Both "gpg --import public_key.asc" and "gpg --import /usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/pgpkeys-developers.html" don't work. If this helps i had previously updated my FreeBSD 5.3 installation. Which is the problem? Here's the output.
======================================================
vakhos# gpg --import public_key.asc
gpg: failed to create temporary file `/root/.gnupg/.#lk0x80db0c0.vakhos.lan.819': No such file or directory
gpg: keyblock resource `/root/.gnupg/secring.gpg': general error
gpg: failed to create temporary file `/root/.gnupg/.#lk0x80db0c0.vakhos.lan.819': No such file or directory
gpg: keyblock resource `/root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg': general error
gpg: no writable keyring found: eof
gpg: error reading `public_key.asc': general error
gpg: import from `public_key.asc' failed: general error
gpg: Total number processed: 0

======================================================
vakhos# gpg --import /usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/pgpkeys-developers.html
gpg: failed to create temporary file `/root/.gnupg/.#lk0x80db0c0.vakhos.lan.898': No such file or directory
gpg: keyblock resource `/root/.gnupg/secring.gpg': general error
gpg: failed to create temporary file `/root/.gnupg/.#lk0x80db0c0.vakhos.lan.898': No such file or directory
gpg: keyblock resource `/root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg': general error
gpg: no writable keyring found: eof
gpg: error reading `/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/pgpkeys-developers.html': general error
gpg: import from `/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/pgpkeys-developers.html' failed: general error
gpg: Total number processed: 0
vakhos# gpg --import /usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/pgpkeys-developers.html
gpg: failed to create temporary file `/root/.gnupg/.#lk0x80db0c0.vakhos.lan.902': No such file or directory
gpg: keyblock resource `/root/.gnupg/secring.gpg': general error
gpg: failed to create temporary file `/root/.gnupg/.#lk0x80db0c0.vakhos.lan.902': No such file or directory
gpg: keyblock resource `/root/.gnupg/pubring.gpg': general error
gpg: no writable keyring found: eof
gpg: error reading `/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/pgpkeys-developers.html': general error
gpg: import from `/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/pgpkeys-developers.html' failed: general error
gpg: Total number processed: 0
vakhos#

At the risk of asking the obvious -- Does the /root/.gnupg directory exist?

Reading from the output message "no". Sorry, but i have no idea about gpg keys. Looking around i only get to find them; do you know a link, which exactly explains what i must do, how are they used, etc? In a tutorial i was reading in order to set this key up, but i wasn't instructed to to create that file; i thought the problem is more than that.

I think this is the one I've referred other people to. Read it all and you'll have a much better understanding of how gpg works.

I had a similar problem. I solved it by using ls -l ~/.gnupg/ to discover that my secring.gpg file was owned by root.root instead of my own account. Fixing that using chown made gpg start working.

Dear All,

I would like to also add my comments for the same problem which I went for only in the creation of file .gnupg in the root directory and it did work.

Thanks !!!!!