gpg fails to find key to elpa archive

Question

I'm getting this error while trying download a package from ELPA:

 Failed to verify signature archive-contents.sig:
 No public key for 474F05837FBDEF9B created at 2018-11-28T14:10:03-0800 using DSA
 Command output:
 gpg: keyblock resource '/c/apps/emacs-25.3_1/bin/c:/users/myuserid/.emacs.d/elpa/gnupg/pubring.kbx': No such file or directory
 gpg: Signature made Wed Nov 28 14:10:03 2018 PST
 gpg:                using DSA key CA442C00F91774F17F59D9B0474F05837FBDEF9B
 gpg: Can't check signature: No public key

I've been doing some clean up in my init file but I don't see how it could have impacted this. In a way it's a good thing because it's a good opportunity to setup gpg but it's not working for me. I used customize-apropos to set these values:

  '(epg-gpg-home-directory "C:/Program Files/Git")
  '(epg-gpg-program "gpg.exe --homedir /c/users/myuserid/.emacs.d/elpa/gnupg")

I'm using the gpg that comes with my git client. However, no matter what I set it doesn't seem to care, it still has the invalid path the keys.

What could be causing these gpg variables to not be respected??

Answer 1

I encountered this issue. I solved it using the following steps in order:

1. Installing Gpg4win
2. Make sure that the folder c:/Progra~2/GnuPG/bin is on your path before any other installed versions of the GnuPG executables (in my case, I had it installed via msys2).

Note that Progra~2 expands to "Program Files (x86)" on my system (I am using the 64 bit version of Windows, you might need to substitute Progra~1 in the string if you are using a 32 bit version of Windows).

Answer 2

I solved this issue using above solutions in tandem.

I changed the package-gnupghome-dir as suggested. This got me partway there. I then got a different error, Can't check signature: No public key. So, I ran

$ gpg --homedir /c/Users/micha/AppData/Roaming/.emacs.d/elpa/gnupg --receive-keys 066DAFCB81E42C40

gpg: key 066DAFCB81E42C40: public key "GNU ELPA Signing Agent (2019) <[email protected]>" imported

and the issue was resolved. Thanks, @preetpalS and @jürgen-a-erhard!

Answer 3

Emacs' package infrastructure uses its own variable for GPG, package-gnupghome-dir. For me (and, obviously, you here) it failed because Emacs' filename functions don't see the path as an absolute path (see the "/c:/users/" in the "keyblock" line). Thus, it does what it does with relative paths, it finds them (or tries to) in the current directory.

Change the beginning of package-gnupghome-dir from "C:/" to "/c/"… that should fix it, but I only tested it on my (msys2) system. YMMV ;-)

Answer 4

I could only mitigate this issue by running emacs via a Windows command shell (or powershell). To clarify, I installed emacs via MSYS2, but I always encounter the pubring.kbx': No such file or directory error if I run emacs via an MSYS22 shell.

This may introduce other issues, but I can refresh my package contents, and install new packages. My .emacs.d/ seems to be in <windows home directory>/Appdata/Roaming/.

(Emacs 27.2 build 1 on Windows 10)

Answer 5

I faced this issue on GNU Emacs 27.2 for Windows, when I performed a M-x list-packages. In my case, I've both GNU Emacs 27.2 for Windows and MSYS2. I only have this issue under the Windows version.

The gnupg path for Windows version is under c:/users/userid/AppData/Roaming/.emacs.d/elpa/gnupg/. The gnupg path for MSYS2 version is under /home/userid/.emacs.d/elpa/gnupg. A pubring.kbx file (and other files) is found under MSYS2 version, but no files under Windows version.

I solved this issue in 2 steps: -

1. adding (setq package-gnupghome-dir "~/.emacs.d/elpa/gnupg") to my .emacs in Windows version. .emacs should be found under c:/users/userid/AppData/Roaming/. If not found, you can create one and append the (setq...) above.
2. copy the pubring.kbx file from MSYS2 version to c:/users/userid/AppData/Roaming/.emacs.d/elpa/gnupg/.