sudo apt-get install seahorse-plugins

After installing the package, go to System -> Preferences -> Encryption and Keyrings, select a default key to use and decide whether you want to include your own key by default when encrypting files. This is sometimes a good idea if you ever want to open a file you encrypted to someone else. Below are some screenshots of the Seahorse preferences.

Here are some screen shots of the context menu options that appear when you right click on files in Nautilus.

When you choose to encrypt a file, you can select as many public keys as you’d like. Here’s an example of the dialogue.

Using PGP has never been easier. There are still some improvements to the UI I would like to see completed, but overall the most important features are there.

Related posts:

1. Nautilus File Selection
2. Perform GnuPG Functions Within Vim
3. Symmetric Key Encryption with GnuPG

Multiple File Selections:
You can select multiple file ranges with multiple “shift+click” combinations.  Other less advanced file managers typically lose focus on previously selected objects if you try to “shift+click” another set of files, but Nautilus handles this quite well.  The following screenshot demonstrates the feature.

Pattern Selection:
You can select files by patterns in their naming convention.  For example, if you would like to select only files with a particular extension, go to “Edit… Select Pattern“, or use the keyboard shortcut of “Ctrl+S“.  Type in a search pattern such as “*.ogg” and click OK.  The following screenshot shows the pattern select dialog.

Type-Ahead Search:
Simply typing text while focused in a Nautilus window will highlight the first matching file or folder name.  Taking this simple concept one step further, if you hit the keyboard Up or Down arrows, Nautilus will focus the next matching object.  Again, this is quite intuitive, since other file managers simply move the focus from the currently selected object to one that is immediately adjacent.  Keep hitting the Up and Down arrows to jump between matching objects.

Standard File Search:
Of course, when you just want to perform a standard file search, you can hit the Search button, or use the “Ctrl+F” keyboard shortcut.  The dialog is pretty simple to understand, and gives you a decent set of options to choose from.

Be sure to keep a lookout for many more exciting features from the Nautilus developers as they continue the trend of inovation at its finest.  Hope you found these quick tips useful for your daily Nautilus usage routine.

Related posts:

1. GnuPG Context Menu Options for Gnome Nautilus
2. Revelation Password Manager for Gnome

Or better yet, you can use a nifty password manager for the Linux platform call Revelation. It’s written for tight integration with the Gnome desktop environment.

Home page: http://oss.codepoet.no/revelation/

The passwords are stored in an encrypted XML file, protected by AES encryption and of course a master passphrase.

It has most of the core functionality one would expect from a mature password manager, including a nice internal directory structure to organize your data, copy and paste, and customizable viewing options.

Definitely worth checking out. Ubuntu 7.04 universe repositories have the latest version available for download.

$ sudo apt-get install revelation

Launch it from Applications -> Accessories -> Revelation Password Manager.

Related posts:

1. GRUB Password Security
2. PAM_KEYRING: Automatic Keyring Authentication
3. Create Encrypted CD’s and DVD’s in Linux

If you are not using the the GDM auto login feature, simply make sure your keyring password is the same as your login password, this way it is automatically unlocked for you. The keyring passwords are now easy to change from “Applications… Accessories… Passwords and Encryption Keys… Edit menu… Preferences… Password Keyrings.” Highlight the “login” entry, and use the “Change Unlock Password” button.

The original instructions below ONLY apply to versions previous to Ubuntu 8.04.

ORIGINAL POST:
If you would like to avoid having to type in a password to access your gnome keyring, then you are in luck. To quote from the authors web site, “PAM_KEYRING is a pam module that launches the gnome-keyring-daemon and then unlocks a keyring using your login password.”

In Ubuntu 7.04, this comes in handy when using Network Manager to connect to your wireless network. Typically users are prompted for the “master” password to their keyring manager immediately after logging on to gnome, and this can become tedious. Installing and configuring PAM_KEYRING is a snap.

1. Install libpam-keyring from universe repositories.

$ sudo apt-get install libpam-keyring

2. Add the pamkeyring module to /etc/pam.d/gdm

$ echo "@include common-pamkeyring" | sudo tee -a /etc/pam.d/gdm

UPDATED: (10/25/2007)
With the release of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy, libpam-keyring is no longer needed, as this feature has been built by default in with the package “libpam-gnome-keyring”.

UPDATED: (04/21/2008) – For GDM Auto-Login Users

Sorry for not updating this post sooner. I helped someone else with this offline a while back. Here’s an excerpt from my email. It works well with Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy, and “should” work with Hardy, unless there’s been some major changes with the libpam-gnome-keyring package that I don’t know about.

The auto login feature of GDM relies on the GDM processes ability to run Gnome as your user account, but it does not have to know the password, as it’s using an “su” command to accomplish the magic.

There lies the problem. The keyring uses the password supplied by the user to unlock itself, and being that no password is supplied to pam, it cannot unlock the keyring.

From a useful bug report, one fellow outlined how he has always done it previously using a login script. He used a tool called “pam-keyring-tool” included with the libpam-keyring package. The new libpam-gnome-keyring package does not include this binary, so in order for this to work, you need compile it from source.

I’ve successfully got it working using the following procedures:

Step 1: Download latest pam_keyring source code. I like to place all source code in /usr/src/:

cd /usr/src/
sudo wget http://www.hekanetworks.com/opensource/pam_keyring/pam_keyring-0.0.9.tar.gz

Step 2: Unpack source code

sudo tar zxfv pam_keyring-0.0.9.tar.gz

Step 3: Install prerequisites

sudo apt-get install build-essential libglib1.2-dev libglib2.0-dev
sudo apt-get install libtool libgnome-keyring-dev libpam0g-dev

Step 4: Compile and Install

cd /usr/src/pam_keyring-0.0.9
sudo ./configure --prefix=/usr
sudo make
sudo cp src/pam-keyring-tool /usr/bin/

Note: I’m not doing a “make install” because I only want this binary to be installed and nothing else)

Step 5: Test binary

/usr/bin/pam-keyring-tool --help

If you get a nice usage menu, you’ll see what the tool options are, and your compilation is complete.

Step 6: Create login script called “unlock-keyring.sh”.

Since the file will contain your password in clear text, you’ll want to keep it in your home folder, readable only by your user. Yes… I know this is lame.

mkdir ~/scripts
sudo chmod 750 ~/scripts
touch ~/scripts/unlock-keyring.sh
sudo chmod 750 ~/scripts/unlock-keyring.sh
sudo gedit ~/scripts/unlock-keyring.sh

Add the following to the script:


#!/bin/bash
echo "PASSWORD_HERE" | /usr/bin/pam-keyring-tool -u -s

Step 7: Add the script to your gnome session startup scripts

System -> Preferences -> Sessions

Under Startup Programs, add a new entry that will appear first in the list. e.g. “1-unlock-keyring”

The command will be:
“/home/USERNAME_HERE/scripts/unlock-keyring.sh”

Step 8: Ensure your /etc/pam.d/gdm-autologin is set to it’s defaults. This was the default Gutsy 7.10 version for reference.

#%PAM-1.0
auth requisite pam_nologin.so
auth required pam_env.so readenv=1
auth required pam_env.so readenv=1 envfile=/etc/default/locale
auth required pam_permit.so
@include common-account
session required pam_limits.so
@include common-session
@include common-password

Step 9: Restart GDM or simply reboot.

I really hope this helps you guys out.

Related posts:

1. Revelation Password Manager for Gnome
2. GnuPG Context Menu Options for Gnome Nautilus
3. Ubuntu Linux + Dell Wireless 5700 CDMA/EVDO Card