- if GnuPG version 2.0 or higher is detected
- if the environment variable GPG_AGENT_INFO is set
- if the option Use gpg-agent for passphrase handling is active
If you are using GnuPG version 1.4.x, and gpg is called with "--use-agent", the usual cause is that the environment variable GPG_AGENT_INFO is set.
Solution 1: do not to use gpg-agent
If the variable is set by your Linux/Unix distribution, but you don't want to use gpg-agent, you can unset the variable e.g. in the file .xsession or .bashrc, or you can launch Thunderbird/Seamonkey through a wrapper shell script like this:
- Code: Select all
#!/bin/sh
unset GPG_AGENT_INFO
exec /path/to/thunderbird "$@"
Solution 2: correctly install all helper utilities
gpg-agent needs a tool called pinentry to query for the password. If that's not available, then you need to install it.
For Linux, you have the choice between pinentry-qt and pinentry-gtk. Install either of them, and create a link from it to "pinentry".
