66

After I installed Ubuntu , I cannot update any software with the error message "failed to download package files". After having googled, I have tried:

  1. sudo apt-get update
  2. sudo apt-get upgrade
  3. changed to another sources

But I still got the same error message. And there is no problem with internet connection as i can connect to internet using Firefox in Ubuntu.

Any ideas?

Jorge Castro
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wang.xueqiang
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  • I had the same problem after upgradin from 13.10 to 14.04. It was fixed by running:

    sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf & sudo apt-get update

    See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=863742&s=98fd353f9d4215b805db121e7dbd2dd6&p=5415838#post5415838

     – parvus May 11 '14 at 09:26
  • This is frustrating because the first time it happened I was watching the activity and I noticed a few packages had errors. But on subsequent times everything is cached so it pops up the error almost immediately without giving me any time to examine which packages actually failed! – Michael Dec 19 '18 at 23:31

5 Answers5

88

Press Alt+F2 and type software-properties-gtk.

Change the download location to Main Server or another server close to the country you live in and try to sudo apt-get update again.

enter image description here

Gediminas Jeremiah Gudelis
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Bruno Pereira
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17

Run the following commands (saves a backup of the old lists and creates a new lists folder) and the BADSIG error does not occur:

cd /var/lib/apt
sudo mv lists lists.old
sudo mkdir -p lists/partial
sudo apt-get update
Knowledge Cube
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Wasif
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8

There's a Package Manager Troubleshooting Procedure that usually solves this sort of problem. Perform steps 1-4 of that procedure. (Step 1, which is sometimes enough, is what Bruno Pereira has posted--in better detail--in this answer. If step 1 isn't enough, continue with the other steps.)

If that doesn't solve the problem, then please select all the text in the Terminal (Edit > Select All), copy it to the clipboard (Edit > Copy), and edit your question to include it (you'll want to make it a blockquote so that the formatting doesn't get messed up). This will then provide highly useful information for solving the problem.

Community
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Eliah Kagan
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5

It seems that single enabled repository failing to update will cause this message. In my case, it was dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/bionic - I unchecked and no longer get error messages.

enter image description here

Ben Creasy
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-1

I'm on Linux Mint, which is Ubuntu at its base (which is Debian at its base), anyway, very probably this will work...

"Open Software Sources from the menu, click the Maintenance button and there click the Fix MergeList Issue button."

-- said kc1di at the Linux Mint forum

please don't thank me for this, I'm only sharing the solution that worked like charm for me just a minute ago... (2020, 02 18)

jepe
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