[Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

anarki@buttereblume · 2025-12-07 12:05:10

Hi all.

With no pinentry-program set in ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf, pinentry defaults to pinentry-gnome3 in my wayland environment. However, I cannot run pinentry-gnome3:

$ pinentry-gnome3
No Gcr System Prompter available, falling back to curses
OK Pleased to meet you, process 1888

Last year, gcr was mising as a dependency, which has been fixed since: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … -/issues/7

Gcr also is present on my system:

$ pacman -Qi pinentry
Name            : pinentry
Version         : 1.3.2-2
Description     : Collection of simple PIN or passphrase entry dialogs which utilize the Assuan protocol
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://gnupg.org/related_software/pinentry/
Licenses        : GPL
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : glibc  ncurses  libassuan  libsecret  glib2  libglib-2.0.so=0-64  libncursesw.so=6-64  libsecret-1.so=0-64
Optional Deps   : gcr: GNOME backend [installed]
                  gtk3: GTK backend [installed]
                  qt5-x11extras: Qt5 backend [installed]
                  kwayland5: Qt5 backend
                  kguiaddons: Qt6 backend
                  kwindowsystem: Qt6 backend
Required By     : gnupg
Optional For    : pass
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Installed Size  : 766.39 KiB
Packager        : Lukas Fleischer <lfleischer@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Tue 19 Aug 2025 02:43:36 PM CEST
Install Date    : Wed 15 Oct 2025 04:28:23 PM CEST
Install Reason  : Installed as a dependency for another package
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

What else am I missing to launch pinentry-gnome3?

Thank you

Last edited by anarki@buttereblume (2025-12-09 11:52:49)

seth · 2025-12-07 14:40:56

Can you run /usr/lib/gcr-prompter ?

usr/share/dbus-1/
usr/share/dbus-1/services/
usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.keyring.PrivatePrompter.service
usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.keyring.SystemPrompter.service

looks like it's supposed to be dbus activated.

echo $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
loginctl session-status

anarki@buttereblume · 2025-12-07 15:18:23

As far as I can tell, /usr/lib/gcr-prompter gives me no output.

$ echo $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS 
unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus

$ loginctl --no-pager session-status
1 - anarki (1000)
  Since: Sun 2025-12-07 12:47:00 CET; 1h 52min ago
  State: active
 Leader: 884 (login)
   Seat: seat0; vc1
    TTY: tty1
 Remote: no
Service: login
   Type: wayland
  Class: user
   Idle: no
   Unit: session-1.scope
         ├─ 884 "login -- anarki"
         ├─ 913 sway
         ├─ 982 swaybg -o "*" -c #202020
         ├─ 994 fnott
         ├─ 995 swayidle -w timeout 1200 "swaylock --color \"#202020\" --daemonize" timeout 1220 "swaymsg \"output * dpms off\"" resume "swaymsg \"output * dpms on\"" before-sleep "swaylock --color \"#202020\" --daemonize"
         ├─1157 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/qutebrowser
         ├─1233 "/usr/lib/qt6/QtWebEngineProcess --type=zygote --no-zygote-sandbox --application-name=qutebrowser --webengine-schemes=qute:lL;qrc:sV --lang=en"
         ├─1235 "/usr/lib/qt6/QtWebEngineProcess --type=zygote --application-name=qutebrowser --webengine-schemes=qute:lL;qrc:sV --lang=en"
         ├─1256 "/usr/lib/qt6/QtWebEngineProcess --type=zygote --application-name=qutebrowser --webengine-schemes=qute:lL;qrc:sV --lang=en"
         ├─1367 alacritty --class scratchpad
         ├─1383 /usr/bin/zsh
         ├─1538 "/usr/lib/qt6/QtWebEngineProcess --type=renderer --webengine-schemes=qute:lL;qrc:sV --disable-speech-api --touch-events=disabled --disable-blink-features=EyeDropperAPI,WebOTP --lang=en --num-raster-threads=4 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --renderer-client-id=4 --time-ticks-at-unix-epoch=-1765108007490458 --launch-time-ticks=180919040 --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100 --field-trial-handle=3,i,8853522598640475239,425358113206206922,262144 --enable-features=NetworkServiceInProcess2,OverlayScrollbar,TracingServiceInProcess,WebRTCPipeWireCapturer --disable-features=BackgroundFetch,DocumentPictureInPictureAPI,EyeDropper,InstalledApp,StandardCompliantNonSpecialSchemeURLParsing,WebOTP,WebPayments,WebUSB --variations-seed-version"
         ├─2792 Telegram
         ├─2854 Xwayland :0 -rootless -core -terminate 10 -listenfd 34 -listenfd 35 -displayfd 100 -wm 74
         ├─2903 /usr/lib/signal-desktop/signal-desktop --type=zygote --no-zygote-sandbox
         ├─2904 /usr/lib/signal-desktop/signal-desktop --type=zygote
         ├─2909 /usr/lib/signal-desktop/signal-desktop --type=zygote
         ├─2994 /usr/lib/signal-desktop/signal-desktop --type=zygote --no-zygote-sandbox
         ├─3004 /proc/self/exe --type=utility --utility-sub-type=network.mojom.NetworkService --lang=en-US --service-sandbox-type=none --render-node-override=/dev/dri/renderD128 --enable-crash-reporter=c34e69d5-32c3-44ae-945b-af3fb15b9284,no_channel --user-data-dir=/home/anarki/.config/Signal --standard-schemes=attachment --fetch-schemes=attachment --streaming-schemes=attachment --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100 --field-trial-handle=3,i,2197096180361202411,15415322762846259743,262144 --enable-features=PdfUseShowSaveFilePicker --disable-features=HardwareMediaKeyHandling,LocalNetworkAccessChecks,ScreenAIOCREnabled,SpareRendererForSitePerProcess,TraceSiteInstanceGetProcessCreation --variations-seed-version --trace-process-track-uuid=3190708989122997041
         ├─3369 "/usr/lib/qt6/QtWebEngineProcess --type=renderer --webengine-schemes=qute:lL;qrc:sV --disable-speech-api --touch-events=disabled --disable-blink-features=EyeDropperAPI,WebOTP --lang=en --num-raster-threads=4 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --renderer-client-id=8 --time-ticks-at-unix-epoch=-1765108007490458 --launch-time-ticks=2911132751 --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100 --field-trial-handle=3,i,8853522598640475239,425358113206206922,262144 --enable-features=NetworkServiceInProcess2,OverlayScrollbar,TracingServiceInProcess,WebRTCPipeWireCapturer --disable-features=BackgroundFetch,DocumentPictureInPictureAPI,EyeDropper,InstalledApp,StandardCompliantNonSpecialSchemeURLParsing,WebOTP,WebPayments,WebUSB --variations-seed-version"
         ├─3450 "/usr/lib/qt6/QtWebEngineProcess --type=utility --utility-sub-type=audio.mojom.AudioService --lang=en --service-sandbox-type=none --use-gl=angle --application-name=qutebrowser --webengine-schemes=qute:lL;qrc:sV --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100 --field-trial-handle=3,i,8853522598640475239,425358113206206922,262144 --enable-features=NetworkServiceInProcess2,OverlayScrollbar,TracingServiceInProcess,WebRTCPipeWireCapturer --disable-features=BackgroundFetch,DocumentPictureInPictureAPI,EyeDropper,InstalledApp,StandardCompliantNonSpecialSchemeURLParsing,WebOTP,WebPayments,WebUSB --variations-seed-version"
         ├─3774 "/usr/lib/qt6/QtWebEngineProcess --type=renderer --webengine-schemes=qute:lL;qrc:sV --disable-speech-api --touch-events=disabled --disable-blink-features=EyeDropperAPI,WebOTP --lang=en --num-raster-threads=4 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --renderer-client-id=10 --time-ticks-at-unix-epoch=-1765108007490458 --launch-time-ticks=3888960563 --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100 --field-trial-handle=3,i,8853522598640475239,425358113206206922,262144 --enable-features=NetworkServiceInProcess2,OverlayScrollbar,TracingServiceInProcess,WebRTCPipeWireCapturer --disable-features=BackgroundFetch,DocumentPictureInPictureAPI,EyeDropper,InstalledApp,StandardCompliantNonSpecialSchemeURLParsing,WebOTP,WebPayments,WebUSB --variations-seed-version"
         ├─5994 alacritty
         ├─6009 /usr/bin/zsh
         ├─6504 loginctl --no-pager session-status
         ├─6505 wl-copy
         └─6506 cat

Dec 07 16:05:06 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5813]: Gcr: finalizing prompter
Dec 07 16:08:42 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: bus acquired: org.gnome.keyring.SystemPrompter
Dec 07 16:08:42 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: registering prompter
Dec 07 16:08:42 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: bus acquired: org.gnome.keyring.PrivatePrompter
Dec 07 16:08:42 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: acquired name: org.gnome.keyring.SystemPrompter
Dec 07 16:08:42 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: acquired name: org.gnome.keyring.PrivatePrompter
Dec 07 16:08:52 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: 10 second inactivity timeout, quitting
Dec 07 16:08:52 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: unregistering prompter
Dec 07 16:08:52 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: disposing prompter
Dec 07 16:08:52 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: finalizing prompter

seth · 2025-12-07 15:29:13

session looks ok

Dec 07 16:08:52 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: 10 second inactivity timeout, quitting
Dec 07 16:08:52 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: unregistering prompter
Dec 07 16:08:52 pusteblume gcr-prompter[5983]: Gcr: disposing prompter

how do those events relate to you running pinentry-gnome3 ?
Do you trigger those but then just nothing happens and eventually gcr times out?
Do you have/need https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/gcr-4/ ? (looks more relevant wrt gnome)

anarki@buttereblume · 2025-12-07 15:30:37

I might add: /usr/lib/gcr-prompter quits after 10 seconds, as is to see in loginctl session-status. I can run pinentry-gnome3 successfully during that time.

anarki@buttereblume · 2025-12-07 15:37:48

seth wrote:

session looks ok
Do you have/need https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/gcr-4/ ? (looks more relevant wrt gnome)

No notable difference with gcr-4 installed along gcr. However, pinentry-gnome3 seems to really want gcr 3. If package gcr is removed:

$ pinentry-gnome3
pinentry-gnome3: error while loading shared libraries: libgcr-base-3.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Last edited by anarki@buttereblume (2025-12-07 15:45:30)

anarki@buttereblume · 2025-12-07 15:40:24

seth wrote:

session looks ok

Do you think gcr-prompter needs a running session manager and quits since there is none?

Edit: Or gnome-keyring, which is also not installed.

Last edited by anarki@buttereblume (2025-12-07 15:49:49)

seth · 2025-12-07 16:21:51

Oh, hold on - "/usr/bin/pinentry-gnome3" probabaly means the deprecated gnome 3 …
Does pinentry-gtk work, notably "in my wayland environment" ?

anarki@buttereblume · 2025-12-07 19:58:58

Pinentry-gtk indeed works "as is". Do you know why pinentry-gnome3 is the default choice then (not configured in ~/.gnupg)?

seth · 2025-12-07 20:57:51

Probably some environment variable that makes it think you're running gnome?
Check printenv.

anarki@buttereblume · 2025-12-08 11:00:38

Thank you seth. Can't find anything suspicious. Do you?

Found the same behaviour however on two other machines running sway.

$ printenv | sort
ALACRITTY_LOG=/tmp/Alacritty-19275.log
ALACRITTY_SOCKET=/run/user/1000/Alacritty-wayland-1-19275.sock
ALACRITTY_WINDOW_ID=94715749436496
CASROOT=/usr
COLORTERM=truecolor
CSF_DrawPluginDefaults=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/DrawResources
CSF_EXCEPTION_PROMPT=1
CSF_IGESDefaults=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/XSTEPResource
CSF_LANGUAGE=us
CSF_MDTVTexturesDirectory=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/Textures
CSF_MIGRATION_TYPES=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/StdResource/MigrationSheet.txt
CSF_OCCTResourcePath=/usr/share/opencascade/resources
CSF_PluginDefaults=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/StdResource
CSF_ShadersDirectory=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/Shaders
CSF_SHMessage=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/SHMessage
CSF_StandardDefaults=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/StdResource
CSF_StandardLiteDefaults=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/StdResource
CSF_STEPDefaults=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/XSTEPResource
CSF_TObjDefaults=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/StdResource
CSF_TObjMessage=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/TObj
CSF_XCAFDefaults=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/StdResource
CSF_XmlOcafResource=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/XmlOcafResource
CSF_XSMessage=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/XSMessage
CUPSPDF=/var/spool/cups-pdf/anarki
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
DEBUGINFOD_URLS=https://debuginfod.archlinux.org 
DISPLAY=:0
DRAWDEFAULT=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/DrawResources/DrawDefault
DRAWHOME=/usr/share/opencascade/resources/DrawResources
EDITOR=/usr/bin/hx
FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS=--sort --exact
FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND=fd --type f --strip-cwd-prefix --hidden --exclude ".git" --exclude "wine" --exclude ".local"
FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS=--exact
GDK_BACKEND=wayland
GDK_DPI_SCALE=1
GDK_SCALE=1
HOME=/home/anarki
I3SOCK=/run/user/1000/sway-ipc.1000.11555.sock
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LESS=-R
LOGNAME=anarki
LS_COLORS=
LSCOLORS=Gxfxcxdxbxegedabagacad
MAIL=/var/spool/mail/anarki
MMGT_CLEAR=1
OLDPWD=/home/anarki
PAGER=less
PATH=/home/anarki/scripts:/home/anarki/scripts-work:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/opt/rocm/bin
PWD=/home/anarki
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
QT_SCALE_FACTOR=1
QT_WAYLAND_DISABLE_WINDOWDECORATION=0
ROCM_PATH=/opt/rocm
SHELL=/usr/bin/zsh
SHLVL=1
SUDO_EDITOR=/usr/bin/hx
SWAYSOCK=/run/user/1000/sway-ipc.1000.11555.sock
TERM=alacritty
USER=anarki
_=/usr/bin/printenv
VISUAL=/usr/bin/hx
WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-1
WINDOWID=94715749436496
WLR_DRM_DEVICES=/dev/dri/card0:/dev/dri/card1
WLR_RENDERER=vulkan
WORKDIR=/home/anarki/work
XCURSOR_SIZE=20
XCURSOR_THEME=default
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway:wlroots
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
XDG_SEAT=seat0
XDG_SESSION_CLASS=user
XDG_SESSION_ID=6
XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland
XDG_VTNR=1
ZSH=/home/anarki/.oh-my-zsh

Last edited by anarki@buttereblume (2025-12-08 11:07:44)

seth · 2025-12-08 16:35:50

Indeed nothing there looks particularly gnome - are you maybe using https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … tal-gnome/ ?

Or maybe some global config

gpgconf -X | grep -i pin # make sure to not configure it in ~/.gnupg for this

anarki@buttereblume · 2025-12-09 11:52:13

Xdg-desktop-portal-gnome not installed.

Not much to see here either.

gpgconf -X
# gpgconf -X invoked 2025-12-09 11:48:12                            -*- org -*-

* General information
** Versions
  GnuPG 2.4.8 (0000000)
  GNU/Linux
  Libgcrypt 1.11.2
  GpgRT 1.56-unknown


** Directories
#+begin_example
  sysconfdir:/etc/gnupg
  bindir:/usr/bin
  libexecdir:/usr/lib/gnupg
  libdir:/usr/lib/gnupg
  datadir:/usr/share/gnupg
  localedir:/usr/share/locale
  socketdir:/run/user/1000/gnupg
  dirmngr-socket:/run/user/1000/gnupg/S.dirmngr
  keyboxd-socket:/run/user/1000/gnupg/S.keyboxd
  agent-ssh-socket:/run/user/1000/gnupg/S.gpg-agent.ssh
  agent-extra-socket:/run/user/1000/gnupg/S.gpg-agent.extra
  agent-browser-socket:/run/user/1000/gnupg/S.gpg-agent.browser
  agent-socket:/run/user/1000/gnupg/S.gpg-agent
  homedir:/home/anarki/.gnupg
#+end_example

** Environment
#+begin_example
PATH=/home/anarki/scripts:/home/anarki/scripts-work:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/opt/rocm/bin
#+end_example
* Config files

** local config "/home/anarki/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf"
#+begin_src
  default-cache-ttl 288000
  max-cache-ttl 288000

#+end_src



** local config "/home/anarki/.gnupg/gpg.conf"
#+begin_src
  default-key 8B3F03BB8CB4E626

#+end_src


* Other info
# eof #

Anyhow, thank you seth. No need to bother any further. I'll be fine by specifying pinentry-gtk.

Last edited by anarki@buttereblume (2025-12-09 11:53:51)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-12-07 12:05:10

[Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#2 2025-12-07 14:40:56

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#3 2025-12-07 15:18:23

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#4 2025-12-07 15:29:13

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#5 2025-12-07 15:30:37

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#6 2025-12-07 15:37:48

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#7 2025-12-07 15:40:24

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#8 2025-12-07 16:21:51

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#9 2025-12-07 19:58:58

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#10 2025-12-07 20:57:51

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#11 2025-12-08 11:00:38

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#12 2025-12-08 16:35:50

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

#13 2025-12-09 11:52:13

Re: [Solved] pinentry-gnome3: No gcr system prompter available

Board footer