diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index c4f8f74..ff09970 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -17,8 +17,10 @@ ubuntu-dev-tools (0.116) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
     already manages XSBC-Original (e.g. python).
   * ubuntutools/test/test_update_maintainer.py: update test cases to
     handle checking for debian/rules.
+  * mk-sbuild: work around apt's invocation of GPG needing root's
+    .gnupg directory to already exist.
 
- -- Kees Cook <kees@ubuntu.com>  Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:27:27 -0800
+ -- Kees Cook <kees@ubuntu.com>  Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:00:17 -0800
 
 ubuntu-dev-tools (0.115) unstable; urgency=low
 
diff --git a/mk-sbuild b/mk-sbuild
index 0545d10..1a013b8 100755
--- a/mk-sbuild
+++ b/mk-sbuild
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 #
-# Copyright 2006-2010 (C) Canonical Ltd.
+# Copyright 2006-2011 (C) Canonical Ltd.
 # Authors:
 #  Kees Cook <kees@ubuntu.com>
 #  Emmet Hikory <persia@ubuntu.com>
@@ -442,6 +442,9 @@ case "$SCHROOT_TYPE" in
     MNT=`mktemp -d -t schroot-XXXXXX`
 esac
 
+# work around apt's GPG invocation that fails without root's .gnupg directory
+sudo mkdir -p -m 0700 "$MNT"/root/.gnupg
+
 # debootstrap the chroot
 sudo "$DEBOOTSTRAP_COMMAND" --arch="$CHROOT_ARCH" $variant_opt $debootstrap_opts "$RELEASE" "$MNT" "${DEBOOTSTRAP_MIRROR:-http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu}"