Re: W: GPG error: http://security.debian.org stable/updates Release: Unknown error executing gpgv

On Sat, 24 Dec 2005 02:23:17 +0100, <ANTant@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello! I am having a minor problem with apt-get update today:

# apt-get update
[...] 
W: GPG error: http://security.debian.org stable/updates Release: Unknown error executing gpgv
W: GPG error: http://security.debian.org testing/updates Release: Unknown error executing gpgv
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems


Any software that outputs "unknown error" should be abandoned immediately.

Do you have a program called gpgv? Is it in your path? If so, run

  strace -o /tmp/apt.strace -f apt-get update

(make sure you have room in /tmp, or use another directory)

Search the resulting /tmp/apt.strace for "execv.*gpgv", and note the
process id (leftmost number). Extract all lines with that initial number,
and look at the last part of the resulting file. Look for "=.*E"
to identify failed system calls.

It is normal to issue a sequence of failed calls, when e.g. doing execve
and trying all directories in the path.  Look for more telling errors.
If you don't find any, the error is probably an invalid gpg key.

Look in the main strace file for the line "fork...= <pid>" or
"clone...= <pid>" to determine the parent process of gpgv, and see if
you can determine where it get's it's idea about the "correct" keys
from.  What key repository files does it open?

Can you run gpgv with the same command line parameters?  It is possible
to run strace so that it shows more of the data passed in read and write
calls. Can you run gpgv with the same input?  Do you see in the strace
any error messages gpgv sends to apt-get?

YMMV

I have never used Debian.  Don't listen to me.  Especially when
I say "don't listen to me".  You have been warned.  Merry Christmas.

-Enrique
.

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