Hi,
This should be a quick/easy one. I encrypted a couple of files and decrypted them immediately after to see if the system worked. It functioned flawlessly.
I then encrypted a few important files, destroyed the originals and forgot about them. Today, I needed one of the files as a reference and I was unable to decrypt it. This is the error msg:

"gpg: WARNING: unsafe permissions on homedir `/home/mathay/'
[GNUPG:] ENC_TO 43E8EA1B7F313FDD 16 0
gpg: encrypted with ELG-E key, ID 7F313FDD
[GNUPG:] NO_SECKEY 43E8EA1B7F313FDD
[GNUPG:] BEGIN_DECRYPTION
[GNUPG:] DECRYPTION_FAILED
gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available
[GNUPG:] END_DECRYPTION"

Do you have your secret key? Try looking at the output of “gpg -K” to see if one matches the ID of the key with which your file was encrypted. If not, find it (perhaps you moved homedirs or misplaced “$HOME/.gnupg/secring.gpg”).

Thanks for answering.

This is my result: The key 'sub' matches.

mathay@linux:~> gpg -k
/home/mathay/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
-------------------------------
pub 1024D/307E20F4 2007-01-23
uid matthew hayes <24mm@eircom.net>
sub 1024g/7F313FDD 2007-01-23

drmjh

This is your public keyring (which seems rather empty). I said “-K” not “-k”. Execute:
to list your secret keys. (Note, it will not list them in a way that violates your privacy if you post it here. You don’t have to post it if you don’t want to — just look for the matching ID.)

mathay@linux:~> gpg -K
/home/mathay/.gnupg/secring.gpg
-------------------------------
sec 1024D/307E20F4 2007-01-23
uid matthew hayes <24mm@eircom.net>
ssb 1024g/7F313FDD 2007-01-23

Sorry about the lowercase err. I continually fall for that in Linux!

Above is the result of -K

I only established one key and I encrypted a test file on my desktop with that a few days ago. I have been decrypting it successfully daily since.

I think I may have the reason my decryption failed.
I noticed a (Key file-change)date discrepancy between the original file I encrypted and the last files I encrypted. Although I only ever created one key, several months after the creation, I signed the key.
The original file was encrypted with the unsigned key and I'm trying to decrypt it with a signed key
Thanks for your help, using the gpg -K, gave me the clue. (assuming I'm correct)
drmjh

Signing a key should have no effect on its ability to encrypt or decrypt. You may want to fix the permissions on your home directory and your .gpg sub-directory. GPG may be ignoring the keys there on encrypt/decrypt operations until they are fixed.

Look at man gpg for info on specific permissions.

Thanks for your response, Matir.
I chown /home to myself. Since this is a single user system, I didn't think it was that dangerous to do that and it was quicker than figuring out setuid.
That sorted the permission problem for home and sub dirs.
But, I still get the same Err Msg. I located the .gpg dir, it's in root ~
I somehow don't think it would be prudent to change permissions here. Besides, I'm beginning to think that Err Msg. about permissions is a very frequent and perhaps spurious/non specific Err. Msg. The man pages even has a command to suppress this Msg. I think I'll just delete the key and start over. I won't be able to open the one file that I'm interested in but it might prove to be an easier solution.
Thanks for your help.
drmjh.