Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)

pizpower · 07-16-2020, 03:31 AM

Hello,

Am having an issue when doing apt-get update/upgrade.

errors am having:

Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease [111 kB]
Err:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease [98.3 kB]
Err:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
Ign:4 http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge InRelease
Get:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease [107 kB]
Err:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
Err:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
Get:6 http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge Release [16.9 kB]
Get:7 http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge Release.gpg [173 B]
Err:7 http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge Release.gpg
Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
Fetched 334 kB in 1s (281 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease: Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease: Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease: Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease: Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge Release: Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal/InRelease Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dis...ates/InRelease Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dis...orts/InRelease Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dis...rity/InRelease Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
W: Failed to fetch http://download.webmin.com/download/...ge/Release.gpg Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

---

Permissions:

drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Apr 29 13:05 private-keys-v1.d
-rw------- 1 root root 31803 Apr 29 14:29 pubring.kbx
-rw------- 1 root root 29402 Apr 29 14:29 pubring.kbx~
srwx------ 1 root root 0 Apr 30 14:30 S.gpg-agent
srwx------ 1 root root 0 Apr 30 14:30 S.gpg-agent.browser
srwx------ 1 root root 0 Apr 30 14:30 S.gpg-agent.extra
srwx------ 1 root root 0 Apr 30 14:30 S.gpg-agent.ssh
-rw------- 1 root root 49152 Apr 29 13:05 tofu.db
-rw------- 1 root root 1200 Apr 29 13:11 trustdb.gpg

Can someone help please?

Thanks.

rtmistler · 07-17-2020, 12:37 PM

Just a potential guess here.

Is your disk out of space?

Because the package manager may be just offering a similar guess as to what I'm saying.

The other thing is did you use sudo to issue the command so that you'd have root privileges? Or is your login already root?

That would be:

Code:

$ sudo apt-get <command>

uteck · 07-17-2020, 01:59 PM

apt usually works out of /var/cache/apt so check permissions and space there.

pizpower · 07-21-2020, 01:57 AM

Hello,

sorry for the late reply.

yes am already root.

with regards to space: only 6% in use, I have 274G available space.

ondoho · 07-21-2020, 06:58 AM

I found where the error originates from, it's a shell function inside the apt-key.in script:

Code:

# gpg needs (in different versions more or less) files to function correctly,
# so we give it its own homedir and generate some valid content for it later on
create_gpg_home() {
    # for cases in which we want to cache a homedir due to expensive setup
    if [ -n "$GPGHOMEDIR" ]; then
	return
    fi
    if [ -n "$TMPDIR" ]; then
	# tmpdir is a directory and current user has rwx access to it
	# same tests as in apt-pkg/contrib/fileutl.cc GetTempDir()
	if [ ! -d "$TMPDIR" ] || [ ! -r "$TMPDIR" ] || [ ! -w "$TMPDIR" ] || [ ! -x "$TMPDIR" ]; then
	    unset TMPDIR
	fi
    fi
    GPGHOMEDIR="$(mktemp --directory --tmpdir 'apt-key-gpghome.XXXXXXXXXX')"
    CURRENTTRAP="${CURRENTTRAP} cleanup_gpg_home;"
    trap "${CURRENTTRAP}" 0 HUP INT QUIT ILL ABRT FPE SEGV PIPE TERM
    if [ -z "$GPGHOMEDIR" ]; then
	apt_error "Could not create temporary gpg home directory in $TMPDIR (wrong permissions?)"
	exit 28
    fi
    chmod 700 "$GPGHOMEDIR"
}

Wild guess: Your /tmp is not writeable and/or $TMPDIR is not set.

shruggy · 07-21-2020, 07:17 AM

TMPDIR is definitely not set, this would explain lack of the directory name in the error message:

Code:

Could not create temporary gpg home directory in (wrong permissions?)

But /tmp not being writable would manifest in much more than only apt-get failure. I'd say the partition containing /tmp being out of space as hinted by rtmistler above is the most probable cause.

@OP. Try to create a temporary directory by hand with

Code:

mktemp -d --tmpdir

What message do you get?