Problem with socket : Connection refused

[ursh15]

Hello, I had the same message last few days:

can’t connect to ‘socket:///home/user/.gnupg/log-socket’: Connexion refusée

No real help found on the Internet

Since migration from Leap15.6 to Tumbleweed, I had not tested gpg

In my ~/.gnupg directory, I had a file:

srwx------.  1 user users      0  8 oct.   2017 log-socket=
( strange name \`log-socket=\` )

I deleted it.

In the ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf file, I had the line:

log-file socket:///home/user/.gnupg/log-socket

I deleted the line.

gpg -v still complained …
I added instead the line:

log-file ~/.gnupg/log-file

By the way, the --homedir didn’t help.

Now it seems that everything is working (at least I hope and maybe it will help someone)

greetings

[RokeJulianLockhart (Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB))]

@ursh15

In my $HOME/.gnupg directory, I had a file: log-socket.

@ursh15, likewise:

RokeJulianLockhart@Beedell:~$ cd $HOME/.gnupg
RokeJulianLockhart@Beedell:~/.gnupg$ ls -la | grep log-socket
srwxr-xr-x. 1 RokeJulianLockhart RokeJulianLockhart    0 Jun  4  2025 log-socket
RokeJulianLockhart@Beedell:~/.gnupg$ file log-socket
log-socket: socket

Consequently, I replaced what you advise:

diff --git a/home/RokeJulianLockhart/.gnupg/gpg.conf b/home/RokeJulianLockhart/.gnupg/gpg.conf
index a3b9917..803e161 100644
--- a/home/RokeJulianLockhart/.gnupg/gpg.conf
+++ b/home/RokeJulianLockhart/.gnupg/gpg.conf
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ default-key  EBF4DB0C403C4B2E
 ###+++--- GPGConf ---+++###
 utf8-strings
 debug-level basic
-log-file socket:///home/RokeJulianLockhart/.gnupg/log-socket
+log-file $HOME/.gnupg/log-file
 ###+++--- GPGConf ---+++### Wed 04 Jun 2025 11:01:22 BST
 # GPGConf edited this configuration file.
 # It will disable options before this marked block, but it will

Based upon its content, I wonder whether kgpg-25.12.1-1.fc43 is the cause.

---

@ursh15

I added, instead, the line:

log-file ~/.gnupg/log-file

Now, it seems that everything is working.

That remediated it for me, too, per gpg -v:

1. Previously

   can't connect to 'socket:///home/RokeJulianLockhart/.gnupg/log-socket': Connection refused
   ^C
   gpg: signal Interrupt caught ... exiting
   

2. Subsequently

   2026-01-29 16:36:52 gpg[118983] enabled debug flags: memstat
   2026-01-29 16:36:52 gpg[118983] enabled compatibility flags:
   2026-01-29 16:36:52 gpg[118983] WARNING: no command supplied.  Trying to guess what you mean ...
   2026-01-29 16:36:52 gpg[118983] Go ahead and type your message ...
   ^C
   gpg: signal Interrupt caught ... exiting
   

Thanks.

[mopsyd (Brian Dayhoff)]

Kleopatra sets this in its config section for gpg if you have Kleopatra installed. Just so you are not fighting uphill against something that will revert later, check in Settings → Configure Kleopatra → GnuPG System → (look for logging/debug). Set log level to none and clear the default file path, and it should behave thereafter. Disregard this if you don’t have Kleopatra, but I had the exact same issue and it turned out Kleopatras default settings were the offender.

[RokeJulianLockhart (Mr. Beedell, Roke Julian Lockhart (RJLB))]

@mopsyd, this worked for me. However, I solely need to remove the path; the no need to modify the log level.

[eebb]

Removing the log level works only as long as you do not click on the first action in the “Tools” menu, which is “GnuPG log viewer”. (Can easily happen by mistake or when checking out possible actions.) This will then set a log level. And write the offending log socket as log-file into your configuration files unless there is a log file already configured.
So setting a log file without setting a debug level is a sensible precaution while waiting for the changes regarding ⚓ T7259 Kleopatra: Kwatchgnupg must not modify conf files from yesterday to show up in your Kleopatra version.