DS> Than when saving message using the menu I have first to enter the pwd
DS> to sudo the command (initial after starting)
There should be no reason to run gpg with su rights.
Check what kind of sign gpg adds now. Is it yours? Or signed by root?
In those cases i replace the command with "echo" to see the real parameters.
It's also possible to create a debug shell script that catches the parameters and give additional information about "pwd" and "whoami".