Ubuntu Personal Package Archives (PPAs) let you upload source packages to be built. There’s help on PPAs which lists these requirements:

1. learn Ubuntu packaging
2. install dput – sudo apt-get install dput
3. have imported your PGP key to your Launchpad account.
4. become an Ubuntero (i.e. you must sign the Ubuntu Community Code of Conduct)

Becoming an Ubuntero lists:

1. Log into your Launchpad account and click your name in the top-right corner of the page.
2. Click Codes of Conduct in the Actions menu in the left-hand column of the screen.
3. Following the on-screen instructions to download the most recent Code of Conduct, then sign it using gpg.
   Note: You must import your pgp signature before signing the Code of Conduct.

First, get a GPG key into launchpad. If you don’t have a gpg key, read this. Go to: https://launchpad.net/people/+me/+editpgpkeys

For whatever reason ‘gpg –list-keys’ doesn’t output column headers of any kind and making it more verbose with a ‘-v’ argument doesn’t do much useful.

$gpg --list-keys -v
gpg: using PGP trust model
/home/bryanm/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
-------------------------------
pub   1024D/874DF056 2008-04-09
uid                  Bryan McLellan 
sub   2048g/857DA9D9 2008-04-09

The GNU Privacy Handbook discusses what the fields are for. The hexadecimal number after the / is the key-id. You’ll want to upload the pub key to the keyserver like so:

$ gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --send-key 874DF056
gpg: sending key 874DF056 to hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com

Then get the key fingerprint and put it in launchpad at https://launchpad.net/people/+me/+editpgpkeys:

$ gpg --fingerprint 857DA9D9
pub   1024D/874DF056 2008-04-09
      Key fingerprint = 5056 0995 E4F5 5338 70A6  A0FD FD58 20E3 874D F056
uid                  Bryan McLellan 
sub   2048g/857DA9D9 2008-04-09

If launchpad can match the fingerprint to a key in the ubuntu keyserver, it will email you an encrypted message. With a helpful, albeit late, link to a GPG howto. Since I use Gmail and Firefox, I use FireGPG to decrypt the message. Highlight the encrypted portion of the message then choose Tools -> FireGPG -> Decrypt. (Or, if you want a few moments you’ll get a “Decrypt this message” option near the bottom of the message next to reply/forward). Inside the decrypted message you’ll get a link to follow to confirm the key.

Once you have a key set up, follow this link to the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. You can also get there from https://launchpad.net/people/+me/, then scrolling down to the bottom where it says “Ubunteroo: No”. There’s a button after the ‘no’ that you can click on.

Read it. This entire post is triggered because of issues I’m having with multipath and udev and getting to the point where I’m going to have to fix it myself. It’s good to be reminded to calm down.

When you choose the ‘Sign It’ option you’ll download the text and sign the file, then upload the signed message. The directions in launchpad at this point are pretty clear. When finished, your user account in launchpad should now list you as an Ubunteroo.

Now go to: https://launchpad.net/people/+me/+activate-ppa
. Read and accept the terms of service to activate your PPA.