Using Debian Jessie and GnuPG 2, each time I try to use GnuPG 2 (gpg2) or gpg-connect-agent together with an OpenPGP smartcard (in my case a YubiKey), the operation fails with a message
$ gpg-connect-agent --hex "scd apdu 00 f1 00 00" /bye
ERR 67108983 No SmartCard daemon <GPG Agent>
$ gpg2 --card-status
ERR 67108983 No SmartCard daemon <GPG Agent>
When using the legacy GnuPG 1 (gpg), everything works fine.
What's going wrong here?
scdaemon is missingGnuPG 2 connects to the card through gpg-agent, which again does not include smart card capabilities, but accesses them through another application. This can be configured and has a system-dependent default, from man gpg-agent:
--scdaemon-program filename
Use program filename as the Smartcard daemon. The default is
installation dependent and can be shown with the gpgconf command.
Doing so reveals GnuPG tries to run /usr/lib/gnupg2/scdaemon:
$ gpgconf
gpg:GPG für OpenPGP:/usr/bin/gpg2
gpg-agent:GPG Agent:/usr/bin/gpg-agent
scdaemon:Smartcard Daemon:/usr/lib/gnupg2/scdaemon
[snip]
But this is not available:
$ /usr/lib/gnupg2/scdaemon
bash: /usr/lib/gnupg2/scdaemon2: No such file or directory
scdaemonA quick query through apt-cache reveals that Debian pulled the scdaemon out of the gnupg2 package, likely because it introduces a bunch of new dependencies GnuPG otherwise wouldn't have:
Package: scdaemon
Source: gnupg2
Version: 2.1.10-3
Installed-Size: 538
Maintainer: Debian GnuPG Maintainers <[email protected]>
Architecture: amd64
Replaces: gpgsm (<< 2.0.18-2)
Depends: gnupg-agent (= 2.1.10-3), libassuan0 (>= 2.2.0), libc6 (>= 2.15),
libgcrypt20 (>= 1.6.1), libgpg-error0 (>= 1.14), libksba8 (>= 1.2.0),
libnpth0 (>= 0.90), libusb-0.1-4 (>= 2:0.1.12)
Breaks: gpgsm (<< 2.0.18-2)
Description-en: GNU privacy guard - smart card support
GnuPG is GNU's tool for secure communication and data storage.
It can be used to encrypt data and to create digital signatures.
It includes an advanced key management facility and is compliant
with the proposed OpenPGP Internet standard as described in RFC4880.
.
This package contains the smart card program scdaemon, which is used
by gnupg-agent to access OpenPGP smart cards.
Installing it with sudo apt-get install scdaemon resolves the issue.