---
title: "When pacman says \"error: required key missing from keyring\""
date: 2020-10-20T08:02:14+05:30
lastmod: 2022-04-06T08:02:14+05:30
draft: false
keywords: [pacman]
description: ""
tags: [pacman]
categories: [linux]
author: ""

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---

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```
warning: Public keyring not found; have you run 'pacman-key --init'?
downloading required keys...
error: keyring is not writable
error: required key missing from keyring
error: failed to commit transaction (could not find or read file)
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.
```

This is what happened when I ran `pacman -S zsh` on my new WSL2 install.

I wasted a lot of time trying to fix this thing. I'll jump to the conclusion so you don't have to waste your time too. Entering these (as root) worked for me.
```
rm -r /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/
pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinux
pacman -Sc
pacman -Syyu
```

Read the thread here: https://bbs.archlinux32.org/viewtopic.php?id=522&p=2