If you have used Debian, Ubuntu, Mint or any other linux distribution that uses APT based package management system. You are sure to have run into the NO_PUBKEY error. It can be marginally frustrating but fortunately it can be easy to fix the apt NO_PUBKEY error and get your system back up and ready to roll.
What is the NO_PUBKEY error?
The APT NO_PUBKEY error shows up when the public/private key pair has changed for one of your APT repositories. When this happens, if your local system or server does not have the correct public key, then it cannot verify the repository. And therefore you get the error. This process is in place to ensure you don’t accidentally download packages from an unknown APT source.
Fix the NO_PUBKEY error
There is a simple command that you can run to download the missing public key from one of the APT key servers. You will just need to replace the portion of the command that says “THE_MISSING_KEY_HERE” with the key that is reported in the error.
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys THE_MISSING_KEY_HERE
So if you receive the following error
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/myrepository/apps/ubuntu/dists/bionic/InRelease The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY EA8CACC073C3DB2A
you would run the following command to get the working public key for the apt repository.
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys EA8CACC073C3DB2A
After the key has been updated you can then run your “apt update” and it should complete successfully.
Fix Multiple Keys with One Command
The following command can be used to fix multiple NO_PUBKEY errors with one command. Or can be used to fix a single NO_PUBKEY error without having to edit the command. It might be overkill but will still get the job done.
sudo apt update 2>&1 1>/dev/null | sed -ne 's/.*NO_PUBKEY //p' | while read key; do if ! [[ ${keys[*]} =~ "$key" ]]; then sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys "$key"; keys+=("$key"); fi; done
So now you know how to perform a Fix APT NO_PUBKEY error. This will keep you up and running, and ensure that you don’t fall behind on your package updates.
For additional details check out Linux Uprisings article about fixing NO_PUBKEY errors.
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