Issues with apt-get update on Ubuntu
I am currently getting the following errors on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. I need to update the system to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, but package updates need to be completed first. How do I fix these errors?
W: The repository 'http://ppa.launchpad.net/nijel/phpmyadmin/ubuntu xenial Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Data from such a repository can't be authenticated and is therefore potentially dangerous to use.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
E: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/nijel/phpmyadmin/ubuntu/dists/xenial/main/binary-amd64/Packages 403 Forbidden [IP: 2001:67c:1560:8008::15 80]
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
5 Replies
Take a look at your repo list and see if that ppa repo which is giving you an error message is configured correctly.
There might be an updated source link or it’s possibly no longer available anymore.
Smccabe
Linode Staff
Hey there,
I took a look into this, and from what I gather this ppa has been abandoned for a while, or at least it is extremely slow to update. From the quick testing that I have done, the following commands should install/upgrade phpmyadmin for you:
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo apt install phpmyadmin
I don't know anything about phpadmin but you could always save your manually-edited configuration, uninstall it, update Ubuntu and then re-install it. On a successful re-install, you would restore your manually-edited configuration. Since nobody is going to be using phpadmin while you're doing the dist-upgrade, this will get you where you want to be as well.
-- sw
P.S. Make sure you don't run into this problem:
https://www.linode.com/community/questions/19490/upgrade-php-to-73-unmet-dependencies
in the process.
Thank you all!
The kind of errors one might face when an update fails:
Error with “Hash sum Mismatch” :
When checking for updates, you end up getting a “Failed To Download Repository Information” error.
This problem affects particularly rapidly changing repositories, such as the development release.
In order to fix this issue, you would just need to remove all the content of the directory /var/lib/apt/lists. Run the following command in the terminal :
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
then run:
sudo apt-get update
“Problem with MergeList” error :
It is one of the most frequently occurring errors during an Ubuntu update. It can happen when using both the sudo apt-get update in terminal and Ubuntu Update Manager. The error text might look similar to the following:
E:Encountered a section with no Package: header,
E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_precise_universe_binary-i386_Packages,
E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
Issue the following commands to fix the problem:
sudo rm -r /var/lib/apt/lists/*
sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get update
For more errors, you can refer to net2.(How to fix Ubuntu update) errors (https://net2.com/how-to-fix-ubuntu-update-errors/)