Yay: GPG fails with General Error

[IGBC]

Affected Version

latest

Describe the bug
On my latest arch install yay fails to download gpg keys. GPG returns "general error" this persists with GPG unless a keyserver is manually specified.

To Reproduce
install a fresh arch
(I am using base, linux-lts, linux firmware)

install yay ontop of that

attempt to install a package from the AUR

Expected behavior
yay installs the package

Output
cant't computer doesn't have a web browser yet (see yay is broken)

relevent line is gpg: failed to receive key: general error.

[grandchild]

That are a bit too few data points to go on. We need to figure out what GPG's problem is exactly.

• Does yay ask you to import any specific keys? If yes, note the fingerprint and try:
• gpg --recv-keys [key-fingerprint]

Does that result in a more detailed error?

[FIREFOXCYBER]

Hello @IGBC.

1. Can you try a different keyserver or different port? Such as hkp://p80.pool.sks-keyservers.net:80
2. If step above didn't work try to import the key manually and paste the results if possible.

[ahgilbert]

I see this error as well. gpg --recv-keys did not lead to a more useful error message. Snip below. FCF...8D8 was copied from the failed invocation yay -S ffmpeg-full

$ uname -a
Linux chomps 5.6.15-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed May 27 20:38:56 UTC 2020 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ yay --version
yay v10.0.4 - libalpm v12.0.2
$ gpg --recv-keys -vv FCF...8D8
gpg: keyserver receive failed: General error

Edit to add: After manually invoking gpg --recv-keys --keyserver keys.openpgp.org FCF...8D8 I did successfully install ffmpeg-full

[grandchild]

Well if standalone GPG gives the same error, it's hardly a yay issue. In that case I can only suspect it has something to do with the way your local gpg is set up. (And I do commiserate, it's tedious to debug... :unamused:)

[mpriestman]

I think I might have had a similar error on my machine. Again, it was a clean install of Arch Linux. Trying to install dropbox with yay gave the same general error from gnupg. Trying to manually import they key directly using gnupg also failed with the same error. Running sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys failed with a similar error.

I think the problem is that somewhere the default keyservers that Arch was configured with just aren't working at the moment. To fix, I had to edit /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/gpg.conf and specify a different keyserver (e.g. keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com). This seemed to fix the problem. I also had to make the same edit to my per-user '~/.gnupg/gpg.conf`.

So I'm pretty sure this isn't related to yay per-se, but I have no idea where to actually report the problem to as I'm not sure where the default keyservers are actually specified on the system.

[IGBC]

I think I might have had a similar error on my machine. Again, it was a clean install of Arch Linux. Trying to install dropbox with yay gave the same general error from gnupg. Trying to manually import they key directly using gnupg also failed with the same error. Running sudo pacman-key --refresh-keys failed with a similar error.

I think the problem is that somewhere the default keyservers that Arch was configured with just aren't working at the moment. To fix, I had to edit /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/gpg.conf and specify a different keyserver (e.g. keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com). This seemed to fix the problem. I also had to make the same edit to my per-user '~/.gnupg/gpg.conf`.

So I'm pretty sure this isn't related to yay per-se, but I have no idea where to actually report the problem to as I'm not sure where the default keyservers are actually specified on the system.

this fixed my issue, subsequently several hours later the affected PC suffered a hardware failure and died. Please do not ask further questions as I am unable to assist further, due to the PC being dead.

[Jguer]

PC is dead, issue solved

[meredrica]

@mpriestman thanks for the hints. i couldn't figure out where the configs are. can't believe this is still broken on arch