The Problem

Due to a crash I had to setup my computer from scratch. Usually this is with Linux not a big deal:

• Do a plain setup of any linux favour you like
• Install thunderbird and copy the old profille from backup into the new home
• Install firefox and copy the old profille from backup into the new home
• Install pass (a super cool passoword manager) and copy the password store from backup

... but wait - pass uses my GPG keys which are stored on my GnuPG card. How can i restore this to get pass working again to decrypt my credentials ?

The Solution

The solution to this situation is to restore your public and private keys which where used to en/decrypt the credential managed by pass. Depending on where / how you are storing you keys this is more or less complicated.

If you are using a smartcard then the private key never leaves the card, and the private key which is stored in the .gnupg directory is just a placeholder / pointer toward the card itself.

So the first step is to get your cardreader working. On my Lenovo t440s Laptop this is an one-liner:

After that you should be able to see your cardreader:

... and poll your card with gnupg:

And now you can import your key like this: