[Enigmail] GnuPG-Agent on FreeBSD.

[Janky Jay, III]

Patrick Brunschwig wrote:
> 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
> 

	Well, that was my first assumption as well. However, pinentry-gtk is
installed and working without an issue. In fact, when I drop back to
GnuPG v1, everything works just as before (Requests the passphrase via
the pinentry-gtk dialog). So, obviously there is something I'm missing
in the gpg-agent setup.

	Thanks again for your reply. I'll hunt around for clues. I don't think
this is an Enigmail problem at all. Just a PEBKAC I suppose. As I'd
mentioned, I'm not extremely familiar with gpg-agent. Just hoping for a
bit of insight as to what could be wrong.

Cheers,
Janky Jay, III