Use of Nitrokey Start (GPG elliptic curve key) with Enigmail under Ubuntu 18.10

Nitrokeys
1

Hi,

I successfully managed to create a new set of keys and transferring them on my Nitrokey Start. Use with Thunderbird/Enigmail under Windows 10 works as flawlessly. Now I want to use the Nitrokey in Thunderbird/Enigmail under Ubuntu 18.10 but I cannot see it in my key management. The smartcard/Nitrokey shows up correctly with information on the keys under Enigmail-> Manage smartcard.

Scdaemon and gpg2 are installed as described in the FAQ as well as the Nitrokey-app (which doesn’t find any Nitrokey) and I have executed the last lines of the installation manual setting the UDEV rules. Still I cannot see the Nitrokey in Enigmail or the Nitrokey-app.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thank you in advance.

Regards,
Marco

2

Hi Marco,

at first, the Nitrokey Start can not be used with the Nitrokey App (yet), so no surprise here :wink:

Unfortunately, you need to import your pubkey to every system you want to use the Nitrokey. Otherwise GnuPG does not know what to do with the key. Best way to avoid this: upload the key to a website or key server and use the ‘url’ field of the smartcard. This way, GnuPG/Enigmail is able to fetch the pubkey semi-automatically.

Please see here for further instructions (at the bottom of the page).

Kind regards
Alex

3

Hi Alex,

I’ve exported it using Enigmail on Windows and imported it via Enigmail on Ubuntu. It works!

Thank you!

Marco

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