gpg permission handling is potentially confusing

[eloquence]

When the user starts the SecureDrop Client and logs in, they have to authorize sd-gpg access to decrypt any not previously decrypted messages.

That's fine if they see the prompt. Unfortunately, they may accidentally click the SecureDrop Client window and miss the prompt, in which case new messages will stall in the Message not yet available state without an indication why. The prompt itself has the somewhat unhelpful title Question and is easy to miss in the taskbar.

User Story

As a user, I want to be told clearly how to get the app to decrypt stuff, so that I don't get stuck unable to read things without knowing why.

[eloquence]

Intuitively, the most elegant solution to me would be to display some kind of banner in the app that indicates that a permission request is pending, e.g.

You must grant permission to decrypt new messages.

Such a prompt would be even more useful if it could trigger the permission prompt to re-appear; alternatively, a [Show me how] button might be a reasonable approach.

Can we detect if a permission request is pending (as opposed to, say, sd-gpg running a very slow decryption operation on a large file), in a manner that would allow us to display such a banner in the app?

[ninavizz]

The elegant solution, seems like it'd be Qubes handling this in the Tray... and this issue could be helpful for securing UXLab funding to work on that. I can poke in the Qubes repo to see if anyone might be keen to code such a widget, if a design solution were to be delivered. Regrettably, not once has this been commented on in ~5500 completed general user surveys, nor in the ~320 appmenu user surveys (that have received lots of other and more general ux feedback, too).

Question for SD team (+1 to Erik's, above): upon the user clicking the button in the above dialog to approve the request, could an overlay or othersuch UI somethingerother be poked in the client to disappear?