Use GPG mail signing and encryption with openSuse 10.3

Just started playing around with mail signing and encryption. Main problem was, to make gpg-agent work in a vnc session.

create key pair with kgpg
- type pgp+elGamal, 1024 or 2048bit
- Give a good passphrase for the private key
- use an expiry date (1-5 years)
- generate a revocation cert
make key the standard key
set to ultimate trust (you trust yourself, do you?)
upload public key to a keyserver

kmail can use the private key for signing
you must sign public keys of recipients and mark them trusted to use them for encryption

gpg-agent is started by sys.xinitrc (copy to ~/.vnc/xstartup for vnc sessions)
usage of gpg-agent by kgpg was already enabled (options menu or ~/.gpg/options)
With gpg-agent you have to enter your private key passphrase less often
To use the private key elsewhere, just export the private key to a file (the key is still protected by the passphrase). Some even upload it to the key server.

protect the private key! Anyone with the key and the passphrase can read your recieved encrypted mails and sign mails to make them look like coming from you.
revocation cert is used (e.g. if you loose your private key) to make the public key invalid.
- To make a revocation cert, you need the private key, so do it now :-)
- Save it somewhere, where you cant loose it and noone can use it to invalidate your key.
check the fingerprint of foreign keys you sign (to use them for encryption) via trustworthy channels.

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