kmail: cannot sign emails after upgrading to Intrepid Ibex

I have the same problem on another computer where Intrepid Ibex has been newly installed (no upgrade): Kmail does not ask for a passphrase and hence, I cannot sign my emails :-( Is there a workaround until this bug has been fixed?

This is a configuration problem. There's a howto about the topic here:

http://developer.gauner.org/kmail-pgpmime/index.en.html

pinentry-qt is missing.
apt-get install pinentry-qt
I would think this should be installed automatically with kgpg.

Thanks for the hint. pinentry-qt was indeed not installed. However, installing this did not solve the problem :-( Following the instructions on http://developer.gauner.org/kmail-pgpmime/index.en.html (suggested above by Volker Lanz) also did not solve the problem:
$ echo "test" | gpg -ase -r 0xDEADBEEF | gpg
works but kmail still does not ask for a passphrase :-( :-( :-(

I can confirm the bug with kde4.2.1 as provided by "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-experimental/ubuntu intrepid main" in /etc/apt/sources.list. I reacently upgraded for 8.04 to 8.10.

There are at least theses 2 bug reports, which seem to be related:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/262748
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/268951

Temporary workaround (see link in comment 3 and 4):
End kmail (or whatever is supposed to ask for the passphrase) and from a console:
$ eval "$(gpg-agent --daemon)"
$ kmail

Permanent Workaround (untested):
Put "$(gpg-agent --daemon)" into /.kde/env/gpgagent.sh

In my humble opinion, all the bug reports, including this one, are assigned to the wrong packages (kdepim, gnupg, enigmail). As nobody with another desktop environment than KDE seems to have a problem (??), some KDE-package (kdebase* or kdelibs*) might be more appropriate.

As the issue seems to be unsolved for more than 3 months and the bug renders the system unusable for sending signed and reading encrypted mails for a 'normal' user, being a regression from 8.04, one might consider to change the importance of the bug.

Some system information:
gnupg 1.4.9-3ubuntu1
gnupg-agent 2.0.9-3.1
gnupg2 2.0.9-3.1
gpgsm 2.0.9-3.1
gpgv 1.4.9-3ubuntu1
kdebase-bin 4:4.2.1-0ubuntu1~intrepid2
kdebase-data 4:4.2.1-0ubuntu1~intrepid2
kdelibs-bin 4:4.2.1a-0ubuntu1~intrepid1
kdelibs5 4:4.2.1a-0ubuntu1~intrepid1
kdepimlibs5 4:4.2.1-0ubuntu1~intrepid1
pinentry-qt 0.7.5-2ubuntu1
pinentry-qt4 0.7.3+svn799201-1ubuntu1
# update-alternatives --display pinentry
 link currently points to /usr/bin/pinentry-qt4
$ im-switch -l
Your input method setup under en_GB locale as below.
=======================================================
No private "~/.xinput.d/en_GB or ~/.xinput.d/all_ALL" is defined.
=======================================================
The system wide default is pointed by "/etc/alternatives/xinput-all_ALL" .

Let's start by confirming the bug. It's also present in Jaunty (KDE 4.2.4)

I reconfirm the bug for KDE 4.3rc1, I installed with kdepim_4.2.95a-0ubuntu1~jaunty~ppa1_all.deb under Jaunty from backports.

To make matters worse, the permanent workaround described in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdepim/+bug/297976/comments/5 does not work anymore. However, the temporary workaround still works.

I confirm the bug for Kmail 1.12.2 using KDE 4.3.2. It also appeared for me on newly installed Ubuntu 9.10 and Kmail with default settings.

Happens on another box, clean 9.10 amd64 install, with:
kmail 4:4.3.2-0ubuntu6

Happens at random.
Sometimes restart of system makes this go away, sometimes not.

Starting eval "$(gpg-agent --daemon)" helps, for the "other box" (box "jumpi") - it seems it happens when users are logged in via ssh -X instead of normally starting gnome DM; Perhaps this is causing the problem too?

This bug makes it harder to use OpenPGP signatures - security related bug then.

Just made it working! :)

gpg.conf:
use-agent

gpg-agent.conf:
pinentry-program /usr/bin/pinentry-qt
no-grab
default-cache-ttl 1800

.kde/env/gpgagent.sh:
eval "$(gpg-agent --daemon)"

--------------

pinentry-qt4 didn't work here.
If you have kleopatra installed, you can "debug" with it's selftest.

This problem bit me again when upgrading to Kubuntu Natty 11.04

The problem is that /usr/bin/pinentry-qt is now replaced by /usr/bin/pinentry-qt4

This must be updated in the gpg-agent.conf file "pinentry-program" entry.

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug to help make Kubuntu better. Intrepid/Natty reached EOL a while ago.

Please see this document for currently supported Kubuntu releases:

https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Releases

Unfortunately this means that there will be no more bugfixes for Intrepid/Natty.

It is also recommended that you upgrade, if you have not already.

P.S.: This bug-report is now marked as "invalid" in order to allow the bug-bot to close it.

Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find, and thanks for your understanding.