They shouldn’t interfere with each other at all. But it is possible to configure the ssh client to not allow password logins. Do you have PasswordAuthentication no in /etc/ssh/ssh_config? If so then you are telling your ssh client that it isn’t allowed to log in with just a password.
If you are trying to log into the console with your SSH key instead of the password, then you need to add your key to the karaf console config. See Security of Karaf console - #3 by Benjy