gpg / gpg-agent -- Can't connect to /root/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent

jrtayloriv · 01-07-2008, 04:22 PM

I am having trouble with gpg & gpg-agent. I ran

Code:

gpg --gen-key

And right after I input my name and email, it crashes with the following message:

Quote:

Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? O
You need a Passphrase to protect your secret key.

can't connect to `/root/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent': No such file or directory
gpg-agent[23478]: command get_passphrase failed: Operation cancelled
gpg: cancelled by user
gpg: Key generation canceled.

Any idea how I might fix this?

Thanks,
jrtayloriv

gilead · 01-07-2008, 05:17 PM

Have you tried creating the directory /root/.gnupg using mkdir (and possibly the S.gpg-agent file within it with touch)? The directory permissions should be 0700. Can you post the output of re-running the command once you've done that?

jrtayloriv · 01-07-2008, 07:23 PM

I did as you suggested. Now it just says:

Quote:

Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? O
You need a Passphrase to protect your secret key.

can't connect to `/root/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent': Connection refused
gpg-agent[25509]: command get_passphrase failed: Operation cancelled
gpg: cancelled by user
gpg: Key generation canceled.

Any other ideas? What is S.gpg-agent for?

gilead · 01-07-2008, 07:37 PM

I use GPG, bit not the agent. It turns out that S.gpg-agent is a socket (not a file which is what the touch command creates). The gpg-agent listens to gpg, intercepts requests for passphrases and supplies the info so you don't have to type your passphrase all the time.

How is gpg-agent started on your box? It looks like it's running since it's what generated the error. However, it also looks like it can't reference the required socket. Is there a file in /tmp that looks anything like S.gpg-agent? Therre's some info at https://bugs.g10code.com/gnupg/issue859 which may be related. I'd also recommend the info at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gnupg-user.xml and http://www.linuxcertif.com/man/1/gpg-agent/

madyogi · 03-23-2009, 12:56 PM

First recommend to use the saint
]$ man gpg-agent

Read it.

You will learn that gpg-agent should be started rather as daemon and only as a single pid. If you start looking the daemon start-up procedure inside your system of course, you won't find it (I didn't and it was Fedora 10). Well, First what I decided to do was to fallow the manual, so I did:

Code:

]$ vi $HOME/.bashrc

and added following lines into it:

Code:

# GPG-AGENT stuff
GET_TTY=`tty`
export $GET_TTY
$HOME/<somercdir>/gpg-agent-start.sh

Yes, you don't have the "gpg-agent-start.sh" file yet and there is no word about it in man! Here it is:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

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

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

# 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

I'm not quite sure if there is a better way to quickly, find a place of a socket file. In my system it is placed randomly in /tmp/gpg-xxxxxxx/S.gpg-agent, where xxxxxxx are random characters.
If anyone know it please write it down...

Regards...

finley · 12-01-2011, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrtayloriv

I did as you suggested. Now it just says:

Any other ideas? What is S.gpg-agent for?

It's a socket (fifo or named pipe) that gpg-agent uses to communicate. Certain Linux distros use the --no-use-standard-socket option to gpg-agent, causing it to look for this file specifically, instead of creating one automatically with a random name. Which means we need to create it manually.

Just do this:

Code:

# presumably you already have a .gnupg directory, but this won't hurt even if you do
mkdir -p -m 700 ~/.gnupg

# now let's create the socket.  The "p" below says make it a "pipe" (aka: fifo or socket)
mknod -m 700 ~/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent p

# And give gpg-agent a whirl:
gpg-agent --daemon

pbille · 07-16-2014, 01:26 PM

The man page writeup for gpg-agent is pretty good, succinct, addresses the problem and provides a solution:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$> man gpg-agent #a daemon to manage secret (private) keys independently
# from any protocol. It is used as a backend for gpg and gpgsm as well
# as for a couple of other utilities.
#Get the necessary information from gpg-agent
gpg-agent --daemon --enable-ssh-support --write-env-file "${HOME}/.gpg-agent-info"
#Create the necessary environment variables
if [ -f "${HOME}/.gpg-agent-info" ]; then
. "${HOME}/.gpg-agent-info"
export GPG_AGENT_INFO
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK
export SSH_AGENT_PID
fi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

rdx · 10-20-2015, 03:27 PM

I have the same problem and I've tried everything suggested above. Kleopatra Self-test results show all test pass except Gpg-Agent Connectivity. Slackware64 14.1

biffsocko · 05-11-2017, 09:34 AM

type this (or add it to your .bashrc):

export GPG_TTY=/dev/tty

then you can use your gpg commands

MensaWater · 06-03-2019, 10:06 AM

I ran into the issues last week on my RHEL6 running gnupg2. I had not had the issue running on the RHEL5 server that had been replaced by that. My PuTTY into the servers is launched from an MS Windows laptop and has X11 forwarding enabled.

My command line in the past was:

Code:

gpg --passphrase "<PASSPHRASE>" -o "<DECRYPTED OUTPUT FILENAME>" --decrypt "<ENCRYPTED INPUT FILENAME>"

It was trying that on RHEL6 that gave the errors described. My notes for RHEL5 said it gave me a Text Box to enter the passphrase despite including the --passphrase.

After getting the error and seeing multiple hits in web searches regarding the error including this link I solved the issue. Posting findings in hopes they help others:

1) On my MS Windows laptop I started an X emulator (Exceed in my case but would expect same from others such as Cygwin/X).
With the X11 forwarding on in the PuTTY shell running the above command line gave me an X Window popup on my MS Windows workstation to enter the passphrase. On entering the passphrase I still got a message in PuTTY session but it successfully decrypted.

2) Running "export GPG_TTY=$*tty)" and "unset DISPLAY" in my PuTTY session then running the above command line gave me the Text box to enter the passphrase on RHEL6 as it had previously on RHEL5. On entering the passphrase I still got a message in PuTTY session but it successfully decrypted.

3) Further review showed that in my scripts when using "--passphrase" I was also using "--batch". It turned out it was the lack of the "--batch" that was making it prompt for passphrase. Therefore I amended my command line to:

Code:

gpg --batch --passphrase "<PASSPHRASE>" -o "<DECRYPTED OUTPUT FILENAME>" --decrypt "<ENCRYPTED INPUT FILENAME>"

Using that amended command line I did not have to set GPG_TTY nor did I have to unset DISPLAY. The "--batch" lets it know to do the work without trying to prompt. With the amended command line it successfully decrypted.

Summarizing: All 3 methods above work but when doing it via command line there is no reason not to issue "--batch" unless you want it to prompt you for the passphrase.