Ubuntu sudo apt get update 404 Not Found problem

Question

I am using Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS. I've been facing an error for 2 days that is, I can't update or upgrade or perform package installs on my system because of the following errors:

Hit:1 http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable InRelease                                                                   
Hit:2 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu focal InRelease                                                                         
Hit:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/deadsnakes/ppa/ubuntu focal InRelease                                                              
Hit:4 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease                                                                      
Ign:5 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease                                                                       
Ign:6 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease                                                               
Hit:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kicad/kicad-5.1-releases/ubuntu focal InRelease                                                    
Hit:8 https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable stable InRelease                                                                         
Hit:9 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable InRelease                                                                
Ign:10 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease                                                            
Ign:11 http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-gcc-arm-embedded/ppa/ubuntu focal InRelease                                           
Ign:12 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease                                                      
Err:14 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal Release                                                                        
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.247 80]
Err:15 http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-gcc-arm-embedded/ppa/ubuntu focal Release                                                    
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.95.85 80]
Err:16 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates Release                                                           
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.247 80]
Hit:17 https://linux-clients.seafile.com/seafile-deb/focal stable InRelease                
Err:18 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports Release 
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.247 80]
Err:19 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security Release  
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.247 80]
Ign:13 https://launchpad.net/~terry.guo/+archive/gcc-arm-embedded focal InRelease
Err:20 https://launchpad.net/~terry.guo/+archive/gcc-arm-embedded focal Release
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.89.222 443]
Reading package lists... Done

How can I solve this ?

Why do you have old-releases in your sources? Focal is hardly an "old release" ... — matigo, Jan 05 '22 at 14:59
Does this answer your question? How do I restore the default repositories? Your sources.list is messed up. Just reset them, and then re-add any repos your really need after, like for VS Code — cocomac, Jan 05 '22 at 15:01
If @cocomac's solution did not work, then you will need to open your /etc/apt/sources.list file and fix the issue manually. Focal Fossa is not at all an "old release", so the URL naturally 404s. You will need to replace old-releases.ubuntu.com with something logical, like archive.ubuntu.com (or the one for your geographical region) — matigo, Jan 05 '22 at 15:08
Does this answer your question? *Error* for Sudo apt-get update on ubuntu 20.04 — N0rbert, Jan 05 '22 at 15:13
Do you remember who and why changed "archive" to "old-releases" for supported 20.04 LTS (focal) release? Both team-gcc-arm-embedded and ~terry.guo do not provide packages for 20.04, you have to disable them. — N0rbert, Jan 05 '22 at 15:14
@N0rbert It's clear that they've updated from an old release to 20.04 using the sed command. So, maybe they were on 17.04 and replaced the codename to focal in their sources.list. — Error404, Jan 05 '22 at 15:21
I dont know but my friends have same issue although they have different ubuntu versions (16.04, 18.0 , 20.04). Is this problem cause of the region? — gogogo, Jan 06 '22 at 06:24
@gogogo Did you try my answer? What is the result of apt update now? — Error404, Jan 06 '22 at 08:39
I did all things I get below lines output: Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease Hit:4 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu focal InRelease Hit:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease Reading package lists... Done — gogogo, Jan 06 '22 at 08:41
@gogogo Great! Seems the problem is solved. You can run sudo apt update to look for upgradeable packages. — Error404, Jan 06 '22 at 09:38
Does this answer your question? How can I fix a 404 Error when using a PPA or updating my package lists? — muru, Jan 06 '22 at 10:04
You can use http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu for older versions — Ajouve, Dec 05 '22 at 17:52

Error404 · Accepted Answer · 2023-09-24T14:30:04.177

102

Most of the repositories and PPAs in your sources.list are no longer available and are throwing errors. I'd recommend restoring the default repositories.

First, restore the default repositories using these commands:

mkdir ~/solution
cd ~/solution/

cat << EOF > ~/solution/sources.list
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu focal partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu focal partner
EOF
sudo sed -i "s/focal/$(lsb_release -c -s)/" ~/solution/sources.list
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo cp ~/solution/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list

Remove all the PPAs in your system:

sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/* ~/solution

Update the repositories:
```
sudo apt update
```

All set!

edited Sep 24 '23 at 14:30

answered Jan 05 '22 at 15:22

Error404

8,333

2

awesome.. finally this fixed it after almost 2 hours of trying. thank you so much! – supersan Aug 10 '22 at 16:28
At the end of your regimen, it says, "40 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them." How do I proceed? – Michael Levy Dec 30 '23 at 23:46
1

@MichaelLevy you should upgrade those packages, run sudo apt upgrade – Error404 Jan 02 '24 at 07:43
2

I'm seeing (many) errors like this archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/vivid-backports/multiverse/binary-amd64/Packages 404 Not Found [IP: 185.125.190.39 80] even after patching as described. https://gist.github.com/bsodmike/1e79af133390bc12a5f132a8fa3435f4 – Michael De Silva Mar 31 '24 at 14:35
Thanks That helped get rid of the issue that prevented me from doing do-release-upgrade. – Amir Khalil Aug 07 '24 at 00:02
sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/* ~/solution gives mv: cannot stat '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/*': No such file or directory. Endresult is still 404 Not Found. – fabpico Mar 06 '25 at 14:51
[June 2025] Is archive.ubuntu.com no longer the standard place to get official repos? I still get "'http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu noble Release' does not have a Release file" after re-initializing /etc/apt/source.list per Error404's solution (I'm running 24.04.2 LTS == "noble"). /etc/apt/source.list.d is EMPTY. I did udo rm -r /var/lib/apt/lists/*. Still sudo apt update shows this error: Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease [256 kB] Err:3 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu noble Release 404 Not Found [IP: 185.125.188.12 80] – jimav Jun 16 '25 at 17:46

Ubuntu sudo apt get update 404 Not Found problem

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