Seahorse won't generate a key when .gnupg directory owned by root, only gives unhelpful "General error"
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
seahorse (Ubuntu) |
Confirmed
|
Low
|
Ubuntu Desktop Bugs |
Bug Description
Bug Summary (by nUboon2Age): When the ~/.gnupg/ directory and its contents are owned by root Seahorse gives: Couldn't generate PGP key // General error. To get Seahorse working again the ~/.gnupg/ directory must be deleted. This allows Seahorse to run not only new gpg creation but also run 'Sync and Publish keys' which otherwise seems to stall indefinitely. Bug fix suggestions in comments below.
{original bug report below}
Binary package hint: seahorse
Seahorse will not generate a new key. I have used gksudo to launch seahorse from the command line. Seahorse opens. I press on the 'new' button to generate a new key. I select PGP key and press continue. I fill out the fields for 'real name', 'email address', and 'comment'. I click on the arrow for advanced options. I select 4096 for key strength. I remove the check from the box that says never expires. I click on 'Create'. It asks me for a Passphrase for New PGP Key. I enter my password two times, the same both times. I click oK.
A box pops up with an error message in it:
<big><b>Couldn't generate PGP key</b></big>
General error
The html tags are in the actual error message. No key is generated.
I am running Ubuntu 8.10
gpg is installed:
em@leibniz:~$ gpg --version
gpg (GnuPG) 1.4.9
em@leibniz:~$ uname -a
Linux leibniz 2.6.27-9-generic #1 SMP Thu Nov 20 22:15:32 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux
===========
I too have the similar problem:
right click on folder, select "Encrypt". At this point I get message that no key are available and seahorse opens up.
I click on File, New, fill out name, email, comment, leave other defaults alone. Next I get the password box I fill in the password, and the working bar apears for about a minute or two and then I get an error message saying that it can not generate key.
I was running 8.10 with latest patches, last night I upgraded to 9.04 to see if it would help, but it did not, still get the same error.
Thanks for any one looking into this.
Changed in seahorse (Ubuntu): | |
status: | Incomplete → New |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
description: | updated |
I cannot reproduce this on Jaunty.
This is, nevertheless, a dangerous thing to do: if you are logged under your own userid (not root), and you 'gksudo seahorse', you will change the ownership of the ./gnupg/ (pub|sec) ring.gpg to root -- which will mean you will lose access to your gpg keyrings.
On the other hand, this message is weird...