Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: Red Rover on July 14, 2013, 01:34 am

Title: Need gpg4win help please
Post by: Red Rover on July 14, 2013, 01:34 am
So, I'm trying to learn how to use gpg4win, but I've hit a snag.  I can't seem to import an Open PGP certificate.

I went to the Newbie PGP Club thread, and copied Scout's public key, everything from "---BEGIN PGP KEY---" up to "---END PGP KEY---."

I copied the text into a Wordpad document, and saved it as an .asc file.

Then I clicked "Import Certificates" and selected the .asc file.

All I get in return is this message:

"Detailed results of importing [file name & location]:
Total number processed: 0
Imported: 0"

Why didn't scout's key import?  I don't get it.

Oh, and now I'm getting an error message.  First I got a message saying that I hadn't selected an Open PGP public directory, and I needed a fallback public directory, and did I want to make "keyserver keys.gnupg.net" my fallback directory?

I said yes, and next thing I know, I'm getting an error message that says:

"An error occurred while trying to refresh OpenPGP certificates.
The output from C:\My Documents\GNU\GnuPG\gpg2.exe was: gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkp://keys.gnupg.net gpg: requesting key [not sure I should post the Key ID] from hkp server keys.gnupg.net gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found. gpg: Total number processed: 0"

Everything was going fine up until this.  Now I'm totally lost and have no idea what's going on.  For one thing, what is a public key directory, and why do I need it?  I thought all I needed was my keys, my passphrase, and the public key of whomever I want to communicate with.

There doesn't seem to be anything in the compendium about what to do if you're unsuccessful at importing a certificate.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Title: Re: Need gpg4win help please
Post by: tbart on July 14, 2013, 02:19 am
gpg4usb is the same way for me - but i just copy and paste it into the text editor window in gpg4usb and not try to import it via the task bar

2nd issue i had related, if i save an encrypted file to a txt file like notepad etc and then copy it from there to a forum thread or an email, it comes out double spaced linefeed - i have to copy it direct from the gpg4usb's text editor window to the thread post or the email

hope that helps
Title: Re: Need gpg4win help please
Post by: Croskin on July 14, 2013, 02:33 am
If you've already downloaded gpg4win then go into that folder and open up GPA.  Look up a tutorial if you need one, but it is pretty easy to use.  Make a new notepad file, put a vendor's key in it, save it, click import in GPA, choose the file, open the clipboard, type your message, click encrypt, choose the vendor key that you just imported.  Good luck :)
Title: Re: Need gpg4win help please
Post by: Red Rover on July 14, 2013, 04:31 am
If you've already downloaded gpg4win then go into that folder and open up GPA.  Look up a tutorial if you need one, but it is pretty easy to use.  Make a new notepad file, put a vendor's key in it, save it, click import in GPA, choose the file, open the clipboard, type your message, click encrypt, choose the vendor key that you just imported.  Good luck :)

Thanks for your reply.  I just tried this, with the key saved as an .asc file, and as a .txt file.  Neither one worked.  I open GPA, I click Import, I select the file, I click Open, and it says, "No keys were found."

The selected files DO show up in the Import window, under "Recently Used."  But they're not in my Keyring.

Jesus Christ, this is frustrating.  Honestly, at this point, I'm about to give up on GPG/PGP.  Getting arrested and going to prison seems easier than this shit.

gpg4usb is the same way for me - but i just copy and paste it into the text editor window in gpg4usb and not try to import it via the task bar

Wait...what text editor window?  GnuPG has its own text editor?  Do you mean the GPA clipboard?  How do you import a certificate without clicking "Import" on the task bar?

So confused...
Title: Re: Need gpg4win help please
Post by: verdant_world on July 14, 2013, 04:42 am
i started w/gpg4win- however it was buggy - would shut down unexpectedly- and over complicated- i switched to gpg4usb and it literally could not be more user friendly - also no bugs-
try it-
youll like it