Johnny Matthews | Disable GPG password pop-up

When you try to decrypt something with a GPG that has a password, the OS you're using will prompt you to enter that password. Some operating systems, like PopOS, have a pop-up style prompt for you to enter the password. I don't like this, and much prefer the terminal prompt. This was written on 22nd of September 2021.

Entering your password on things like this is called pinentry, for some reason. I’m guessing it’s because back in the day, nerds called passwords pins. Anyway, we need to change the pinentry setting for the terminal.

  1. List your pinentry options:

    sudo update-alternatives --config pinentry

There are 3 choices for the alternative pinentry (providing /usr/bin/pinentry). 

    Selection   Path                        Priority    Status
-----------------------------------------------------------------
*   0           /usr/bin/pinentry-gnome3    90          auto mode
    1           /usr/bin/pinentry-curses    50          manual mode
    2           /usr/bin/pinentry-gnome3    90          manual mode

Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

  2. Select a choice from the options by entering a number. If you don’t see anything that looks like a terminal-based entry method, you can install one:

    sudo apt install pinentry-tty

  3. Run sudo update-alternatives --config pinentry again, and select pinentry-tty from the list.

  4. That’s it!