[SOLVED] Help me escape 19.04 hell

[Tom_ZeCat]

At the start of this problem, I had a full head of hair like JFK and now I look like Kojak. If I sound irritated, please don't take it personally. I've just slammed into a brick wall over and over for something that should be simple and easy, IMO. I just want the repositories to work so that I can upgrade my distro. It was last summer sometime when I installed Kubuntu 19.04. I spent HOURS getting things set up how I want them, and installing everything that I use. If I had to install a distro from scratch, that would represent weeks worth of work to get things customized to how Kubuntu 19.04 is right now.

I did not realize that 19.04 was ending its life. All of a sudden one day, Software Discover simple would not work when I needed to update some apps. Here's what it looked like:



After asking on a Kubuntu Facebook group, I realized that support is dropping for it. I figured, no big deal, I'll just run the upgrade commands in the terminal. I tried this, and here's the result:

apt-get update && sudo apt upgrade -y 
Reading package lists... Done 
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (13: Permission denied) 
E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/ 
W: Problem unlinking the file /var/cache/apt/pkgcache.bin - RemoveCaches (13: Permission denied) 
W: Problem unlinking the file /var/cache/apt/srcpkgcache.bin - RemoveCaches (13: Permission denied)

Actually, this is how it does it after I made some changes recommended by folks in the Kubuntu FB group. I then tried this:

apt-get update --allow-insecure-repositories && sudo apt upgrade -y --allow-insecure-repositories

The result was identical.

Here we go. I found the recommended commands from the other group that I ran:

sudo apt update && sudo apt autoclean

apt list --upgradeable

sudo apt full-upgrade -y

sudo apt autoclean && sudo apt autoremove -y

If I try to install anything with Discover, Muon, or the terminal, I get a package not found error. If I try to run the upgrade commands, the upgrade won't work, as you can see in my code examples. It's like Kubuntu is taunting me with, “Na na na, you're going to have to install from scratch.” I'm trying to avoid that after having invested hours and hours wiping Linux Mint/KDE from my system last summer and going with Kubuntu. If I had known this would be the result, I certainly would not have done this. I thought it would be simple to just upgrade to the next Kubuntu whenever necessary.

If I do have to install from scratch, I do have all my settings documented in a CherryTree file. There I also have documented every application I've installed, and info on how to install it if it's not a repository one. Everything I've done is documented, fortunately, but a distro install from scratch still represents weeks of work to get back to where I am now.

Is there some way to save all my Kubuntu settings and then import them after I do an install from scratch? That's basically what I do with LibreOffice. I keep my LO profile saved, and then if I do a distro change or a LO Office reinstall, I just have to copy my LO profile into the new install. Saves me a lot of time. If something like that exists for my Kubuntu settings, that would save me a huge amount of time. Then in my CherryTree documentation file, I have the apps I used categorized into different branches named as "high," "medium," "low," and "basement" priorities. I've done it that way for a while so that if I ever have to start from scratch, I'm at least well organized to get the important stuff installed first.

A guy on the other forum recommends:

The 19.04 repositories are not available anymore, this version is outdated. Try the "old-releases" archives.
http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/

I checked out that link. To me the page looks like a pre-BCE Egyptian prayer book. I just need the repositories to work one more time so that I can tell Kubuntu to update to the latest version. It's been an exercise in sheer frustration trying to get something so basic to do it. I feel like throwing my computer into the Grand Canyon, or even worse, going back to Windows.

If anyone knows what might work, please let me know. Also, will this Kubuntu 20.04 release that we're supposed to see on April 23rd let you set it as LTS? I don't like having to install a distro from scratch every year or less. I was trying to make this thing stable so that I can do work on it every day and not have to spend my time and effort having to troubleshoot it.

If anyone has any suggestions, they're greatly appreciated. I just want this thing to let me update. I just want the repositories to work. I just want to avoid installing the distro from scratch.

[claydoh]

Recent topic here ( two days back) on the same subject, with links

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...-Kubuntu-19-04

Basically you need to edit your /etc/apt/sources.list to edit the urls for all the repos to read old-releases.ubuntu.com in place of us.archive.ubuntu.com
non-LTS releases of *buntu are EOL after 9 months. At some point after this, the packages are moved to the old.releases url.


You missed the sudo with apt-get update

[B]apt-get updat[/B]e && sudo apt upgrade -y 
Reading package lists... Done 
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (13: Permission denied) 
E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/ 
W: Problem unlinking the file /var/cache/apt/pkgcache.bin - RemoveCaches (13: Permission denied) 
W: Problem unlinking the file /var/cache/apt/srcpkgcache.bin - RemoveCaches (13: Permission denied)

it should not make a big difference, but use apt update and apt full-upgrade instead of apt-get, nowdays, just to be safe.


I am surprised the FB group was helpful. I left that as they were very rude, on top of not having a clue (inmsho, of course )

[Tom_ZeCat]

Cool. Thank you so much. I'll go over it all. You may have just saved me hours and hours of work.

[jlittle]

The apt commands do not move the system to new *buntu releases.

AFAIK the command for that is

$ sudo do-release-upgrade

My system is like yours, a reinstall requires many days of work. But, if you are forced into it, a half-way house is to keep your old home directory, an "unclean" install. I wouldn't recommend it if moving KDE major releases, f.ex. 3 to 4, or 4 to plasma, but that last was 2015, and there's no talk of a version after plasma. Extracting a list of packages to install from your doc and installing them all might not be too bad, though I wouldn't automate it.

will this Kubuntu 20.04 release that we're supposed to see on April 23rd let you set it as LTS?

muon -> settings -> configure software sources (or discover -> sources button, software sources), updates tab.
That doesn't do much, it just tells something not to suggest the release upgrade when the non-LTS releases become available.

[Tom_ZeCat]

The apt commands do not move the system to new *buntu releases.

AFAIK the command for that is

$ sudo do-release-upgrade

My system is like yours, a reinstall requires many days of work. But, if you are forced into it, a half-way house is to keep your old home directory, an "unclean" install. I wouldn't recommend it if moving KDE major releases, f.ex. 3 to 4, or 4 to plasma, but that last was 2015, and there's no talk of a version after plasma. Extracting a list of packages to install from your doc and installing them all might not be too bad, though I wouldn't automate it.

muon -> settings -> configure software sources (or discover -> sources button, software sources), updates tab.
That doesn't do much, it just tells something not to suggest the release upgrade when the non-LTS releases become available.

I've successfully upgraded to 19.10, thank God. I'll make sure to do the one to 20.04 before anything like this happens. I'm saving your "dirty" settings save thing, just in case I ever need it. What I've been doing is keeping a detailed record in CherryTree of all my settings and of everything I have installed, and I categorize all the applications between "high," "medium," "low," and "basement" priorities. It helps a lot if I ever have to reinstall from scratch. Here's a screen shot of it. It's still a lot of work to get set back up, but at least I'm well organized, and I can concentrate on the settings and on the "high priority" apps.