keyring. What is it ?

Mike Davies · 09-28-2008, 03:54 AM

I have just upgraded from Fedora 5 to Fedora 9, and I'm having a lot of problems - stuff just doesn't work like it used to.

Evolution keeps asking me for my mail passwords (even though the box for remember password is checked) and it also asks me for my keyring password. What is that ? Never heard of it before. How do I set one up. What is a keyring ?

I've tried googling people talk about things like "seahorse". I've not got that. What does it do ?

win32sux · 09-28-2008, 04:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Davies

I have just upgraded from Fedora 5 to Fedora 9, and I'm having a lot of problems - stuff just doesn't work like it used to.

Evolution keeps asking me for my mail passwords (even though the box for remember password is checked) and it also asks me for my keyring password. What is that ? Never heard of it before. How do I set one up. What is a keyring ?

I've tried googling people talk about things like "seahorse". I've not got that. What does it do ?

The Web page for Seahorse is here. The term keyring might refer to any key management (or even password management) application, but mainly it's used to describe the file/database where your keys are stored by key management software, such as GnuPG, for example.

Mike Davies · 09-28-2008, 04:20 AM

OK. That explains what a keyring is. But if I've never set up a keyring password why is Evolution asking for one ?

win32sux · 09-28-2008, 04:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Davies

OK. That explains what a keyring is. But if I've never set up a keyring password why is Evolution asking for one ?

I don't know. Bad upgrade perhaps? Did you do a clean install or did you just do an upgrade over your old installation? The jump from 5 to 9 sounds pretty long. Sometimes when not doing clean installs you're supposed to upgrade in consecutive versions in order to avoid problems. I don't know if that's the case here or not.

billymayday · 09-28-2008, 04:31 AM

Are youi sure it isn't trying to help you set the keyring up?

I suspect the way around it it to remove the smtp password, unless of course you need it. imap passwords don't seem to cause the same problem.

Mike Davies · 09-28-2008, 04:38 AM

I did not do a clean install.

OK. Looks like this is solved. I needed to set up a keyring.

Thanks for the pointers.

Mike Davies · 09-28-2008, 06:48 AM

I did not do a clean install.

OK. Looks like this is solved. I needed to set up a keyring.

Thanks for the pointers.

sundialsvcs · 09-28-2008, 09:51 PM

Generally speaking, most operating-systems (Linux, Win-doze, OS/X...) realize that there will come a time when "you, too" start preferring to read books and magazines by holding them close to your face and pushing your eyeglasses down on your nose so that you are looking over them...

They provide encrypted "key-rings" that you can use to store all sorts of things, so that you only need to actually-remember one password... that of the keyring itself.

"First, you will laugh at this. Then, you will understand..."