diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/isar-bootstrap/isar-bootstrap.inc b/meta/recipes-core/isar-bootstrap/isar-bootstrap.inc
index 8f5f727..0edefc5 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/isar-bootstrap/isar-bootstrap.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/isar-bootstrap/isar-bootstrap.inc
@@ -309,14 +309,25 @@ isar_bootstrap() {
             mkdir -p "${ROOTFSDIR}/etc/apt/apt.conf.d"
             install -v -m644 "${WORKDIR}/isar-apt.conf" \
                              "${ROOTFSDIR}/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50isar.conf"
+            if [ "${@get_distro_needs_gpg_support(d)}" = "gnupg" ]; then
+                MY_GPGHOME="$(chroot "${ROOTFSDIR}" mktemp -d /tmp/gpghomeXXXXXXXXXX)"
+                echo "Created temporary directory ${MY_GPGHOME} for gpg-agent"
+                export GNUPGHOME="${MY_GPGHOME}"
+                chroot "${ROOTFSDIR}" gpg-agent --daemon
+                APT_KEY_APPEND="--homedir ${MY_GPGHOME}"
+            fi
             find ${APT_KEYS_DIR}/ -type f | while read keyfile
             do
                 kfn="$(basename $keyfile)"
                 cp $keyfile "${ROOTFSDIR}/tmp/$kfn"
                 chroot "${ROOTFSDIR}" /usr/bin/apt-key \
-                   --keyring ${THIRD_PARTY_APT_KEYRING} add "/tmp/$kfn"
+                    --keyring ${THIRD_PARTY_APT_KEYRING} ${APT_KEY_APPEND} add "/tmp/$kfn"
                 rm "${ROOTFSDIR}/tmp/$kfn"
             done
+            if [ -d "${MY_GPGHOME}" ]; then
+                echo "Killing gpg-agent for ${MY_GPGHOME}"
+                chroot "${ROOTFSDIR}" gpgconf --kill gpg-agent && /bin/rm -rf "${MY_GPGHOME}"
+            fi
 
             if [ "${@get_distro_suite(d, True)}" = "stretch" ] && [ "${@get_host_release().split('.')[0]}" -lt "4" ]; then
                 install -v -m644 "${WORKDIR}/isar-apt-fallback.conf" \