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Re: [LUG] Advice please

 

On 30/04/11 10:00, tom wrote:
> On 29/04/11 13:33, Guy Backhouse wrote:
>> Update Manager is bringing up a 'Summary' screen warning that the
>> updates about to be installed "can't be authenticated"

> It may just be that some authentication servers are busy (BH weekend
> etc)- try again later.

Authentication is by digital signature on the packages, so there are no
authentication servers.

The error means the trusted keys don't include the keys used to sign a
package.

The most common cause of this is 3rd party repositories. i.e. You have a
non-standard repository in your "apt" configuration.

The next most common is the people managing the keys messed up, Debian
seems to change key routinely (good) but historically at least this
process always seemed a little error prone. Occasionally you'd be asked
to trust a new key manually, although the request itself would always be
digitally signed by relevant part of Debian.

I've never had the error because someone slipped in a rogue package to
subvert a system, but I think one has to always assume that might have
happened to avoid compromise. i.e. No one will have sympathy if you
trust random third party software and it eats your data - you can do
that with Microsoft Windows ;)

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