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Arseny Zinchenko
Arseny Zinchenko

Posted on • Originally published at rtfm.co.ua on

Arch Linux: key could not be imported – required key missing from keyring

#archlinux #linux

A couple of days ago I got an additional laptop to take it on meetings.

As it will be used rarely and not as my main laptop – I decided to install Manjaro Linux there instead of usual Arch Linux – to take a look at the Manjaro itself and because don’t want to spend time with Arch configuration on a laptop, which be used even not each day.

After Manjaro installation (well – much easier than Arch, of course) I started the system upgrade, and…:

[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ sudo pacman -Syu
...
:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]  
(413/413) checking keys in keyring                                                                                                             [] 100%
downloading required keys...
:: Import PGP key 256E/C7E7849466FE2358343588377258734B41C31549, "David Runge <dvzrv@archlinux.org>", created: 2019-10-01? [Y/n] y
error: key "David Runge <dvzrv@archlinux.org>" could not be imported
error: required key missing from keyring
error: failed to commit transaction (unexpected error)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.
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Well… Okay.

The first upgrade on o system with outdated packages, expected issues – no problem at all.

Do not perform the actions described below until you’ll read the actual reason.

Update archlinux-keyring

The first idea was to upgrade the archlinux-keyring util and it will update its keys:

$ sudo pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring
...
warning: archlinux-keyring-20191018-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
Packages (1) archlinux-keyring-20191018-1
...
-> Disabling key 44D4A033AC140143927397D47EFD567D4C7EA887...
==> Updating trust database...
gpg: next trustdb check due at 2020-01-22
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/1) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
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But this didn’t help.

pacman-key --refresh-keys

Okay, let’s try update keys directly in the pacman-key‘s database:

[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys
...
gpg: Total number processed: 133
gpg:              unchanged: 66
gpg:           new user IDs: 3
gpg:            new subkeys: 1
gpg:         new signatures: 1172
...
gpg: next trustdb check due at 2020-01-22
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Nah, still something is wrong here:

[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ pacman-key --list-sigs | grep Runge
gpg: Note: trustdb not writable
gpg: key E5BB298470AD4E41 was created 53 days in the future (time warp or clock problem)
gpg: key 6D42BDD116E0068F was created 11 days in the future (time warp or clock problem)
gpg: key 6D42BDD116E0068F was created 11 days in the future (time warp or clock problem)
gpg: key E5BB298470AD4E41 was created 53 days in the future (time warp or clock problem)
sig          54C28F4FF5A1A949 2014-10-06  David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
uid          [  full  ] David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
sig 3        54C28F4FF5A1A949 2017-05-07  David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
sig 3        54C28F4FF5A1A949 2015-01-04  David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
uid           [  full  ] David Runge <dave@c-base.org>
sig 3        54C28F4FF5A1A949 2017-05-07  David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
sig 3        54C28F4FF5A1A949 2015-10-20  David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
uid           [  full  ] David Runge <runge@pool.math.tu-berlin.de>
sig 3        54C28F4FF5A1A949 2017-05-07  David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
sig 3        54C28F4FF5A1A949 2014-10-03  David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
uid           [  full  ] David Runge <david.runge@campus.tu-berlin.de>
sig 3        54C28F4FF5A1A949 2017-05-07  David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
sig 3        54C28F4FF5A1A949 2014-10-03  David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
sig          54C28F4FF5A1A949 2017-05-07  David Runge <dave@sleepmap.de>
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At least – the developer’s mailbox is not the same as in the error.

there is a hint, but I didn’t notice it

Removing /etc/pacman.d/gnupg

The next thing I did a try – to fully drop (backup, of course, not just delete) pacman‘s GPG database to re-initial it from scratch:

[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ ls -l /etc/pacman.d/gnupg
total 6276
drwx------ 2 root root    4096 жов 21  2017 crls.d
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      17 лис  8  2018 gpg-agent.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     114 жов 24  2015 gpg.conf
drwx------ 2 root root    4096 жов 24  2015 openpgp-revocs.d
...
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   18920 сер 18 12:28 trustdb.gpg
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Move it to backups:

[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ mkdir ~/Backups
[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ sudo mv /etc/pacman.d/gnupg Backups/
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Run initialization:

[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ sudo pacman-key --init
gpg: /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: no ultimately trusted keys found
gpg: starting migration from earlier GnuPG versions
gpg: porting secret keys from '/etc/pacman.d/gnupg/secring.gpg' to gpg-agent
gpg: migration succeeded
gpg: Generating pacman keyring master key...
gpg: key FBADB7D2586D4A2F marked as ultimately trusted
gpg: directory '/etc/pacman.d/gnupg/openpgp-revocs.d' created
gpg: revocation certificate stored as '/etc/pacman.d/gnupg/openpgp-revocs.d/7F47A1EC7C894F56DD6F9E18FBADB7D2586D4A2F.rev'
gpg: Done
==> Updating trust database...
gpg: marginals needed: 3  completes needed: 1  trust model: pgp
gpg: depth: 0  valid:   1  signed:   0  trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 1u
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Get keys:

[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ sudo pacman-key --populate
==> Appending keys from archlinux.gpg...
...
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Let’s even update them:

[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys
gpg: refreshing 132 keys from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
...
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Run the OS upgrade again:

[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ sudo pacman -Syu
...
downloading required keys...
:: Import PGP key 256E/C7E7849466FE2358343588377258734B41C31549, "David Runge <dvzrv@archlinux.org>", created: 2019-10-01? [Y/n]
error: key "David Runge <dvzrv@archlinux.org>" could not be imported
error: required key missing from keyring
error: failed to commit transaction (unexpected error)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.
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sd78dfv:?%67sdc!!!

pacman-key --recv-keys – a direct key’s import

Then I went to look for the key directly in the https://www.archlinux.org/master-keys database:

| David Runge | 0x41C31549 | Yes |

And try to import it directly:

[setevoy-asus-laptop setevoy]# pacman-key --recv-keys dvzrv@archlinux.org
gpg: key E5BB298470AD4E41 was created 53 days in the future (time warp or clock problem)
gpg: key 7258734B41C31549: 2 duplicate signatures removed
gpg: key 7258734B41C31549: 4 signatures not checked due to missing keys
gpg: key 7258734B41C31549: 2 signatures reordered
gpg: key 7258734B41C31549 was created 44 days in the future (time warp or clock problem)
gpg: key 7258734B41C31549 was created 44 days in the future (time warp or clock problem)
gpg: key 7258734B41C31549 was created 44 days in the future (time warp or clock problem)
gpg: key 7258734B41C31549 was created 44 days in the future (time warp or clock problem)
gpg: key 7258734B41C31549: no valid user IDs
gpg: this may be caused by a missing self-signature
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:           w/o user IDs: 1
==> ERROR: Remote key not fetched correctly from keyserver.
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Eeerrr….

gpg: key 7258734B41C31549 was created 44 days in the future (time warp or clock problem)

44 days in the future – WHAT?

The real cause and solution

Check the date on the operating system now:

[setevoy-asus-laptop setevoy]# date
sun, 18 серпня 2019 12:47:28 +0300
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And by using hwclock to heck hardware’s time settings:

[setevoy-asus-laptop setevoy]# hwclock --show
2019-08-18 12:47:55.575491+03:00
Set the real time at this moment:
[setevoy-asus-laptop setevoy]# timedatectl set-time "2019-11-24 09:56:00"
[setevoy-asus-laptop setevoy]# hwclock --show
2019-11-24 09:56:03.404766+02:00
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Repeat upgrade:

[setevoy@setevoy-asus-laptop ~]$ sudo pacman -Syu
...
(413/413) checking keys in keyring                                                                                                             [] 100%
downloading required keys...
:: Import PGP key 256E/C7E7849466FE2358343588377258734B41C31549, "David Runge <dvzrv@archlinux.org>", created: 2019-10-01? [Y/n]
(413/413) checking package integrity
...
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And everything is working now.

Done.

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