Investigating GnuPG Problems

From PsiWiki

First thing to know:

• Psi does not work with Cygwin GnuPG.
• Psi works with the native GnuPG build.

If you don't know the above thing, you are most likely using the correct build.

If Your Psi fails to work with GnuPG, for example Select key button is not available, please try these first:

1. (linux and custom builds only) Is qca-gnupg installed?
2. Does

   gpg

   execute properly from command line (ie. is it on Your $PATH or %PATH%)?

   If it doesn't execute, add the GnuPG binary directory to the PATH.

   On Windows, check the Windows Registry for GnuPG and make sure the paths point correctly to GnuPG dir and GnuPG keyrings. Here are the Registry keys You have to check:

   1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\GNU\GNUPG

      should contain two string (REG_SZ) values: "HomeDir" and "gpgProgram". First one (HomeDir) giving the full path to directory with GnuPG binaries, the second one (gpgProgram) giving the full path to GnuPG binary (gpg.exe).

   2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mingw32\NLS

      should contain one string (REG_SZ) value: "MODir", which gives the full path to the directory holding GnuPG translations (Locale subdirectory of GnuPG binaries directory).

3. Does

   psi

   execute properly from the same command line?

4. Does

gpg --list-sigs

list Your key-sigs properly? Some keys might be corrupt!

Look especially if gpg throws messages like

gpg: buffer shorter than subpacket

do so by invoking

gpg --list-sig 2>&1| grep shorter

The reason for that might be a fishy key like the "global pgp verification key" 0xCA57AD7C. If you have that special key in your keyring you must delete it with

gpg --delete-keys 0xCA57AD7C

5. Try running Psi with GPG agent disabled(Psi 0.10 and lower only):

   psi --no-gpg-agent

   If Psi works this time, most likely your gpg is configured to use an agent, but there isn't an agent installed or running. Check your ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf (or GnuPG Windows Registry settings) for anything about agents (like "use-agent"). It is possible that other software might work with gpg when it is configured this way, but Psi is very picky.

6. Make sure your key is not expired.
7. Use a GnuPG debug build
   • Windows - There is currently no recent GnuPG debug build for windows availible
   • Linux - In Psi source, in src/src.pro file, uncomment line:

     #DEFINES += GPG_DEBUG

     near the beginning of the file to make it look like:

     DEFINES += GPG_DEBUG

     and recompile the source (full recompile - see below instructions). Now You have GnuPG debug enabled Psi build.

     Full recompile instructions:

     make distclean
     ./configure
     make
     make install

     You need to execute

     make distclean

     to remove stale Makefile.