Unable to connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com

Question

I've been trying to update my Ubuntu 20.04 server and have been getting this:

mike@:~$ sudo apt update
Err:1 http://za.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
  Could not connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com:80 (197.155.77.2). - connect (111: Connection refused) Could not connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com:80 (2c0f:fe40:8001:10::2). - connect (101: Network is unreachable)
Err:2 http://za.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
  Unable to connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com:http:
Err:3 http://za.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
  Unable to connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com:http:
Err:4 http://za.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
  Unable to connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com:http:
Reading package lists... Done                          
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
W: Failed to fetch http://za.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal/InRelease  Could not connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com:80 (197.155.77.2). - connect (111: Connection refused) Could not connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com:80 (2c0f:fe40:8001:10::2). - connect (101: Network is unreachable)
W: Failed to fetch http://za.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal-updates/InRelease  Unable to connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com:http:
W: Failed to fetch http://za.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal-backports/InRelease  Unable to connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com:http:
W: Failed to fetch http://za.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal-security/InRelease  Unable to connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com:http:
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Does anyone know what's going on? Is it just the South African archive? It's been two days now. Thanks.

Does this answer your question? Failed to fetch security undetermined error [IP: 91.189.91.38 80] in Ubuntu 20.04 — Raffa, Jun 20 '22 at 08:03
Not really, but thanks.I understand that I don't need to use a mirror, but it is usually more efficient. I was just wondering if the South African archive server was down for some reason. It has happened before, for syncing I assume, but it usually doesn't stay down for more than a couple of hours. — LeafHead, Jun 20 '22 at 08:18
You would know better with sudo traceroute -T 197.155.77.2 — Raffa, Jun 20 '22 at 08:30
The problem is clearly with the mirror. I'll give it another day or two. — LeafHead, Jun 20 '22 at 09:03
If You Don't Mind Using Other Mirrors In the meantime,
You can edit /etc/apt/sources.list to replace http://za.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu with http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu — ByronTaaka, Jun 20 '22 at 13:17

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 20 '22 at 20:29

It looks like the archive at za.archive.ubuntu.com is currently down.

I've resolved this for myself using these two methods:

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list as mentioned in the comment by @ByronTaaka.
Use apt-select as described in the article How to Find Best Ubuntu APT Repository Mirror.

Using method 2, it modified /etc/apt/sources.list and pointed all references to http://ftp.leg.uct.ac.za. I'm based in Cape Town so this works well for me.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 21 '22 at 07:34

za.archive.ubuntu.com is back up. In the interim I stopped using mirrors, but have found a few that had continued to work. among them: mirror.wiru.co.za and ftp.leg.uct.ac.za (as mentioned by Jonathan above).

I have found no explanation for what happened, or why it was down for so long.

Unable to connect to za.archive.ubuntu.com

2 Answers2