Fix slackpkg verification of the gpg signature failed error in Slackware
So you installed Slackware and after selecting a package mirror in /etc/slackpkg/mirrors file, you as root did,
slackpkg update
But instead of updating the package list, slackpkg complained and threw this error,
ERROR: Verification of the gpg signature on CHECKSUMS.md5
failed! This could mean that the file is out of date
or has been tampered with. If you use mirrors.slackware.com
as your mirror, this could also mean that the mirror to
which you got redirected is not yet updated with the most
recent changes in the Slackware tree.
First thing you need to do is make sure that the system clock is set to correct date and time. If it is not set to correct time, open terminal emulator and run as root,
ntpdate pool.ntp.org
This should automagically correct the system time but if for some reason the pool.ntp.org server is busy, try the following server,
ntpdate time.nist.gov
Next just make sure that NTP service is enabled at boot to avoid incorrect date/time in future. In terminal as root do,
chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.ntpd
/etc/rc.d/rc.ntpd start
And finally, as root run the following command to update GPG keys,
slackpkg update gpg
And the moment of truth,
slackpkg update
In 99.99% cases the update process would go without a hitch and if it does, don’t forget to upgrade your Slackware install,
slackpkg upgrade
May the Slack be with you!
