Ubuntu 22.04 GPG error: The following signatures couldn’t be verified

The Ubuntu 22.04 GPG error: The following signatures couldn't be verified is the most common error when attempting to include third party package repositories to the apt package manager. The GPG error should rather be treated as a warning against potential package installation from unknown sources. Therefore, the GPG error message prompts the user to verify and manually import the third party signature belonging to relevant package developer.

In this tutorial, you will see how to remedy this error so that you can install the software from your intended PPA repository on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to import public key signature
  • How to GPG error when installing a package from PPA repo
Ubuntu 22.04 GPG error: The following signatures couldn’t be verified
Ubuntu 22.04 GPG error: The following signatures couldn’t be verified
Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish
Software N/A
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to import GPG public key signature step by step instructions



  1. When you receive the GPG error message, first step is to take a note of the public key (NO_PUBKEY). Example:
    The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 9578539176BAFBC6
    Reading package lists... Done
    W: GPG error: http://ppa.launchpad.net/peek-developers/daily/ubuntu jammy InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 9578539176BAFBC6
    

    From the above output we can see that the missing public key signature is 9578539176BAFBC6.

  2. Use the key retrieved from the GPG error to import it to the Ubuntu 22.04 system by using the apt-key command. Example:
    $ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 9578539176BAFBC6
    Executing: /tmp/apt-key-gpghome.fnm4L3G3iP/gpg.1.sh --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 9578539176BAFBC6
    gpg: key 9578539176BAFBC6: public key "Launchpad PPA for Peek Developers" imported
    gpg: Total number processed: 1
    gpg:               imported: 1
    
  3. Confirm that the public key has been imported by listing all currently imported keys by executing the apt-key list command:
    $ apt-key list
    /etc/apt/trusted.gpg
    --------------------
    pub   rsa4096 2017-02-14 [SC]
          8C95 3129 9E7D F2DC F681  B499 9578 5391 76BA FBC6
    uid           [ unknown] Launchpad PPA for Peek Developers
    
    /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/ubuntu-keyring-2012-archive.gpg
    ------------------------------------------------------
    ...