permission denied, import of key failed

[rooster]

Dear forum,
a new problem arised.
I tried to import a key and found this error.
gpg: renaming C:/Users/name/AppData/Roaming/gnupg/pubring.gpg' toC:/Users/name/AppData/Roaming/gnupg/pubring.bak' failed: Permission denied
gpg: Fehler beim Schreiben des Schlsselbundes `C:/Users/name/AppData/Roaming/gnupg/pubring.gpg': Permission denied

Using an informaion from the Linux world, I updated(enhanced) the security-settings of the directory and all subfolders and including files -altough it shivered me- to the user-group. Although I strongly believe it should be only the user himself and the admin being able for full access.

System:
Windows7 x64 SP1 German
Enigmail 1.8.2

TIA and regards

[rooster]

So to make it clear, I still cannot write the pubring.
BTW. In earlier times there was an save pub- and privatekey function.
And a 'where are your files (pub and private key) saved' directory setting.

regards

[Patrick Brunschwig]

There are two possible reasons why a file cannot be written on Windows:
1. The permissions of the folder or the file are wrong
2. Another running process has opened the file exclusively.

As you most likely set the permissions correctly, I suspect the 2nd reason. The easiest to find out/resolve this is to reboot the PC.

[rooster]

Yep,

you were right.
I ended Thunderbird, killed all what looks like gpg. Opened GPA(maybe Kleopatra also would work) which knows to solv problems with runnin processes, refreshed it and imported the key.
Then reopend TB and yes it was there.

Thx

[Manu]

Hi.

I have the same issue .
I am trying to use Enigmail and I cannot import the public key from my colleague (either as a file or using the pastebin), nor the ones I had previously created, nor even generate new ones.

The error message I get when trying to import the public key of my colleague

gpg: failed to create temporary file /home/mango/.gnupg/.#lk0x7f52f7d95b50.mango-Latitude-E5540-Mint.3684': Permission denied gpg: keyblock resource/home/mango/.gnupg/secring.gpg': General error
gpg: failed to create temporary file /home/mango/.gnupg/.#lk0x7f52f7d987b0.mango-Latitude-E5540-Mint.3684': Permission denied gpg: keyblock resource/home/mango/.gnupg/pubring.gpg': General error
gpg: no writable keyring found: Unknown system error
gpg: error reading /media/DATA/mango/Travail/informatique-communication/MaConfig/Enigmail/Antoine -clé publique - 0x50331AD2.asc': General error gpg: import from/media/DATA/mango/Travail/informatique-communication/MaConfig/Enigmail/Antoine -clé publique - 0x50331AD2.asc' failed: General error
gpg: Total number processed: 0

I tried restarting the computer but to no avail. It obviously is a problem of access to the directory where GnuPG is supposed to import the keys, but how do I solve it ?

I use Thunderbird 38.5.1 under Linux Mint 17.1 with Enigmail 1.8.2 .

[Patrick Brunschwig]

As fas as I can tell, there is a permission error with your ".gnupg" directory (that's a hidden directory in your home directory).

There are 3 possible reasons for this:
* the directory does not exists
* the directory is owned by a wrong user (e.g. root)
* the directory has wrong permission flags.

If you open a command prompt and type the following command, I can tell you what to do:

ls -ld ~/.gnupg