How do I fix a "E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found." error?

Question

I tried updating my packages from the terminal and this is what I got:

$ sudo apt-get update
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found.
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found.
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found.
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found.
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found.

What does this mean? I'm using the United States mirror an I've tried using the main server for the mirror and I keep getting the same result is this because there are no updates?

See the answer for this one, it solved the issue for me on Debian Stretch. — reim, May 09 '19 at 09:16

score 188 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 03 '12 at 20:53

188

SirCharlo said in the duplicate of this question:

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

I tried it and it worked for me.

answered Nov 03 '12 at 20:53

Kat Amsterdam

2,721
1
17
17

1

This worked for me in Debian Squeeze. – Matt Alexander Dec 12 '12 at 22:27
1

How is this possible? He can't able to connect to the internet. – Avinash Raj Apr 12 '14 at 12:16
1

Sadly, this won't work if your apt cache is too far out of date. Now I'm stuck in a "hole in the bucket" problem :( – Owen Oct 03 '16 at 15:34
@Owen why not just disable the https repo until you can update your cache? – Bratchley Mar 05 '17 at 00:41
1

@Owen that would allow someone else to provide a replacement or trojan wrapper around any unsigned package. – mikemaccana Sep 11 '17 at 18:53

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 08 '16 at 18:05

8

in my case, find all the source in .list file, eg:

/etc/apt/sources.list 
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list 
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/passenger.list

some source in the list are forced using https:// even if you changed it into http:// it will redirected to https://

the solutions is :

backup and remove the https source first
then run apt-get update
run sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https
restore the https source

answered Feb 08 '16 at 18:05

kubido

181

so you're saying you should update over an insecure connection? – David 天宇 Wong Jun 29 '18 at 09:27
this was the only solution that worked for me on kali linux – shenk Apr 05 '19 at 12:15

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 02 '17 at 07:44

6

Had the same problem on fresh OrangePi image. Swapping https to http didn't help. Finally I created a symlink to http with name https and was able to perform apt-get update. The first thing to install was apt-transport-https than I re-run the update.

answered Sep 02 '17 at 07:44

Atlasz

61

1

The OrangePI seems actually to still have this problem, could you precisely explain what do you mean by a "symlink" in this case please ? – dlewin Feb 28 '18 at 14:12
4

@dlewin cd /usr/lib/apt/methods then ln -s http https does the trick. – Alex Apr 14 '18 at 11:32

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered May 07 '17 at 21:31

My problem was the Opera browser in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list was, it was wrote:

https//:

but the correct is:

https://

So I fix the line this way:

deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free #Opera Browser (final releases)

and all solved!

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 13 '15 at 23:06

My error read method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/htttp and after reading here and trying all offerings, I was about to give up when I noticed that the http had one extra t.

I went to did this:

sudo -H gedit /etc/apt/source.list

Ctrl + F to find all instances of htttp.

removed the extra t

Saved (twice to make sure the bugger took it)

And viola, problem solved.

Guess that means I need to REALLY Read the error messages as I had been skimming over them. Lesson learned. that won't happen again

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 17 '16 at 15:05

I realize this is a very old thread, but in my case the sources.list file was missing "http." in the address. (ie, http://kali.org vs http://http.kali.org) I discovered this when comparing two VM's in my environment. Not sure where the error came from, but replacing that solved the issue.

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 19 '12 at 20:40

0

I have faced this problem before, in my case the problem was in /etc/apt/sources.list. Make sure there are no quotation marks '' or "":

deb "http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ maverick partner (Source Code)"

Remove quotes and change those lines to:

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ maverick partner (Source Code)

Also, as @arhimed suggests, make sure the protocol is well-formed: http://

answered Jul 19 '12 at 20:40

César

807

Everything is in good form any other ideas? – Abe Jul 20 '12 at 14:12

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 07 '16 at 15:15

0

look for https links in /etc/apt/sources.list check if http link of the same link works. if it does then replace http with https and enjoy. otherwise install sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https as said in the above answer by Damiön la Bagh

answered Jan 07 '16 at 15:15

Shanmuga

1

score 0 · Answer 9 · edited May 15 '16 at 18:26

My comments here aren't directly related to the OP's question, but since this page comes up in google's first result when searching E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/https could not be found. which is the error I was originally trying to solve, I am adding some information which helped me solve my problem.

I happen to be on an ethernet network which contains a "firewall" type device that redirects an unknown computer's web traffic to a webpage that requires you the "agree" to the terms of service for the network before you can continue. This page happens to be served as a HTTPS page. Therefore, any time apt-get tried to connect, it was ending up at an HTTPS site. This is also why trying to install apt-transport-https wasn't working for me.

That's called a captive portal. – muru May 15 '16 at 18:27 — muru, May 15 '16 at 18:27

How do I fix a "E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found." error?

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