[pkg-gnupg-maint] Bug#848999: gnupg-agent: Fails to work

[Joerg Jaspert]

Package: gnupg-agent
Version: 2.1.16-3
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

not an easy problem to describe, but from the effects on me, grave or
critical ought to be the Severity...

Since the switch to gpg2 as default and especially with the latest
version recently appeared in stretch, gnupg-agent is about unusable
here. It basically refuses to work in 98% of the times.

I use it for gpg but also for ssh. It's started either by a
    gpg-connect-agent /bye
in my .xsession, or by a user systemd instance as written in your
README.Debian, the effects are the same.

Ways to reproduce on my machine:

 - Login to a freshly booted Laptop.
   -> It's all fine, I can use it for gpg and ssh, no trouble.
 - Suspend the laptop for a bit. Can't say exactly how long, but
   switching from train to work, about 10 minutes, is enough
   -> Forget any agent use. What happens is a popup in the size of the
   pinentry (pinentry-gtk2 here) appearing, no content visible, and
   immediately it goes away. 2 or 3 times, and then fallback to
   no-agent-usage (ie ssh asks for password).
   Running gpg-connect-agent updatestartuptty /bye does not make it
   work. Only a logout and login does.
   Killing gpg-agent process and getting it started again by either
   systemd or manually - does help in about 1% of the cases.

I loved using gpg agent for ssh too and did so since wheezy, adjusting
my systems config to run it from Xsession.d - and was happy. Since gpg
agent 2.1.whatever, I hate this piece of software. :(

I'm not using anything special like smartcards or yubikeys or whatnot,
just plain files on disk.

Now, how to debug this and find a cause and fix?

When I ranted on IRC a bit about it, a bunch of other people spoke up
about problems too. I point them at this bug and hope they add a few
cents of their experiences.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.8.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages gnupg-agent depends on:
ii  libassuan0                2.4.3-2
ii  libc6                     2.24-8
ii  libgcrypt20               1.7.3-2
ii  libgpg-error0             1.25-2
ii  libnpth0                  1.3-1
ii  libreadline7              7.0-1
ii  pinentry-gtk2 [pinentry]  1.0.0-1

Versions of packages gnupg-agent recommends:
ii  gnupg  2.1.16-3

Versions of packages gnupg-agent suggests:
pn  scdaemon  <none>

-- no debconf information

-- 
bye, Joerg