I've used gpg for minimal things for years now (pass, yadm, etc.) and one thing I consistently have noticed is slow response times from the keyservers (mit, ubuntu, etc) when accessed through the web portals (searching takes absolutely forever).
Recently yay
seems to have been having trouble importing keys with a No Name
error that people seem to frequently encounter and the solution is always to just manually import the key. This has happened twice in the past week for me, with 1password
and spotify
. I tried researching long term solutions instead of the manual import shortcut and one suggestion was set the keyserver manually in /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/gpg.conf
but that didn't resolve the problem. I ran pacman-key --refresh-keys
and it worked, but it seemed incredibly error prone. Here's a snapshot of the output toward the end:
==> ERROR: Could not update key: B9113D1ED21E1A55
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: General error
gpg: error reading key: General error
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: General error
gpg: error reading key: General error
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: General error
gpg: error reading key: General error
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: 6D1A9E70E19DAA50
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: 3A726C6170E80477
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: 81AF739EC0711BF1
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: WARNING: unacceptable HTTP redirect from server was cleaned up
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: WARNING: unacceptable HTTP redirect from server was cleaned up
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: CF7037A4F27FB7DA
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: 73B8ED52F1D357C1
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: EA6836E1AB441196
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: 7FB1A3800C84C0A5
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: WARNING: unacceptable HTTP redirect from server was cleaned up
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: WARNING: unacceptable HTTP redirect from server was cleaned up
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: F9E712E59AF5F22A
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: Connection refused
gpg: error reading key: Connection refused
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No name
gpg: error reading key: No name
gpg: error retrieving 'tomeg[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: C8880A6406361833
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: E711306E3C4F88BC
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: General error
gpg: error reading key: General error
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: General error
gpg: error reading key: General error
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: 39E4F17F295AFBF4
gpg: WARNING: unacceptable HTTP redirect from server was cleaned up
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: 097D629E437520BD
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: 5CED81B7C2E5C0D2
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: No data
gpg: error reading key: No data
gpg: error retrieving '[email protected]' via WKD: General error
gpg: error reading key: General error
gpg: refreshing 1 key from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No name
==> ERROR: Could not update key: 1F0CD4921ECAA030
gpg: key 4DC95B6D7BE9892E: "David Runge (Arch Linux Master Key) <[email protected]>" not changed
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: unchanged: 1
pub ed25519 2021-04-26 [SC]
2AC0A42EFB0B5CBC7A0402ED4DC95B6D7BE9892E
uid [ full ] David Runge (Arch Linux Master Key) <[email protected]>
sub cv25519 2021-04-26 [E]
gpg: key 25EA6900D9EA5EBC: "George Rawlinson <[email protected]>" 1 new signature
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: new signatures: 1
pub ed25519 2016-11-03 [C]
034D823DA2055BEE6A6BF0BB25EA6900D9EA5EBC
uid [ unknown] George Rawlinson <[email protected]>
uid [ full ] George Rawlinson <[email protected]>
sub ed25519 2016-11-03 [S]
sub ed25519 2016-11-04 [A]
sub cv25519 2016-11-04 [E]
Is this always the case with gpg and keyservers? Are manual imports just a part of life? Why are these keyservers so unstable?
Please note: the Arch wiki suggests the following possible problems:
- An outdated archlinux-keyring package.
- Incorrect date.
- Your ISP blocked the port used to import PGP keys.
- Your pacman cache contains copies of unsigned packages from previous attempts.
- dirmngr is not correctly configured
- you have not upgraded in a long time and gpg/pacman does not handle that well
But I upgrade daily, my ISP has not blocked any ports (I can manually import), and my date is correct. I'm pretty sure I even recently cleared my pacman and yay caches (which seems like people actually recommend against). It seems like it's a problem with the spottiness of the keyservers themselves.
Am I wrong that it's the keyservers? If not, why are they so spotty? If I am wrong, what can I do to improve my pacman/yay experience to make this smoother and eliminate these pain points.
keys.openpgp.org
is reliable but has limited coverage.