gnupg-agent not running properly

[hyper_ch]

HI there

I just upgraded from Maverick KDE 4.5.3 and I have a problem signing outgoing emails in KMail. When trying to sign outgoing email I get this generic error "Signing failed: General error".

I then tried to pinpoint down the issue and started Kleopatra. It reports the following error:

"Check that gpg-agent is running and that the GPG_AGENT_INFO variable is set up-to-date"

I then purged the gnupga-agent package (sudo apt-get purge gnupg-agent) and reinstalled it and kleopatra. The same problems appears.

In the ~/.gnupg folder I found various gnugp-agnet files. The gpg-agent.conf did not mention the above variable but the gpg-agent-info-HOSTNAME file does. For me it contains currently:

"GPG_AGENT_INFO=/tmp/gpg-L8LKin/S.gpg-agent:1687:1"

I don't know what that should be changed to.

Also when I try to run gpg-agent from the cli I get this error:

"gpg-agent[4794]: can't connect to `/home/hyper/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent': No such file or directory"

Qt: 4.7.0
KDE Development Platform: 4.5.80 (4.6 Beta1)
KMail: 1.13.5

[Thomas Tanghus (tanghus)]

I can confirm this on 4.6 RC1

[Bruno (bruno666-666)]

I had a similar issue on KDE 4.6 RC. This works for me :

Add keep-dipslay and display options in ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf :

pinentry-program /usr/bin/pinentry-qt4
keep-display
display :0.0
default-cache-ttl 86400
max-cache-ttl 86400

Create a file under the directory ~/.kde/env/ . I named it gpgagent.sh (don't forget to make it executable):

#!/bin/sh
eval `gpg-agent --daemon`

Also create the directory ~/.kde/shutdown/ and place another shell script in it (e.g. again gpgagent.sh) with the following contents:

#!/bin/sh
[ -n "${GPG_AGENT_INFO}" ] && kill `echo "${GPG_AGENT_INFO}" | cut -d ':' -f 2`

[hyper_ch (bugs-launchpad-net-roleplayer)]

Bruno:

That seems to work in RC2 :) thx

[Benjamin Wohlwend (piquadrat)]

I had to add the "--enable-ssh-support" flag to "eval `gpg-agent --daemon`" in Bruno's workaround, but now it works.

It would be really cool if this was properly resolved. It's a major pain in the ... when you have to work with ssh sessions all the time...

[Andrey Bondarenko (abone)]

Have you tried to add "use-agent" into ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf. This should enable starting gpg-agent by /etc/X11/Xsession.d/90gpg-agent. Probably, it is rather unintuitive, but work for me in Kubuntu 11.04 (Natty).

You can also add "enable-ssh-support".

[Sander van Grieken (sander-vangrieken)]

The change in comment #8 works for me too. Is this a bug in gnupg?

[Dennis Schridde (devurandom)]

The issue exists here in plain Kubuntu 12.04 without any PPAs.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Jessie Morris (jessieamorris)]

I too am having this issue. Stock 12.04 Kubuntu with Kgpg installed.

[erintiransom (israelplanaguma)]

I have this same problem with Ubuntu 12.04 64-bits. The file gpg.conf already had the "use-agent" option.

Kleopatra self-test says "IPC parameter error".

I can't get to trust other people's certificates. I can't verify downloads. Sometimes the certificates list is empty, sometimes it's not.

Very frustrating, Kleopatra in Windows works pretty much flawlessly -it freezes every now and then, but you just have to kill the process and restart the program.

I've tried to switch to Ubuntu several times, but I always end up back in Windows...

[ianni67 (ianni67)]

I'm experiencing the same problem here (Kubuntu 12.04) and this is a show-stopping for me for Kmail. I'm in serious trouble.

Any solution or work-around? For me all the suggested workarounds listed here until now do not work.

[ianni67 (ianni67)]

I fixed the problem in two steps:
- create a file gpg.conf-2 in ~/.gnupg (touch ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf-2)
- clean the gnupg.conf file removing (commenting out) the spare lines:
#debug-level basic
#log-file socket:///home/ianni/.gnupg/log-socket
#debug-level basic
which where created due to a bug which is also mentioned (indirectly) in http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Kubuntu_Quantal_Privacy#PGP_Troubleshooting;
- deinstalling kleopatra and installing kgpg.

Now everything works again. I hope this can help someone.

[Bashar (bashar-mc)]

I fixed it this way on both 12.04 and 14.04 and i think this also the correct fix

chmod a+x /etc/X11/Xsession.d/90gpg-agent

Check ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf
If not create it and add on one line:
use-agent

Reboot
chk if gpg-agent started
chk if $GPG_AGENT_INFO has something in it
$echo $GPG_AGENT_INFO
/tmp/gpg-nTe51L/S.gpg-agent:2016:1

fire Kleopatra and shoud work

[Paul Loughman (snowhog)]

Bashar -

Thank you! Your 'fix' worked for me on Kubuntu 14.10 (KDE 4.14.2) kernel 3.16.0-31-generic. This issue had me stumped for months. Very happy to have everything working now.

[James Wilde (james-wilde)]

Bashar's solution did not work for me. I'm running 14-04.

I did the chmod (needed sudo in front, of course).
I had a gpg.conf file which did not have the 'use-agent' line so I added it first after the introductory blurb.
Rebooted and checked that gpg-agent was running with ps -ef | grep gpg-agent.
Ran echo $GPG-AGENT-INFO but got another line than the one in Bashar's post:
/run/user/1000/keyring-UzXp2m/gpg:0:1
There is a directory /tmp/gpg-aE7ygt which contains the following file:
srwxrwxr-x 1 james james 0 jun 3 10:35 S.gpg-agent
Any attempt to read the file comes up with S.gpg-agent: No such device or address
Kleopatra still barfs at the Gpg-Agent Connectivity test.

Would be really nice to get this working as I'm trying to get people I know to use gpg encryption.

[Jonathan Polak (jpolak)]

@james-wilde this problem exists upstream from ubuntu. I'm using KDE on Debian - same IPC connectivity issue -- 5 years later!!

[Scarlett Gately Moore (scarlettmoore)]

Hi all, I have no issues with gpg-agent.

gpg-agent.conf
debug-level basic
log-file /home/scarlett/.gnupg/log-socket
enable-ssh-support
pinentry-program /usr/bin/pinentry
default-cache-ttl 180000

And most importantly in .bashrc I had to put:
GPG_TTY=$(tty)
export GPG_TTY

which I found here:
https://www.gnupg.org/documentation/manuals/gnupg/Invoking-GPG_002dAGENT.html

[Scarlett Gately Moore (scarlettmoore)]

Removed Kubuntu PPA - there are no version of gnupg-agent in any of our PPAs.

[BryanFRitt (bryanfritt)]

I found a script that helps to fix this (or at least passes Kleopatra self test for 'Gpg-Agent Connectivity' now)
Found this in ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent-start.sh
(don't remember details behind why I originally had this file, and how it later lost execution permission.
But one I gave it execution permission and ran it, the remaining Kleopatra test passed. 'Gpg-Agent Connectivity')
[Note: using Debian and KDE]

#!/bin/bash

# http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-security-4/gpg-gpg-agent-cant-connect-to-root-gnupg-s-gpg-agent-611843-print/

# Decide wether to start gpg-agent daemon.
# Create necessary symbolic link in $HOME/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent

# modified slightly from original
# Whatever this file does, it helps make it so the the Kleopatra Self-Test Results for 'Gpg-Agent Connectivity' pass

SOCKET=S.gpg-agent
#PIDOF=$(pidof gpg-agent)
RETVAL=$?

if [ "$RETVAL" -eq 1 ]; then
        echo "Starting gpg-agent daemon. "
        eval "$(gpg-agent --daemon)"
else
        echo "Daemon gpg-agent already running. "
fi

#echo " Nasty way to find gpg-agent's socket file... "
GPG_SOCKET_FILE=$(find /tmp/gpg-* -name $SOCKET)
echo "Updating socket file link. "
cp -fs "$GPG_SOCKET_FILE" "$HOME/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent"

[Vincent Fortier (th0ma7)]

I think this is similar to #684902

[Vincent Fortier (th0ma7)]

wrong post...
a duplicate of this bug maybe:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdepim/+bug/1495172

[Vincent Fortier (th0ma7)]

Also related:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=322966