Unable to send pgp key to keyserver

Question

Trying to follow the steps in http://packaging.ubuntu.com/singlehtml/ to create a deb package for some software...

I had to start by generating a GPG key

$ gpg --gen-key

Then upload the public part of your key to a keyserver

$ gpg --send-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 12345678
gpg: sending key 12345678 to hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: keyserver timed out
gpg: keyserver send failed: keyserver error

Tried to add port 80 because I read something about firewall blocking these requests

gpg --send-keys --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 C58C1F62
gpg: sending key C58C1F62 to keyserver.ubuntu.com:80
gpgkeys: no keyserver host provided
gpg: keyserver internal error
gpg: keyserver send failed: keyserver error

Tried other servers that I found searching for these errors on the net

$ gpg --send-keys --keyserver sks-keyservers.net:80 12345678
gpg: sending key 12345678 to keyserver.sks-keyservers.net:80
gpgkeys: no keyserver host provided
gpg: keyserver internal error
gpg: keyserver send failed: keyserver error

$ gpg --send-keys --keyserver  pgp.mit.edu:80 12345678
gpg: sending key 12345678 to pgp.mit.edu:80
gpgkeys: no keyserver host provided
gpg: keyserver internal error
gpg: keyserver send failed: keyserver error

also tried

gpg --send-keys --keyserver  keyserver.pgp.com:80 12345678
gpg --send-keys --keyserver  keyserver.sks-keyservers.net:80 12345678

(just in case I needed the "keyserver" thing)

All with the same error.

What am I missing ?

Update: Changed option order and added hkp:\ protocol - and I am still back where I started - with a slight improvement in the message

$ gpg --keyserver hkp://pool.sks-keyservers.net --send-keys 12345678
  gpg: sending key 12345678to hkp server pool.sks-keyservers.net
  gpg: keyserver timed out
  gpg: keyserver send failed: keyserver error

Edit: I read that the missing keyserver host may be a wrong message, actually meaning that the key does not exist on the server... But If I send it, of course it would not exist.

gpg --send-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 C58C1F62
gpg: sending key C58C1F62 to keyserver.ubuntu.com:80
gpgkeys: no keyserver host provided
gpg: keyserver internal error
gpg: keyserver send failed: keyserver error

dig keyserver.ubuntu.com
; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> keyserver.ubuntu.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 40676
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0    
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;keyserver.ubuntu.com.      IN  A    
;; ANSWER SECTION:
keyserver.ubuntu.com.   217 IN  A   91.189.90.55
keyserver.ubuntu.com.   217 IN  A   91.189.89.49    
;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Sep 30 12:41:52 2014
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 70

which means the server exists ? But the QUESTION SECTION looks empty...

gpg --send-keys --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 C58C1F62
gpg: sending key C58C1F62 to hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpgkeys: HTTP post error 7: couldn't connect: eof
gpg: keyserver internal error
gpg: keyserver send failed: keyserver error

dig hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com    
; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 968
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com.    IN  A    
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
ubuntu.com.     899 IN  SOA ns1.canonical.com. hostmaster.canonical.com. 2014093001 10800 3600 604800 3600    
;; Query time: 164 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Sep 30 13:08:37 2014
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 105

I also tried to add an option for proxy...

gpg --keyserver-options http-proxy='http://10.1.1.1:1234/' --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --send-keys C58C1F62
gpg: sending key C58C1F62 to hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpgkeys: HTTP post error 7: couldn't connect: eof
gpg: keyserver internal error
gpg: keyserver send failed: keyserver error

Solution 1

Had same issue. Changed hkps to hkp: gpg --keyserver hkp://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net --send-key. And it worked.

Solution 2

There are multiple problems:

• The --keyserver option must be stated before --send-keys.

• --keyserver expects a URI including the protocol. An example for the Ubuntu keyserver would be

  --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com
  

• You're using the wrong hosts for the sks keyserver network. Read https://sks-keyservers.net/overview-of-pools.php for the available pools. The most general (the other pools are mostly partitioned by region) is pool.sks-keyservers.net, which you can use with

  --keyserver hkp://pool.sks-keyservers.net
  

Comments

[Thalia]

Thanks - I tried but servers still timed out... Please see update

[DavidPostill]

This duplicates another answer and adds no new content. Please don't post an answer unless you actually have something new to contribute.

[auraz]

@DavidPostill In another answer it was not explicitly stated that one should remove (s) in order for this to work. Do you think I should remove my answer?

[lucidbrot]

This same fix applies to problems with fetching keys with enigmail. The solution is to edit the keyserver uri in the settings. Enigmail claims to have not found the key otherwise.