File decryption

[David Fletcher]

On Monday 27 Sep 2010, NoOp wrote:
> $ sudo apt-get install seahorse-plugins
> $ nautilus -q
> $ nautilius &
> 
> Right click on a file and you should now see the 'encrypt/decrypt' in
> the menu. Nautilus uses seahorse (Applications|Accessories|'Password and
> Encryption Keys').
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GnuPrivacyGuardHowto
> 
As I said last night, that now appears to be working.

The odd thing is, that the encrypted file is a .tar.gz.asc which was copied 
from a USB flash drive. Decrypting it results in a .tar.gz file. When I apply

tar -xvf filename.tar.gz

to this file on the system I'm playing with tar gives me error messages - 
can't remember exactly what they were. It's an old system that was given to 
me with a 20GB ATA drive and ME installed on it. I replaced the motherboard 
with a fanless Via mini-ITX unit that was reliably running 24/7 in a server 
before I upgraded it a few weeks ago. The main reason for replacing the 
motherboard is that it has more memory than the original.

When I take the same decrypted tar.gz file back to my desktop machine on a 
flash drive and again run tar -xvf on it, it unpacks without errors.

Is there any chance the errors could be caused by the ancient hard drive? I've 
also got the 80GB SATA hard drive that was running in the server with the Via 
board. I might try putting that in the old machine and doing another install 
but I've got other things that I really ought to be progressing right now.

I guess I should also try the tar operation with my laptop.

This sort of thing worries me a little, because that tar file is my backup of 
my home directory, which includes the home directory of my server with all my 
email messages.

Dave