Yelläks /ˈyæl•eks/

In Icedove/Thunderbird of debian/unstable it is currently a little bit annoying that Enigmail cannot remember the passphrase. Whenever an encrypted mail is loaded, the user is asked for it. Once the mail is reloaded, the user is asked again. In previous versions the option to remember the passphrase worked without any problem (OpenPGP -> Preferences -> Passphrase settings). Changing the box “use gpg-agent for passphrases” (in “Advanced” setup) as mentioned in many forums, does not have any effect. Every time when the message is loaded the box without the option to remember the password shows up. Enigmail cannot be convinced not to use the gpg-agent (as it shows in the error message after the failed decryption).

Finally I found the solution: Enigmail always uses the gpg-agent, if

1. GnuPG version 2.0 or higher is detected
2. the environment variable GPG_AGENT_INFO is set
3. the option Use gpg-agent for passphrase handling is active

On my box GnuPG version 1.x.x is installed and not the GnuPG2 package, so the first item cannot be true. Nevertheless, the environment setting GPG_AGENT_INFO was set, although no gpg-agent was running. This setting was not set in the normal ttyX console, but in the gnome-terminal, where it pointed to a socket for Seamonkey. To figure out, if this is also your problem, you can try out the following:

1. Open the terminal. Check if this environment setting is active by typing “export | grep GPG”. If it shows an entry, it is activated.
2. To check, if it really affects Enigmail, type in “unset GPG_AGENT_INFO”. That will delete this setting temporarily.
3. After that type “thunderbird” or “icedove” into the terminal. If you start it by clicking on a icon, the “unset” command has no effect. Enigmail should display the passphrase dialog with the option to save the passphrase (if “Use-gpg-agent for passphrases” is deactivated and “Remember passphrase for XXXX minutes” is set).

What is Seamonkey then? Well, it is a gnome-integration so that the user is able to sign and encrypt files out of the file browser (called Nautilus). However it seems that it is built for GnuPG2 and depends on gpg-agent, although the package dependencies do not suggest that. Since I am using gpg only for mails and rarely for files (if so, I know the gpg command for the console), I purged Seamonkey which also freed more then 10MB on my harddisk. After restarting the X-server, the environment setting was gone and everything worked fine. There might be the option to tell Seamonkey not to use a gpg-agent. However since I purged it, all the configuration files are also gone and I do not want to reinstall the packaged to check those files. If you know a better solution, let me know.