How To Solve “error: required key missing from keyring” In Arch Linux, EndeavourOS, Manjaro Linux

Today, I deployed a new Arch Linux Container in my Proxmox VE server. When I tried to update the Arch Linux container using "pacman -Syyu" command, I encountered with this error - "error: keyring is not writable. error: required key missing from keyring".

Here is the complete output:

[root@archlinuxct ~]# pacman -Syyu
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core                                                                155.6 KiB   199 KiB/s 00:01 [########################################################] 100%
 extra                                                              1742.4 KiB  3.22 MiB/s 00:01 [########################################################] 100%
 community                                                             7.3 MiB  3.40 MiB/s 00:02 [########################################################] 100%
:: Starting full system upgrade...
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (69) acl-2.3.1-3  archlinux-keyring-20230225-1  audit-3.0.9-2  bash-5.1.016-3  brotli-1.0.9-10  bzip2-1.0.8-5  ca-certificates-mozilla-3.88.1-1
              cryptsetup-2.6.1-1  curl-7.88.1-3  dbus-1.14.6-1  device-mapper-2.03.19-1  e2fsprogs-1.47.0-1  file-5.44-3  filesystem-2023.01.31-1
              findutils-4.9.0-2  gawk-5.2.1-1  gcc-libs-12.2.1-2  glib2-2.74.5-1  glibc-2.37-2  gnutls-3.8.0-1  gpgme-1.18.0-2  grep-3.8-3  gzip-1.12-2
              hwdata-0.367-1  iana-etc-20230105-1  icu-72.1-2  iproute2-6.2.0-2  iptables-1:1.8.9-1  iputils-20221126-1  krb5-1.20.1-1  less-1:608-2
              libarchive-3.6.2-2  libcap-2.67-1  libedit-20210910_3.1-2  libelf-0.188-3  libgcrypt-1.10.1-2  libgpg-error-1.46-2  libksba-1.6.3-1
              libldap-2.6.4-1  libnftnl-1.2.4-1  libnghttp2-1.52.0-1  libnl-3.7.0-3  libpcap-1.10.3-1  libpsl-0.21.2-1  libsasl-2.1.28-4
              libsysprof-capture-3.46.0-4  libtirpc-1.3.3-2  libxcrypt-4.4.33-1  linux-api-headers-6.1.9-1  mpfr-4.2.0-3  nano-7.2-1  ncurses-6.4-1
              openssh-9.2p1-1  openssl-3.0.8-1  pacman-mirrorlist-20230226-1  pciutils-3.9.0-2  pcre2-10.42-2  psmisc-23.6-1  readline-8.2.001-2  sed-4.9-2
              shadow-4.13-2  sqlite-3.41.0-1  systemd-253-1  systemd-libs-253-1  systemd-sysvcompat-253-1  tzdata-2022g-2  xz-5.4.1-1  zlib-1:1.2.13-2
              zstd-1.5.4-1

Total Installed Size:  415.55 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:        2.57 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y
(69/69) checking keys in keyring                                                                 [########################################################] 100%
warning: Public keyring not found; have you run 'pacman-key --init'?
downloading required keys...
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: keyring is not writable
error: required key missing from keyring
error: failed to commit transaction (unexpected error)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.
[root@archlinuxct ~]# 

I tried to install archlinux-keyring package to solve the issue:

# pacman -S archlinux-keyring

But, no luck! I encountered with the same error. After a couple Google searches, I fixed the "error: required key missing from keyring" issue as shown below.

Solve "error: required key missing from keyring" in Arch Linux

Run the following commands as root user to fix "error: required key missing from keyring" in Arch Linux and its variants like EndeavourOS and Manjaro Linux.

First, remove or reset all the keys installed in your system by removing the /etc/pacman.d/gnupg directory as root user:

# rm -r /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/

Next, run pacman-key --init followed by pacman-key --populate command to initialize the pacman keyring and re-add the default keys.

# pacman-key --init
# pacman-key --populate archlinux
# pacman-key --populate archlinux32

Please note that if you don't use 32 bit system, you can skip the "pacman-key --populate archlinux32" command.

Next, run the following command to manually update the keys.

# pacman-key --refresh-keys

While doing --refresh-keys, your local key will also be looked up on the remote keyserver, and you will receive a message about it not being found. This is nothing to be concerned about. This will take several minutes to complete, so please be patient!

And then clean the package cache using command:

# pacman -Sc

Finally, update the software repository list and upgrade your Arch Linux by running the following command:

# pacman -Syyu

Now you will be able to upgrade your Arch Linux system without any issues. Hope this helps.

Reference Link:

• Arch Linux Forum