[Enigmail] GnuPG-Agent on FreeBSD.

[Patrick Brunschwig]

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Janky Jay, III wrote:
> Hello, Patrick.
> 
> 	Thanks for the reply.
> 
> Patrick Brunschwig wrote:
>> Janky Jay, III wrote:
>>> Hello, everyone.
>>> 	I've been browsing all day and can't seem to figure out exactly what is
>>> wrong so maybe someone on this list will be able to help. Sorry if this
>>> has already been asked/covered/answered.
>>> 	I'm running Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 (20071123) with Enigmail 0.95.5
>>> (20071124) on FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE.
>>> 	After the most recent updates of Enigmail, I was no longer able to send
>>> signed/encrypted email due to the new feature of Enigmail requiring the
>>> gpg-agent be running. This is all fine and good (After I've figured out
>>> how to start gpg-agent without having Enigmail start it for me and
>>> such...). However, when I attempt to send signed/encrypted emails now
>>> that gpg-agent is running, I get the following error(s) in the error dialog:
>>> 	Send operation aborted.
>>> 	Error - bad passphrase
>>> 	gpg command line and output:
>>> 	/usr/local/bin/gpg --charset utf8 --batch --no-tty --status-fd 2 -t
>>> --clearsign -u <key-stuffs> --use-agent
>>> 	Warning: using insecure memory!
>>> 	gpg: problem with the agent: IPC write error
>>> 	gpg: Invalid passphrase; please try again ...
>>> 	gpg: problem with the agent: IPC write error
>>> 	gpg: skipped "<key-stuffs>": General error
>>> 	gpg: [stdin]: clearsign failed: General error
>>> 	The odd part is, sometimes sending works and sometimes it doesn't. It
>>> seems that the first mail I attempt to send will eventually make it
>>> through the gpg-agent. However, not before I enter my passphrase for
>>> whatever address it happens to be coming from.
>>> 	I read on the Enigmail configuration/help page about the "I receive an
>>> IPC error" and I'm afraid I still don't understand exactly what I must
>>> do in order to be able to use gpg-agent with Enigmail. I've also read
>>> online about unsetting the GPG_AGENT_INFO variable, but that doesn't
>>> seem to do any good either. It still implies that my passphrase is bad
>>> and does not prompt for it.
>>> 	Again, sorry for any inconvenience if this has already been covered and
>>> thanks for any help anyone could possibly provide me.
>>
>> you might want to check this link:
>> <http://mozilla-enigmail.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249>
>>
> 	Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I have already read that and tried
> both of the solutions recommended. I am using GnuPG v2 at the moment due
> to the FreeBSD port using GnuPG v2 as a dependency. I can, however,
> install GnuGP v1 and re-install Enigmail to use v1 instead, I was just
> hoping to stick with 2 as I'm sure it will become (if it already hasn't)
> the standard.
> 
> 	So, maybe I should give a bit more information.. It seems that it
> connects to the agent fine. Maybe the agent is storing old passphrases
> for keys? Or maybe it has never had them? I'm not sure. I've never used
> the agent in Enigmail before, so maybe I need to somehow import the keys
> I use into the agent? I'm not very experienced with gpg-agent. However,
> all required applications are installed and functioning properly.

Well, the problem is clear: "gpg: problem with the agent: IPC write
error". I don't all the possible causes, the only frequent one is that
pinentry isn't working properly (or installed at all). Thus the only
hint I could give you is make sure that pinentry is available, and that
it works. You have to use one of the graphical versions of pinentry
(i.e. pinentry-qt or pinentry-gtk).

You can try this e.g. with this command:
echo "GETPIN" | pinentry

- -Patrick
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