Testing GPG EMail encryption

[Robert J. Hansen]

On 5/23/12 3:07 PM, david at gbenet.com wrote:
> Now I have 3 Linux Laptops. I started testing Linux distros with gpg2
> - enigmail with Thunderbird - all 100 per cent Openpgp failed to
> initialise with pgp2 and in fact Openpgp always signed to my private
> key not my public key when  using percipient rules. Here is a list of
> main Linux distros which all fail to initialise pgp2:

As you were told on the Enigmail list, thousands of people have found
that GnuPG 2 works well with Enigmail on Linux.  I demonstrated this to
you by sending to the list a correctly-signed email written on an Ubuntu
12.04LTS system using GnuPG 2.

If you're having troubles getting Enigmail to work there are many people
who are willing to help you.  However, talking about how GnuPG 2 is
completely broken on Linux, and how Enigmail is clearly too buggy to
use, and everything else, is not exactly constructive.

GnuPG 2 works just fine for the overwhelming majority of Linux users.  I
don't know what your particular problem is, but it can likely be resolved.

> Be warned - any encryption done will be to your private key and not
> to your public key. Enigmail may fail to initialise (gpg2).

If it were encrypting to the private key, this would be a digital
signature.  That's what a digital signature is -- an encryption
operation using the private key.  I don't understand your complaint.  If
you're saying "Enigmail will sign emails," well, yes, it's designed to
do that -- but I don't think that's what you're trying to say here.

> There is no compatibility in above Linux distros  with
> Enimail/Openpgp and gpg2 - you are best advised to stick with gpg
> (GnuPG) 1..4.11.

I have been using Enigmail with GnuPG 2.x for literally years, and over
that time I have had no trouble interoperating with people using other
Linux distros or even entirely different operating systems.  This is the
first time in all my years of using Enigmail that I have heard anyone
tell me that Enigmail's output is not interoperable with other systems.
 This is not to say that you're not having trouble with Enigmail -- far
from it! -- but claiming there is "no compatibility" is a fairly extreme
claim, and I'm going to need to see some supporting evidence.

> Now testing with a fellow Linux user revealed that if you have both
> gpg 1.4.11 and gpg2 installed you don't get any problems. So I can
> only conclude that gpg2 is an add-on widget to gpg 1.4.11 - gpg2 only
> recognises gpg 1.4.11 commands.

GnuPG 2 is not an add-on widget to GnuPG 1.4.