-your-private-key-could-not-be-loaded-from-etc-chef-client-pem/5115>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [March 14, 2014, 7:31am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-solo-your-private-key-could-not-be-loaded-from-etc-chef-client-pem/5115 "2014-03-14T07:31:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Venkat\_Chowdhary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/dbc845/32.png) [@Venkat\_Chowdhary](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Venkat_Chowdhary)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 7:31am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/chef-solo-your-private-key-could-not-be-loaded-from-etc-chef-client-pem/5115/1 "2014-03-14T07:31:13Z")

</div>

I installed chef using curl -L [https://www.opscode.com/chef/install.sh](https://www.opscode.com/chef/install.sh) | bash  
But after creating an environment using “knife environment create dev”, when i am executing below command, i am getting an error.

Command: knife environment list

Error: WARNING: No knife configuration file found

```
            ERROR: Your private key could not be loaded from /etc/chef/client.pem
            Check your configuration file and ensure that your private key is readable

```

I am commented out client\_key and validation\_key in .chef/knife.rb. Am i really required knife configuration file? If so how can i get it?

Could you please do the needful help?

Thanks & Regards  
Venkat