Re: need help with gnome-keyring-manager
On Mon, 23 May 2011 10:21:46 -0600, Paul E Condon wrote:
> On 20110523_103153, Camaleón wrote:
(...)
>> Better that removing "gnome-keyring" (I dunno if it is even possible
>> because I think is a key component of the whole GNOME stack) try to
>> configure it first or disable some elements that are annoying you, like
>> the above post (and also README.Debian file) suggests :-)
>
> OK. Mike's email was helpful. But as I learn and try things, a shift in
> my goals is happening. Gnome-keyring might actually be useful to me, if
> I could just find a plausible explanation of what it does and how to use
> it to advantage.
You can see gnome-keyring like a "holder" for all of the gnome passwords
you need to use for any application that requires them (like GPG/PGP or
the own gnome modules for user's authentication).
How useful is that? Well, I barely use that directly, but I know gnome
does and if gnome is happy with it I'm also happy :-)
> I think that pgp/gpg is already in use on my computer as part of the
> whole Debian package repositories thing. The security aspects of that
> happen without me having to do anything. It just comes as part of the
> Debian offering. OTOH pgp/gpg signing of documents is something I have
> never attempted to do because the vocabulary used in the documentation
> that I have found is foreign to me and I have been unable to find time
> to actually understand it. So, could I use Gnome-keyring to help me get
> started in encrypting/signing documents?
Nope... at least not directly, gnome-keyring (now Seahorse) just keeps
track and helps you with the key management and certificates. Is the one
in charge of asking you the right passphrase for decrypting documents or
e-mails (or to mount an ecrypted volume). KDE handles with by means of
Kleopatra, IIRC.
> Would it really help? Or is it just another layer of obfuscation?
Why obfuscation? It's a helper :-?
> If it would really help, I don't want to get rid of it. Instead I want
> to find a useful tutorial on how to use it. Gnome documentation is
> pretty much useless to me when used by itself. It never defines the
> words it uses, even in contexts where it is glaringly obvious that the
> standard dictionary meaning cannot be what is intended.
If you use GPG/PG certs every day, the gnome-keyring is very handful but
if you don't make use of encrypted documentation nor e-mails, the keyring
is just another neutral application (you rarely have to deal with it).
> (An example of my ignorance: what is a software 'keyring'? Of course, it
> has something to do with security, but what? Is it an agent? or a
> database? or a repository? or what?)
A "keyring" is a concept/term used in encryption. Wikipedia will explain
this better than me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME_Keyring
In encryption scope:
http://www.pgpi.org/doc/pgpintro/#p11
Greetings,
--
Camaleón
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