• [gentoo-user] Re: Seamonkey encryption stopped working, uses same as Th

    From Nuno Silva@21:1/5 to Dale on Fri Jul 11 11:10:01 2025
    On 2025-07-09, Dale wrote:

    Michael wrote:
    On Monday, 7 July 2025 03:07:35 British Summer Time Dale wrote:
    Howdy,

    I have one friend that likes to email with encrypted emails. We have
    good chats so I set up encryption ages ago. It worked for a long time.
    We lost contact for a bit but recently started chatting again. I think
    during a upgrade the Enigmail encryption was broken. I'm not sure
    when. I've tried every setting I can think of and find and it just
    refuses to work. I might add, I also lost all the accumulated keys that >>> I had, including my own keys.

    Can you check if gpg still has these keys? Here I can do "gpg
    --list-keys" and "gpg --list-secret-keys", but maybe that's different in
    newer versions of GnuPG.

    Enigmail Security Info Error - decryption failed Error: Error during
    parsing. This message / key probably does not conform to a valid OpenPGP >>> format.
    Hmm ... I suspect this error is caused because Seamonkey is no longer
    supported by Enigmail - see bottom post here:

    https://sourceforge.net/p/enigmail/forum/support/thread/b0e5a6791d/

    No, Enigmail now supports SeaMonkey again.

    1. Use a more up-to-date OpenPGP.js and the hope Enigmail in Seamonkey will >> function as expected:

    ... actually, how long ago was it when this was last used and worked?

    Has Enigmail been updated?

    I found the folder /home/dale/.gnupg/ but I'm not sure if I can
    delete the whole thing, just parts of it, just a single file or I
    have to do it another way.

    (Don't do this without backing it up first, or you will definitely lose
    your private keys.)

    Another way - please see above. You do not have to delete old keys to create
    and start using new key pairs. The old private keys are still necessary if >> you want to access previously encrypted files/messages.

    HTH.


    I got busy with a large wood pile and getting it burnt up.  Remember the large sweet gum tree I cut a year or so ago, that wood pile.  It's still burning but almost gone.  Anyway. 

    I went back and did the setup again.  I chose something besides what
    used to be built in since it isn't working anyway.  Once that was done,
    I saw my old keys that I had accumulated was back.  Eli signs his
    messages. I saw a post by him and noticed that I could use it as a
    test.  I was able to click the button, it fetched the proper keys and verified that the message was in fact written, or at least sent, by
    Eli.  It's not the same as encrypted but from my understanding, both
    work the same.  It uses the same key and process except that the email
    isn't encrypted.  So, it worked.  I thought I was onto something. 

    (Similar process, but *different* key. A signature is verified by
    decrypting with a public key, and an encrypted text is decrypted using a private key.)

    I then went back to my friend's email that is encrypted.  It still shows that it is broken for same reason as before.  It seems, from the little
    info it shares, to fail the same way.  I don't understand why it works
    for Eli's message signing but someone else's it fails. 

    Can you check if the original looks ok or if it could have been
    corrupted somehow?

    I really need to work on what I been wanting to do for years.  Set up my
    own email fetching/sending software locally so that I can use any client
    I want.

    I'd say you might also want to have your own local IMAP server. Might
    not be so easy to configure, but I think it'll be easier to point
    different clients to the IMAP server, compared to e.g. making them work
    with the same message or mailbox storage format. Or is this already what
    you have in mind?

    Outgoing/sending can be "centralized" too, but that can be left as a
    later improvement, if you need to do it in parts.

      Seamonkey is really going downhill.  It fails on so many sites
    that I rarely use it for browsing anymore. 

    Well, it's javascript frameworks that are going downhill, by requiring
    features only implemented in a few select browsers. Then sites go
    downhill, but mostly because they just add a bunch of frameworks and
    don't care about backwards compatibility or even fallbacks.

    Work is ongoing to add a few more JS features to SeaMonkey, but this is currently done in a separate branch and can't be used as-is because new
    syntax for regex and optional chaining - already supported with patches
    in the main branch - has been temporarily removed to make the
    backporting task easier.

    Most often, the sites I do
    visit with Seamonkey; Gentoo forums, wiki and such.  For the last year
    or so, not much else works.  I might add, you about can't get a add-on anymore.  The few I have haven't had updates in years.  No telling how
    big a can of Raid those need.

    Currently, the best places to get information on extensions are:

    - The release notes,

    - The status meeting notes, which have a section for extensions,
    e.g. https://wiki.mozilla.org/SeaMonkey/StatusMeetings/2025-07-06#Extensions_Tracking

    Some extensions are still maintained, and others are in use with updated versions made available by users. If some extension does not work, it is possible it only needs minor changes, as there have been a small number
    of such breaking changes (IIRC at least one syntax change, and some
    renames; I think most, if not all, of this is linked/listed in that
    meeting notes section).

    My biggest two problems, I want to switch from Gmail to a paid service
    that doesn't snoop.  2, finding a email client that I like.  Thunderbird
    is supposed to be like the email part of Seamonkey but it is vastly different.  I don't like it to be honest.  I also can't open links in
    new tabs in a already open instance of Firefox either, or I haven't
    figured out how yet.

    This shouldn't (hopefully... why am I tempting fate...) be complicated,
    I'm guessing it involves using firefox's "remote" feature to open in a
    new tab instead of a new instance or a new window. In this regard, it
    probably works like SeaMonkey. ...unless Firefox has changed this
    somehow?

    My guess would be that nowadays this involves a Freedesktop desktop
    entry file for Firefox capable of opening in a new tab, and associating
    that to the web protocols at the xdg-open level.

    Maybe check if this opens in Firefox the way you want. If it doesn't, it
    might be just a matter of changing the default.

    xdg-open "https://www.gentoo.org/"

    I think the current handler can be checked with

    xdg-settings get default-web-browser

    While it's possible to set it with xdg-settings, Firefox should also
    have a way to offer to set itself as the default.

    --
    Nuno Silva

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Nuno Silva@21:1/5 to Dale on Sun Jul 20 08:40:01 2025
    On 2025-07-18, Dale wrote:

    Nuno Silva wrote:
    On 2025-07-09, Dale wrote:
    [...]
    I really need to work on what I been wanting to do for years.  Set up my >>> own email fetching/sending software locally so that I can use any client >>> I want.

    I'd say you might also want to have your own local IMAP server. Might
    not be so easy to configure, but I think it'll be easier to point
    different clients to the IMAP server, compared to e.g. making them work
    with the same message or mailbox storage format. Or is this already what
    you have in mind?

    Outgoing/sending can be "centralized" too, but that can be left as a
    later improvement, if you need to do it in parts.

    I've wanted to set up my own mail server for a LONG time.  I mentioned
    it on this mailing list before.  From what I've read, it is like
    threading a needle while blind and with only one hand.  Everything has
    to be just right or something fails.  I've read updates can change
    things which means you get to thread that needle again.  I want to set
    up a email system that fetches my email, stores it local so I can use
    any email client I want, be it Seamonkey, Kmail or anything else, and everything be stored here on my machine.  I'd also like it to be able to send emails and me be able to see those with any client, even one I
    didn't use to send with.  I don't know if that kind of setup is possible tho.  The sending part is where I wonder.  If I send a email in say Seamonkey, how would Kmail know that???

    With local IMAP, I just have SeaMonkey set to store a copy of the
    outgoing message on the appropriate folder. Other clients might offer
    something similar, although it's possible some don't have that feature.

    [...]
    Most often, the sites I do
    visit with Seamonkey; Gentoo forums, wiki and such.  For the last year
    or so, not much else works.  I might add, you about can't get a add-on
    anymore.  The few I have haven't had updates in years.  No telling how >>> big a can of Raid those need.

    Currently, the best places to get information on extensions are:

    - The release notes,

    - The status meeting notes, which have a section for extensions,
    e.g. https://wiki.mozilla.org/SeaMonkey/StatusMeetings/2025-07-06#Extensions_Tracking

    Some extensions are still maintained, and others are in use with updated
    versions made available by users. If some extension does not work, it is
    possible it only needs minor changes, as there have been a small number
    of such breaking changes (IIRC at least one syntax change, and some
    renames; I think most, if not all, of this is linked/listed in that
    meeting notes section).

    As far as I know, Adblock hasn't been updated in a long time.  Lastpass hasn't either.  Years for both of those.  Enigmail has a recent update.  All the others are years old.  Once Firefox changed the way add-ons
    worked, Seamonkey stalled.  All the add-on devs switched to the new
    Firefox method and left Seamonkey behind. 

    Although I'm still with AdBlock Plus, I think the recommendation has
    been uBlock Origin.

    I think I recall Lastpass having been mentioned in the USENET group some
    time ago, but I don't remember the details.

    It would seem to me that Seamonkey needs to follow Firefox in a lot of ways.  I have to admit, the switch Firefox made years ago really
    improved Firefox in the long term. 

    I don't think moving to webexts would be an improvement. There's also no
    need to drop regular extensions now, as the current plan is to add
    features to 2.53, which already has more features than 2.57 would get
    from the Firefox 60-level.

    (Didn't webexts also limit what could be done in the add-on?)


    My biggest two problems, I want to switch from Gmail to a paid service
    that doesn't snoop.  2, finding a email client that I like.  Thunderbird >>> is supposed to be like the email part of Seamonkey but it is vastly
    different.  I don't like it to be honest.  I also can't open links in
    new tabs in a already open instance of Firefox either, or I haven't
    figured out how yet.
    This shouldn't (hopefully... why am I tempting fate...) be complicated,
    I'm guessing it involves using firefox's "remote" feature to open in a
    new tab instead of a new instance or a new window. In this regard, it
    probably works like SeaMonkey. ...unless Firefox has changed this
    somehow?

    My guess would be that nowadays this involves a Freedesktop desktop
    entry file for Firefox capable of opening in a new tab, and associating
    that to the web protocols at the xdg-open level.

    Maybe check if this opens in Firefox the way you want. If it doesn't, it
    might be just a matter of changing the default.

    xdg-open "https://www.gentoo.org/"

    I think the current handler can be checked with

    xdg-settings get default-web-browser

    While it's possible to set it with xdg-settings, Firefox should also
    have a way to offer to set itself as the default.


    This is what the last command shows. 


    dale@Gentoo-1 / $ xdg-settings get default-web-browser
    firefox-esr.desktop
    dale@Gentoo-1 / $


    What I'd like, when I click on a link, either in a email within
    Seamonkey or say in a Konsole, it would pop up and ask me what profile
    I'd like it to be opened in.  Then at that point, open it in a new tab
    if Firefox is already open or start Firefox with previous tabs and add a
    new tab for the clicked link.  I could make do with it just opening in a preset profile each time tho.  Most likely any link I click on, I'd want
    it opened in my profile named "Secure" anyway.  That is the one I use
    the most for things I used to use Seamonkey for anyway. 

    I'm afraid I don't know how to achieve that. I wonder if mozilla code
    can do that with the profile manager, or if you need an external tool to
    select the profile and launch Firefox or SeaMonkey with the appropriate
    profile flags.

    If you have the right flags (most notably parameters to open with the
    specified profile, be it running or not), and it's just a small and
    stable number of profiles, there are probably extensions to add "open
    with" options to a context menu, so you wouldn't have exactly what you
    want, for all tools using the Freedesktop associations, but you could
    still specify the Firefox profile that way (by opening links with a
    context menu option) in SeaMonkey Mail&News (or possibly Thunderbird, if
    web extensions there can do this).

    --
    Nuno Silva

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