Temporary solution for Ubuntu’s “not have a Release file”


It’s wired that when I tried to update the Ubuntu zesty and install some new packages today, I got such errors below.

Err:8 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-security Release      
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.161 80]
Err:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty Release
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.152 80]
Err:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-updates Release
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.152 80]
Reading package lists... Done
E: The repository 'http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-security Release' does no longer have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
E: The repository 'http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
E: The repository 'http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-updates Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

And none of the other mirrors works to me. All of them has the same issue “no longer have a Release file”. I did some research and found the error message actually has another form “not have a Release file”.

The solution is easy but tricky — Disable all sources of `security.ubuntu.com` and replace `archive.ubuntu.com` to `old-releases.ubuntu.com`.

The full sources.list is listed as follows.

deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ zesty main restricted
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ zesty-updates main restricted
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ zesty universe
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ zesty-updates universe
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ zesty multiverse
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ zesty-updates multiverse
deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ zesty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-security main restricted
# deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-security universe
# deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty-security multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu zesty partner

I don’t know why it raises such error, and I’m not sure will it be a temporary issue or someone just hijacked the server. But at least, it works for me now. I can continue installing the software and finish my job. Cheers.

Join the Conversation

4 Comments

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *