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FirstClassCitizen

Member

Registered: 2020-11-14

Posts: 3

Thunderbird is not unlocking smartcard (yubikey) in GUI

I have an issue using OpenPGP with my YubiKey on Thunderbird 78.4.3.
If my smartcard is locked and I try to open an encrypted email, Thunderbird does not show the unlock prompt (for the PIN code) to access the keys. The email will not get decrypted.
However, when I unlock the smartcard manually via gpg the emails will get decrypted.
Also, when starting Thunderbird via a terminal, I am getting the unlock prompt in the terminal and can unlock the keys.

Does someone know a reason why Thunderbird does not prompt the unlock dialog in the GUI?

Simon

mpan

Member

Registered: 2012-08-01

Posts: 1,640

Website

Re: Thunderbird is not unlocking smartcard (yubikey) in GUI

78.x does not support yet, does not support fully, does not support properly or does not support at all some features that Enigmail did. Smartcard support is one of them: it can only be used with GnuPG and, supposedly⁽¹⁾, it has many quirks.

Thunderbird OpenPGP FAQ/Howto for details and, in particular for your case, Thunderbird smartcards support howto.

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⁽¹⁾ I am not using that myself — only know that from talking with other users.

Last edited by mpan (2020-11-23 12:47:44)

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progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,321

Re: Thunderbird is not unlocking smartcard (yubikey) in GUI

Have you installed the pinentry package and configured gpg to use a gui variant? Maybe that will work. (for the gtk/gnome version you'll have to install gcr as well)

Last edited by progandy (2020-11-23 13:24:19)

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FirstClassCitizen

Member

Registered: 2020-11-14

Posts: 3

Re: Thunderbird is not unlocking smartcard (yubikey) in GUI

Have you installed the pinentry package and configured gpg to use a gui variant? Maybe that will work. (for the gtk/gnome version you'll have to install gcr as well)

pinentry was indeed the issue.
unfortunately, first I did use the gnome3 pinentry program, because I am using the gnome desktop environment. but this did not work.
after removing the pinentry-program entry from gpg-agent.conf it worked.

thanks for the support!