Mailing List Archive: Unhelpful error message while attempting to generate key pair

Unhelpful error message while attempting to generate key pair

Sep 13, 2023, 1:48 PM

Post #1 of 4 (191 views)

Hello, gpg.

I'm trying to use gpg-2.2.41 on an up to date Gentoo GNU/Linux system.

I type

$ gpg --gen-key

, answer the questions about my name and email address, then wait ...,
and wait, ... and wait.

Finally a half error message appears:

agent_genkey failed: Timeout

, followed by a repetition looking like:

Key generation failed: Timeout

.. This is an exceptionally unhelpful error message: it doesn't tell me
_what_ has timed out, thus giving me no clue as to what I need to fix.

Have I got something not configured right? Am I missing some library?
If I need to read the fine manual, _which_ manual, and _which_ part of
it?

Help!

Please help me get my gnupg working!

Thanks!

--
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

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Re: Unhelpful error message while attempting to generate key pair [ In reply to ]

gnupg-users at gnupg

Sep 14, 2023, 6:53 AM

Post #2 of 4 (191 views)

Permalink

On Wed, 13 Sep 2023 20:48, Alan Mackenzie said:

> I type
>
> $ gpg --gen-key

Use

gpg -v --gen-key

to see more warning.

> agent_genkey failed: Timeout

Look like a problem with your pinentry. Did it show up on another
screen? The "-v" should tell you which pinentry was invoked; share that
with us for help.

Next debug level would be

gpg -v --debug ipc --gen-key

but I don't think you need this.

Salam-Shalom,

Werner

--
The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that
refuse military service. - A. Einstein

Re: Unhelpful error message while attempting to generate key pair [ In reply to ]

gnupg-users at gnupg

Sep 14, 2023, 7:33 AM

Post #3 of 4 (188 views)

Permalink

Hello, Werner,

Thanks for such a fast and helpful answer to my post.

But I'd like to apologise for the tone of my first post, which came out
rather rude, something I hadn't intended.

On Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 15:53:48 +0200, Werner Koch wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Sep 2023 20:48, Alan Mackenzie said:

> > I type

> > $ gpg --gen-key

> Use

> gpg -v --gen-key

> to see more warning.

I did that. It came out saying something about gnome3. ;-(

> > agent_genkey failed: Timeout

> Look like a problem with your pinentry. Did it show up on another
> screen? The "-v" should tell you which pinentry was invoked; share that
> with us for help.

Yes, it was my pinentry, which had been set up to use gnome3. I was
calling gpg on a Linux tty. As soon as I amended the setup to use
pinentry-curses (Gentoo has a utility to do this), --gen-key worked.

> Next debug level would be

> gpg -v --debug ipc --gen-key

> but I don't think you need this.

Indeed not.

I now have a 3072-bit key pair, valid for two years. Thanks again!

> Salam-Shalom,

> Werner

--
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

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Gnupg-users mailing list
Gnupg-users@gnupg.org
https://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users

Re: Unhelpful error message while attempting to generate key pair [ In reply to ]

gnupg-users at gnupg

Sep 15, 2023, 1:44 AM

Post #4 of 4 (188 views)

Permalink

On Thu, 14 Sep 2023 14:33, Alan Mackenzie said:

> But I'd like to apologise for the tone of my first post, which came out

No problem, my tone is also often pretty rude.

> Yes, it was my pinentry, which had been set up to use gnome3. I was

Actually a pinentry should fallback to curses if DISPLAY is not set.
But the pinentry-gnome3 (?) has some special features and I doubt that
anyone looked at it for a long time.

Shalom-Salam,

Werner

--
The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that
refuse military service. - A. Einstein

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