unusable public key?

[Charly Avital]

Deborah.Mitchell at uticanational.com wrote the following on 6/29/09 9:12 AM:
[...]

> When I list the keys I see the pub and uid but no sub for this key.  Can
> someone help me figure out what needs to be done to correct this?  
> 
> Thank you,
> Debbie Mitchell
> Utica National Insurance Group

Please try the command:
gpg --edit-key [Key ID].

1. If the output shows the letter D appended to the key length, and an
item like 'usage: SC', then this is a DSA key that can be used only for
signing and certifying, but not for encryption, and the only remedy I
can think of is that you ask your business partner to supply you with a
key that can be used for encryption.


2. If the output shows the letter R appended to the key length, then it
might be a "Legacy" RSA key, that needs the IDEA cipher to be included
and available in your crypto system.
IDEA is (or used to be) a licensed cipher, therefore you might want to
clarify this issue before you set your system to include IDEA.

3. Other possibilities: the key has been revoked by its owner, but that
information should show in the --edit-key output.

I hope this is not too confusing.
Charly