Brave update failed because of missing public key

I’ve been using Brave (installed via .deb file) in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS for about two years without an update failure. For the past couple of weeks I noticed that Brave wasn’t updating. The error message stated that the problem was lack of the public key for the Brave repository.

An internet search suggested the cause was due to a recent change of the location where Ubuntu stores public keys for app repositories. I hoped it was possible to get the public key installed in the new place. After a couple of failures I found this set of terminal commands which did the trick:

sudo curl -fsSL https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg

echo “deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

I imagine that purging and re-installing Brave would also fix the issue. Another search suggested to install Brave via Snap.

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Ahoy! I have had this issue for years, the key no longer being valid and the such. I ended up finding your post trying to sort out my issue again.

I was able to resolve the issue by running their script used to install the browser again. Looking at the output of the text it seems to remove the key and add the new one, thus fixing our issue.

Hope this helps!

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Don’t install the Snap version. Here is the actual repository for Ubuntu and Ubuntu based Distros.

First of all update curl

sudo apt install apt-transport-https curl

Going to add the keyring next

sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg ``https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg

Going to add repository and install Brave keyring

Copy and paste everything below as one line from list back to echo

echo “deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] ``https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/`` stable main”|sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install brave-browser

After Brave installation remove Gnome-keyring

sudo apt remove gnome-keyring

Reboot your computer

sudo reboot

This is how I install Brave in Linux Mint Xfce Edition, which is based on Ubuntu. Let me know how you get on….

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Why? Don’t know; is this a wise idea?

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Something similar happened to me for MySQL, if my memory does not fail me, you must do a reconfiguration to put in your machine the new public key generated by the server, in this case by brave.

It happened for me for an unknown reason, the other valid reason is when the public key expires and a new one is generated in the server, therefore the one stored in your machine as client is not the same than the server

Pls, consider the 2 following links (the solution worked for MySQL):

HTH

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It’s fine, as it only gets rid of Brave-Browser’s annoying login every time user opens it.

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Is there some reason why these 'key ’ problems mostly seem to be an Ubuntu issue?
It suggests that Ubuntu’s management of keys could be improved.

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I dunno on that one, as Linux Mint has no problems. Xubuntu has no problems with it either, as I dual boot Linux Mint 22.2 Zara and Xubuntu 24.04 and both are running Brave quite happily.

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If it only fails at Ubuntu, someone at Ubuntu has to be responsible.

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Just in case in one of my Ubuntu Desktop (22.04.5 LTS) machines after to execute the sudo apt update command appears the following:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
9 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 0686B78420038257
W: Failed to fetch https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/dists/stable/InRelease  The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 0686B78420038257
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

It seems it is the same case reported in this thread … I am going to fix it this weekend

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Maybe you just need to do an update/upgrade before adding Brave?

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Do you mean sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade?

BTW: I have the same “problem” of MySQL in other guests. Once fixed according the Stack Overflow solutions I am going to proceed with Brave

Worst scenario would be uninstall and re-install Brave itself

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Much as I’m not an canonical/ubuntu fan - the problem has also shown up in Debian-based MX Linux. It’s unclear what these failures all have in common, other than that they impact Brave.

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Yes, quite often installs will fail if your package database is not up to date

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I have seen similar messages in antiX, which is also Debian based. … but not with brave. In that case an update/upgrade with apt install --fix as well was the solution.

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Oh it is an excellent reminder … I installed both (MySQL and Brave) with .deb files!

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I may be off base here with my comment question.

When I install Mint I always set it to go in without a password. Yes I set one but only for updates or changes to the system. When a user then tries firefox it opens and they can surf away. But with chrome or chromium they ask for a trust key to be set first time of opening then every other time they must use that key. Could this be related or not ?

I dont use brave as happy with chrome.

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My understanding of it-

gnome keyring-(gnome’s desktop password manager) if you login with a password it will automatically unlock it and you will not get the popup. Auto login will cause it to pop up once to unlock it if a program calls on it. It handles user level passwords like wifi and VPNs and some programs like Chrome that contains passwords etc.. Without it, programs fall back to their built-in “basic” password storage.

By default- gnome password manager sets it’s password to the same as your login password (but it can be changed to something different)

If you change the gnome manager’s password to blank & it will not ask anymore. (technically not as secure- but a lot more convenient) Or you could disable it completely and just let the programs save their own password. (also not as secure)

Repository keyrings are different.

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Hello Paul

In ubuntu Firefox is already installed by default and its update is accomplished through snap.

The others based on Chrome are installed by a .deb file available officially in their official download pages

I remember brave or vivaldi in its own installation process is involved a public key

HTH

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That was the bit I was unsure of

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