scp asks for host key during /etc/init.d

[Laurent Bercot]

> Is it possible that during the boot sequence scp doesn't look in the right place for the trusted host file ?

 A boot environment and a login environment are very different things.
 For instance, in your boot environment, you have no defined USER or
HOME environment variables. scp has no way of knowing that your
known_hosts file is in /root/.ssh if there's no HOME=/root variable
to tell it so.
 Adjust the environment in your scp command line. Make sure it does
not leak to the rest of the boot scripts, though.

-- 
 Laurent