On Wed, 2006-12-13 at 01:24 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Hallo everybody > > I use GPG 1.4.4 and have encrypted a txt-file on computer A.
Encrypted how, symmetrically, or asymmetrically? > I put this encrypted txt-file to computer B and wanted to decrypt > it there. Then computer B said "secret key not available". > So I exported my keys from computer A and imported them in > computer B. How did you export them? gpg -a --export YOURKEYID > yourkey.asc # or gpg -a --export-secret-keys YOURKEYID > yoursecretkey.asc The first just exports your public key. The second exports both your public and your secret key of the keypair. The import should go without a hitch for either one, but their won't be a secret key if you use the first. If you encrypted only symmetrically it won't have any effect. > But the error remained. So I copied the encrypted txt-file back to > computer A and wanted to decrypt it there. But there was the same > error! gpg --list-keys didn't even show any keys on computer A. Can you do a: cd ; cd .gnupg on machine A? If you can, then after that do a: ls -l You should at least see the following files: gpg.conf pubring.gpg pubring.gpg~ random_seed secring.gpg trustdb.gpg Also do it on machine B. If they aren't there, then make sure you specify WHERE they are at (and find where they are at. If you have to (disk and CPU intensive): find / -name secring.gpg -print 2> /dev/null > So I exported the keys from computer B and imported them on > computer A. Where they were actually created. But it still > didn't work. Again, can you see the secret keys on machine B, e.g.: gpg --K > I have another file encrypted with gpg on computer A and I > can decrypt this file. > > gpg -K does not show any keys (!?) > Was this file encrypted with symmetric or asymmetric encryption? Symmetric example: ------------------ gpg -a -c --force-mdc --cipher-algo ${CIPHER} < INFILE > OUTFILE Asymmetric example: ------------------- gpg -a -e -r [EMAIL PROTECTED] < INFILE > OUTFILE > I hope this problem is not too confusing. > Thank you very much for your effort! The only thing confusing is just what you have, how you are doing the encryption (symmetric or asymmetric), whether you have any keys at all (I am assuming you did a gpg --gen-key before the start of all this), etc. It IS possible to do a symmetric encryption without any keys at all (although gpg WILL create an empty pubring.gpg file). 1. I suspect you are NOT encrypting the first file with symmetric encryption, but are doing it with the second file (the one you can decrypt on machine A). Copy the second file to machine B and decrypt it. 2. Since the first file is probably being encrypted with asymmetric encryption, I suggest you are encrypting it with the public key, but don't have the secret key. The only person that can decrypt the file that was encrypted is the one that has the secret key that corresponds to the public key that was used. If when you do a "gpg -K" on both machines and no keys show up, then you have NO secret keys. Are you sure you did a "gpg --gen-key" at the start of all this? On the other hand, if you do a gpg --list-keys and the public key you are using is there, then it is totally understandable that if you are using asymmetric encryption that you can encrypt the file but not decrypt it. Did that help or am *I* missing something? If I did miss something then please fill us in. If you generated the key pair (public / secret) it is hignly possible your ~/.gnupg/secring.gpg file has been damaged, which is exactly what is going through my mind right now. HHH _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users