Having trouble upgrading from 18.04 to 20.04 likely due to lack of valid signature on older unsupported versions

Question

For background, yesterday I tried to upgrade from 18.04 to 20.04 using the itsfoss guide and immediately ran into trouble. My cpu exceeds system requirements, however, it came with Win 10 and I dual-booted Ubuntu shortly after purchase 2 yrs ago. I've used Ubuntu as an OS for over 8 years, but I am a Linux novice who is mostly limited to copying and pasting instructions into the terminal window. It's likely the problem is me due to poor understanding of system architecture/disk partitioning and/or lack of regular maintenance after version upgrades.

When I first ran sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade I immediately had error messages about lacking appropriate signatures and spent hours yesterday searching for and attempting troubleshooting, but didn't get anywhere except different error messages. I saved my files prior to starting and I probably would consider wiping the cpu and starting over were it not for the fact that I am dual-booted with windows and fear that would be a bigger challenge for me. So, as you read my current error msg below, let me know if you think erasing everything and installing 20.04 from scratch is the better option (and if there are any warnings I'd need to know). Orr, is there a way to get this to work?

Currently, my Software Updater says "Not all updates can be installed" and says that I can continue with a partial upgrade. After researching partial upgrades, it looks like that is a bad idea that doesn't work out well for amateurs like me, so I have not tried that yet.

Thank you for looking this over! Here are the last 4 error messages in my terminal, (most recent first):

sj@sj-lenovo-yoga-920:~$ sudo update-manager
[sudo] password for sj: 
WARNING:root:Error loading .desktop file /usr/share/applications/vim.desktop: constructor returned NULL
(software-properties-gtk:10419): IBUS-WARNING **: 00:15:14.586: The owner of /home/sj/.config/ibus/bus is not root!
(software-properties-gtk:10419): IBUS-WARNING **: 00:15:14.848: Unable to connect to ibus: Unexpected lack of content trying to read a line
WARNING:root:Error loading .desktop file /usr/share/applications/vim.desktop: constructor returned NULL

sj@sj-lenovo-yoga-920:~$ sudo update-manager
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeFetcher.py:23: PyGIWarning: Gtk was imported without specifying a version first. Use gi.require_version('Gtk', '3.0') before import to ensure that the right version gets loaded.
  from gi.repository import Gtk, Gdk
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/ReleaseNotesViewerWebkit.py:33: PyGIWarning: WebKit2 was imported without specifying a version first. Use gi.rerequire_versionquire_version('WebKit2', '4.0') before import to ensure that the right version gets loaded.
  from gi.repository import WebKit2 as WebKit
(do-release-upgrade:4796): IBUS-WARNING **: 23:31:37.339: The owner of /home/sj/.config/ibus/bus is not root!
Gtk-Message: 23:31:37.348: GtkDialog mapped without a transient parent. This is discouraged.
(do-release-upgrade:4796): IBUS-WARNING **: 23:31:37.349: Unable to connect to ibus: Unexpected lack of content trying to read a line
authenticate 'focal.tar.gz' against 'focal.tar.gz.gpg' 
Gtk-Message: 23:31:50.285: GtkDialog mapped without a transient parent. This is discouraged.
sj@sj-lenovo-yoga-920:~$ sudo update-manager
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeFetcher.py:23: PyGIWarning: Gtk was imported without specifying a version first. Use gi.require_version('Gtk', '3.0') before import to ensure that the right version gets loaded.
  from gi.repository import Gtk, Gdk
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/ReleaseNotesViewerWebkit.py:33: PyGIWarning: WebKit2 was imported without specifying a version first. Use gi.require_version('WebKit2', '4.0') before import to ensure that the right version gets loaded.
  from gi.repository import WebKit2 as WebKit
(do-release-upgrade:5692): IBUS-WARNING **: 23:36:09.636: The owner of /home/sj/.config/ibus/bus is not root!
Gtk-Message: 23:36:09.646: GtkDialog mapped without a transient parent. This is discouraged.
(do-release-upgrade:5692): IBUS-WARNING **: 23:36:09.646: Unable to connect to ibus: Unexpected lack of content trying to read a line
authenticate 'focal.tar.gz' against 'focal.tar.gz.gpg' 
Gtk-Message: 23:36:21.886: GtkDialog mapped without a transient parent. This is discouraged.

sj@sj-lenovo-yoga-920:~$ sudo update-manager
(software-properties-gtk:2963): IBUS-WARNING **: 23:26:10.206: The owner of /home/sj/.config/ibus/bus is not root!
NOTE: Deleted 2 Warning entries because filter said they look like spam
(software-properties-gtk:2963): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 23:26:35.954: gtk_box_gadget_distribute: assertion 'size >= 0' failed in GtkNotebook
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/DistUpgradeFetcher.py:23: PyGIWarning: Gtk was imported without specifying a version first. Use gi.require_version('Gtk', '3.0') before import to ensure that the right version gets loaded.
  from gi.repository import Gtk, Gdk
/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/DistUpgrade/ReleaseNotesViewerWebkit.py:33: PyGIWarning: WebKit2 was imported without specifying a version first. Use gi.require_version('WebKit2', '4.0') before import to ensure that the right version gets loaded.
  from gi.repository import WebKit2 as WebKit

NOTE: Deleted 2 additional IBUS warnings because filter thought it was spam

 'focal.tar.gz' against 'focal.tar.gz.gpg' 
Gtk-Message: 23:28:00.767: GtkDialog mapped without a transient parent. This is discouraged.

sj@sj-lenovo-yoga-920:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

NOTE: This msg is full of links to ubuntu releases. Because I am a new member, I am limited to 8 links per post. Therefore I deleted the first 7 that were ok and I've removed "http:" from the beginning of the rest in hope it passes the filter

Get:8 http://us.old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                
Err:8 http://us.old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                
  Clearsigned file isn't valid, got 'NOSPLIT' (does the network require authentication?)
Hit:9 //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease              
Ign:10 //old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease         -
Get:11 //us.old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful InRelease               
Err:11 //us.strong textold-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful InRelease         
  Clearsigned file isn't valid, got 'NOSPLIT' (does the network require authentication?)
Err:12 http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security Release           
  404  Not Found [IP: 2001:67c:1360:8001::25 80]
Get:13 //us.o

NOTE: deleted about 100 similar lines b/c filter thought was spam

Apologies to all for the messy question - I can usually work things out, but this one has been tough. Please let me know if you need additional info or more copypasta from my terminal.

You should not have old-releases for supported 18.04 LTS version. Please change old-releases back to archive. And then run sudo apt-get update again. — N0rbert, Jul 20 '20 at 14:43
@N0rbert I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean. You say to change something back, but I don't know how to do that. I never intentionally changed anything and if it changed because of me, it happened automatically when I pasted in a command from a help guide (I never went in anywhere and typed "old-releases"). I have little understanding of how this stuff works and I'm pretty much limited to copying and pasting commands into the terminal. — Eskmod, Jul 23 '20 at 08:08
@karel No, I don't think so. To the extent I understand that the problem that person had was due to that person using their University network and not properly signing in. I don't have that problem. I'm on my home wifi and don't have network access issues. Thanks, though. — Eskmod, Jul 26 '20 at 10:11
@Norbert, I tried your link without success, but I am tired and will try again tomorrow since it looks like I'll need to go through links to other answers to figure it out. I got stumped where he pasted the large box of sources.list files for 12.04. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to copy that entire box of 12.04 and insert 'bionic" instead of 'precise,' into a terminal or if something will lead me to that list on my cpu if I use the answer below or the link in that answer. That's where I got stuck - hopefully I can figure it out tomorrow when I try again.... — Eskmod, Jul 26 '20 at 10:12

Having trouble upgrading from 18.04 to 20.04 likely due to lack of valid signature on older unsupported versions

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