Public bug reported: I recently performed a fresh install of 18.04 (Bionic) after preserving my .gnupg directory from my previous 16.04 LTS (Xenial) installation, but now, I can't perform gpg operations that require my secret key unless I'm sitting at the desktop and not logged in via ssh.
If I'm sitting at the gnome desktop environment, I can run gpg commands to decrypt encrypted messages and the popup appears to ask my passphrase, but if I'm connected via ssh, I get errors from gpg-agent and gpg fails to find my secret key without ever asking for my passphrase: $ ps auxww | grep gpg-agent jesse 16703 0.0 0.0 21536 1040 pts/4 S+ 12:19 0:00 grep gpg-agent $ gpg --list-keys gpg: checking the trustdb gpg: marginals needed: 3 completes needed: 1 trust model: pgp gpg: depth: 0 valid: 2 signed: 0 trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 2u gpg: next trustdb check due at 2019-02-22 /home/jesse/.gnupg/pubring.kbx ------------------------------ pub rsa2048 2018-02-22 [SC] [expires: 2019-02-22] ... uid [ultimate] Jesse Michael <...@...> uid [ultimate] Jesse Michael <...@...> sub rsa2048 2018-02-22 [E] [expires: 2019-02-22] pub rsa2048 2018-02-22 [SC] [expires: 2019-02-22] ... uid [ultimate] Jesse Michael <...@...> sub rsa2048 2018-02-22 [E] [expires: 2019-02-22] pub rsa4096 2017-07-10 [SC] [expires: 2018-07-10] ... uid [ unknown] ... <...@...> sub rsa4096 2017-07-10 [E] [expires: 2018-07-10] $ gpg --export-secret-keys gpg: key ...: error receiving key from agent: Operation cancelled - skipped gpg: key ...: error receiving key from agent: Operation cancelled - skipped gpg: key ...: error receiving key from agent: Operation cancelled - skipped gpg: key ...: error receiving key from agent: Operation cancelled - skipped gpg: WARNING: nothing exported $ gpg --decrypt somefilename.gpg gpg: encrypted with 4096-bit RSA key, ID ..., created 2017-07-10 "... <...@...>" gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit RSA key, ID ..., created 2018-02-22 "Jesse Michael <...@...>" gpg: public key decryption failed: Operation cancelled gpg: decryption failed: No secret key $ ps auxww | grep gpg-agent jesse 16716 0.0 0.0 100420 3484 ? SLs 12:19 0:00 /usr/bin/gpg-agent --supervised jesse 16763 0.0 0.0 21536 1092 pts/4 S+ 12:20 0:00 grep gpg-agent $ lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Release: 18.04 $ apt-cache policy gpg gnupg2 gpg-agent gpg: Installed: 2.2.4-1ubuntu1 Candidate: 2.2.4-1ubuntu1 Version table: *** 2.2.4-1ubuntu1 500 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status gnupg2: Installed: 2.2.4-1ubuntu1 Candidate: 2.2.4-1ubuntu1 Version table: *** 2.2.4-1ubuntu1 500 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 Packages 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe i386 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status gpg-agent: Installed: 2.2.4-1ubuntu1 Candidate: 2.2.4-1ubuntu1 Version table: *** 2.2.4-1ubuntu1 500 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status ** Affects: gnupg2 (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1775923 Title: gpg can't access secret keys when logged in via ssh instead of desktop To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnupg2/+bug/1775923/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs