Nitrokey Pro 2 is not compatible with GPG4Win on Windows 10

Nitrokeys Misc
8

Now I got everything to work for my specific application. I was able to generate keys initiated from the physical PC and use the Nitrokey PRO on my virtual machine with Kleopatra for signing, signature checking, encrypting, and decrypting.

Main points that I learned:

  1. Check if you have some other smartcards in your system. Remove all of them, either physically or disable the corresponding drivers (from device manager) for the time when you use Nitrokey PRO. You can see the list of smartcards connected to your system by executing “certutil -scinfo”.
  2. Try to keep Nitrokey App always closed when using Kleopatra, GPA and “gpg.exe”.
  3. When connecting to a virtual machine, VMWare offers two devices to connect: “Clay Logic Nitrokey Pro” and “Shared Nitrokey Nitrokey Pro 0”. Always connect to “Clay Logic Nitrokey Pro”! Otherwise, some functions do not work properly. Before connecting to a virtual machine, physically remove the device from USB port and attach it again (to reset the device status properly).
  4. Use “gpg.exe” from GPG4Win package. Depending on how you have installed GPG4Win (for one or all users), it might be located either in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\GnuPG\bin" or in “C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG\bin”. The PATH is already set by the installer - the “gpg.exe” is usable from “cmd.exe” directly. The latest “gpg.exe” is as good as “gpg2.exe” - you can use the same commands with “gpg.exe” as shown in the documentation for “gpg2.exe”.
  5. In Kleopatra you can choose key length, in GPA you cannot (fixed to 2048 bits). Therefore, Kleopatra is better application for initiating keys generation to the Nitrokey device.

The topic can be closed. Conclusion: Nitrokey Pro 2 is compatible with GPG4Win and Windows 10. You just have to know the special tricks in order to not get overloaded with various error messages. The only thing that I think requires a fix right away, is the documentation. But there are also many SW improvements that could be done for increasing the stability.

That you, @szszszsz, for super-quick response!

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