How to fix Ubuntu/Debian apt-get 404 Not Found Package Repository Errors

How to fix Ubuntu/Debian apt-get 404 Not Found Package Repository Errors (Saucy, Raring, Quantal, Oneiric, Natty…)

21 Jul , 2014 44 Comments Standard Post

If you’re using a normal version of Ubuntu such as Saucy, Raring, Quantal, Oneiric, Natty, Maverick, etc, you may have already (and will eventually) start getting “Failed to fetch 404 Not Found” errors when trying to run  apt-getupdate , or even sometimes running apt-get install , but fear not, it is easy to fix, and here’s how…

Why am I getting this error?

Normal Ubuntu releases are supported for 9 months, whereas LTS (Long Term Support) releases are supported for 5 years.  Once support is up for the version of Ubuntu you are using the repository is moved to another server and will no longer be available on the standard  http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dist/ location.

Ubuntu Release Details

The most simple solution would be to upgrade to a newer version:

1	sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

BUT, for some of us that isn’t an option right now, or maybe you don’t want to upgrade.  With a simple sed command you can update the  /etc/apt/sources.list file to use the new location for the old package repository.

How can I fix it without upgrading?

Run this command below on your server and it will replace all of the  archive.ubuntu.com  and security.ubuntu.com package repository URLs with  old-releases.ubuntu.com

1	sudo sed -i -e 's/archive.ubuntu.com\|security.ubuntu.com/old-releases.ubuntu.com/g' /etc/apt/sources.list

For Linux Mint, run this command as well:

1	sudo sed -i -e 's/archive.ubuntu.com\|security.ubuntu.com/old-releases.ubuntu.com/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list

You may also want to see if there are other files in  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/  that need to be updated, which can be done with a simple grep command:

1	grep -E 'archive.ubuntu.com|security.ubuntu.com' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

Now update apt-get sources:

1	sudo apt-get update

Profit!