[SOLVED] Can't update or upgrade either online or via CD

[cdupree]

My girlfriend's Dell box is having trouble on the Windows side and I'm trying to update the Linux side so she can work (and possibly convert if I can make it work right ).

When I try to update via KPackageKit I find that I've got blocked updates. So I try sudo apt-get update and it fails with errors like:

Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.40 80]
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Packages
404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.40 80]

I then try sudo aptitude safe-upgrade and it completes without errors but seems to do nothing. Then I run apt-get again with the same results.

I've tried downloading both the Live and Alternate CDs but can't boot with them for reasons I don't understand. Neither they nor a known-good CD with GPartEd will boot correctly on this machine.

Help!

- ced

[Snowhog]

Re: Can't update or upgrade either online or via CD

Kubuntu Jaunty 9.04 reached its EOL (End of Life) on October 23, 2010. All official repositories for Juanty were removed, which is why you are getting the 404 Not Found errors.

But you appear to have a bigger problem than this: being unable to boot a LiveCD. Until that issue is resolved, or you unless you can create/boot from a USB stick, I think your are 'dead in the water.' :P

[cdupree]

Re: Can't update or upgrade either online or via CD

Thanks, Snowhog! I've tested the CDs (Live and Alternate) on my machine and they boot fine, so there's something weird (I assume) about the CD drive's reading of them.

It's not that old a computer, probably about two years, but it might have had a low-end CD-ROM drive. Do you think it would help to buy a new external CD-ROM drive and plug it in, or does it make more sense to try the USB stick approach?

[SteveRiley]

Re: Can't update or upgrade either online or via CD

If her machine can boot via USB drive, that's definitely the way to go. So much faster than installing from optical media!

[cdupree]

Re: Can't update or upgrade either online or via CD

I got a new SanDisk flash drive and installed Kubuntu on it using the built-in Startup Disk Creator, and my machine boots fine with it. My girlfriend's fails with the message "Boot error" and that's it.

Given that she can't boot from the Live or Alternate CDs or a flash drive, all three of which work on my computer, what can I conclude? Would it make a difference to buy a new external DVD/CD drive?

[Snowhog]

Re: Can't update or upgrade either online or via CD

Details on your girlfriends PC would be helpful.

[cdupree]

Re: [SOLVED] Can't update or upgrade either online or via CD

Okay, thanks to everyone's suggestions I've found a path. It turns out that her computer boots with the 10.10 CD and everything before it back to 9.04, but not with 11.04. So I installed a clean 10.10 and am now updating over the net to 11.04.

It seems a bit odd that none of the three paths (Live or Alternate CDs or USB flash drive) worked with 11.04, but 10.10 was fine. Does that make sense to anyone?

Again, many thanks for the help and suggestions!