downgraded a test group of 10 machines to gpg 2.0.x, opensuse pkg'd. none are misbehaving after a couple of hours have passed ... it the same time, with the same repos, the gpg 2.1.x machines ARE having issues. note, that on the 2.1.x boxes, after a zypper clean --all a zypper ref required each & every repos' gpg key to be re-DL'd, with interactive approval (yes/no) whereas after the same cmd exec on a 2.0.x box, no such problem: zypper clean --all All repositories have been cleaned up. zypper -v ref Verbosity: 1 Initializing Target Specified repositories: Checking whether to refresh metadata for Backup Retrieving: repomd.xml.asc ....................................................................................[done] Retrieving: repomd.xml.key ....................................................................................[done] Retrieving: repomd.xml ........................................................................................[done] Repository: Backup Key Name: Archiving OBS Project <Archiving@build.opensuse.org> Key Fingerprint: F532523A DE4BBF1C BFF6523F 6B7485DB 725A0C43 Key Created: Thu 11 Oct 2012 08:22:15 AM PDT Key Expires: Sat 20 Dec 2014 07:22:15 AM PST (expires in 25 days) Rpm Name: gpg-pubkey-725a0c43-5076e427 Retrieving: 5f6b14d6c6f7ea50cf3dc91375181fe1ee591fe03182d5dcfee07aa3811c75a2-primary.xml.gz ...................[done] Retrieving repository 'Backup' metadata .......................................................................[done] Building repository 'Backup' cache ............................................................................[done] Checking whether to refresh metadata for BaseSystem Retrieving: repomd.xml.asc ....................................................................................[done] Retrieving: repomd.xml.key ....................................................................................[done] Retrieving: repomd.xml ........................................................................................[done] Repository: BaseSystem Key Name: Base:System OBS Project <Base:System@build.opensuse.org> Key Fingerprint: 9B76956C 9465B30D 7364090D 88EB5D66 E2C0098C Key Created: Tue 05 Feb 2013 05:40:55 AM PST Key Expires: Thu 16 Apr 2015 06:40:55 AM PDT Rpm Name: gpg-pubkey-e2c0098c-51110be7 ...