gpgsm: gpg-protect-tool: error while asking for the passphrase: Unknown system error

ehm, this system is a maverick with all available updates as of 2010-09-16 18:45 UTC

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I also experience this bug on Kubuntu 14.04

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release: 14.04
Codename: trusty

Here is my kernel information.
$ uname -a
Linux localhost 3.13.0-32-generic #57-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 03:51:08 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Here is output of gpgsm commands
$ gpgsm --call-protect-tool --p12-import mycert.p12
gpg-protect-tool: error while asking for the passphrase: End of file

$ gpgsm --import mycert.p12
gpgsm: gpg-protect-tool: error while asking for the passphrase: End of file
gpgsm: error running `/usr/lib/gnupg2/gpg-protect-tool': exit status 2
gpgsm: total number processed: 0

I've set GPG_TTY before
$ export GPG_TTY=$(tty)

Here is gpgsm version
$ gpgsm --version
gpgsm (GnuPG) 2.0.22
libgcrypt 1.5.3
libksba 1.3.0
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Home: ~/.gnupg
Supported algorithms:
Cipher: 3DES, AES, AES192, AES256, SERPENT128, SERPENT192, SERPENT256, SEED, CAMELLIA128, CAMELLIA192, CAMELLIA256
Pubkey: RSA, ECDSA
Hash: MD5, SHA1, RIPEMD160, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512, SHA224, WHIRLPOOL

Here is strace output of command gpgsm --import mycert.p12

Workaround (works on Kubuntu 14.04):

unset GPG_AGENT_INFO; gpgsm --import mycert.p12

Got from here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=548528#c28

On Tuesday, August 19, 2014 05:06:17 PM you wrote:
> Workaround (works on Kubuntu 14.04):
>
> unset GPG_AGENT_INFO; gpgsm --import mycert.p12
>
> Got from here:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=548528#c28

Thanks. This temporary workaround is working with pinentry-qt4.
Confirmed on Kubuntu 14.04.1 64bit

Unfortunately, this doesn't work with pinentry-curses, since
pinentry curses could not be brought upfront.

Any movement on this? This workaround is great for importing my own cert... but it's a very manual workaround since GPG_AGENT_INFO is important to my environment. All the GUI tools which front-end this don't allow for the workaround, which causes this to break the workflow. Instead of doing things that make sense, this makes me have to focus on all the wrong things.

Thanks for all your hard work!
Matt