[pkg-gnupg-maint] Bug#834829: Bug#834829: gnupg-agent: gpg-agent looses connection to usb dongle and stops working

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

Control: tags 834829 + moreinfo
Control: retitle 834829 scdaemon loses connection to usb dongle and stops working
Control: reassign 834829 scdaemon

Hi Norbert--

(i'm cc'ing gniibe since he's likely to be the best equipped to help
diagnose this problem)

On Fri 2016-08-19 10:43:24 -0400, Norbert Preining wrote:
> The upgrade to the new gpg-agent(2) activation scheme has broken
> most of the functionality of gpg-agent. 
>
> I have reported already about failing auto-start.
>
> Here is now another bug: gpg-agent looses connection to my USB
> dongle. i just tried to sign a git tag and got:
> gpg: signing failed: Card error
> gpg: signing failed: Card error
> error: gpg failed to sign the data
> error: unable to sign the tag
> The tag message has been left in .git/TAG_EDITMSG
>
> Unplugging and replugging the usb dongle didn't help.
> Only
> 	killall gpg-agent
> 	gpgconf --launch gpg-agent
> works *sometimes*, not now for example, now it hangs completely.
> Needed to kill -9  the gpg-agent.

Can you tell me how you are managiing gpg-agent for these tests?

what specifically is hanging completely -- gpgconf?  or gpg-agent?

when gpg-agent is running, what do the following commands show?

  gpg-connect-agent 'scd getinfo version /bye
  gpg-connect-agent 'scd getinfo reader_list' /bye
  gpg-connect-agent 'scd getinfo app_list' /bye
  ps -eFH | grep 's[c]daemon'

it seems possible that if you're doing a lot of manual killing and
relaunching of the agent, you might have two instances of scdaemon
running, and each of them contending for the hardware.

If you stick with one single way of managing the gpg-agent, the agent
should be able to manage scdaemon correctly on its own so that only one
instance of it is ever running at once.

       --dkg
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 930 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-gnupg-maint/attachments/20160829/98636ffe/attachment.sig>