Unable to remove a Repository

Question

I was looking for a Whatsapp application for Ubuntu and came across whatsapp-purple. I added the repository and and when I then ran sudo apt-get update it showed errors:

After following the steps here: How can PPAs be removed? I got this output:

Therefore, I ran

cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
rm -rf whatsapp-purple-ubuntu-ppa-xenial.list
rm -rf whatsapp-purple-ubuntu-ppa-xenial.list.save

After ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ both of them were gone.

Now here are my questions.

Why were the errors shown and what do they mean?
Are the repositories gone?
Was that the right way to do it?
Do we really need ppa-purge?

That PPA doesn't have any packages for 16.04. Instead of pictures, just copy/paste text into the question. — mikewhatever, Sep 23 '16 at 04:32
Note that you didn't need to use the -r option because you are only deleting files, not directories. — edwinksl, Sep 23 '16 at 04:39
If u want to use WhatsApp..use FRANZ.. it is multilplatform for all messengers.(after repairing this) — minigeek, Sep 23 '16 at 05:19
Why was my question disliked? It cost me 2 reputation and now mine 4 from 6. It was a fairly genuine question. I am new to this thing, cut me some slack. — Emad Arshad Alam, Sep 23 '16 at 10:14
@edwinksl I thought rm -rf is used when you don't want to see a trace of that thing but what you said makes sense. — Emad Arshad Alam, Sep 23 '16 at 10:18
U can run whatsapp and many other softwares on single platform in FRANZ..whatsie runs only whatsapp@Emad Arshad Alam — minigeek, Sep 23 '16 at 11:30

Zanna · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-18T09:43:42.593

2

The error 404 means that the repository wasn't reachable - either the link is dead or your connection is bad.

ppa-purge checks what packages you have installed from a repository so that it can gracefully replace them with equivalent packages from main repositories if that is possible, leaving you, hopefully, with an optimally functioning system after removing the PPA.

Without downloading information from the PPA about the packages it provides, this is impossible to do, so ppa-purge exits with an error.

A release file is what APT uses to securely check the packages you download - it will not install anything without checking the release file as this is used to verify package integrity - APT treats a missing release file as a serious security issue.

You did not need to use ppa-purge because you didn't install anything from the PPA. Removing the PPA's files in sources-list.d was sufficient and you have now removed the repository from your sources.

edited Dec 18 '16 at 09:43

answered Sep 23 '16 at 04:34

Zanna

70,465

Thank you so much. That answer was perfect and so was the editing. – Emad Arshad Alam Sep 23 '16 at 10:29
1

@EmadArshadAlam You are more than welcome :) in future, I suggest you try to copy and paste text from the terminal into your question rather than posting screenshots, as it makes it easier to search and helps focus on the exact problem – Zanna Sep 23 '16 at 10:34
Duly Noted. I will take care next time. – Emad Arshad Alam Sep 23 '16 at 17:38
Where did you learn ubuntu from ? Was it random or from some specific source. I joined askubuntu around the same time you did but ........ you know. – Emad Arshad Alam Sep 23 '16 at 17:41
@EmadArshadAlam just trial&error :) but comments are not for chatting, that's what chat is for :) – Zanna Sep 23 '16 at 17:45

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 23 '16 at 04:31

0

The Whatsapp-purple PPA has no packages for Ubuntu 16.04 so it gives an error when APT tries to fetch something from there.

Install ppa-purge and remove it:

sudo apt install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:whatsapp-purple/ppa

answered Sep 23 '16 at 04:31

Why didn't you type "ppa : whatsapp-purple-ubuntu-xenial/ppa" instead of "ppa:whatsapp-purple/ppa". – Emad Arshad Alam Sep 23 '16 at 10:24
The first one with spaces is simply wrong. – Sep 23 '16 at 18:32

Unable to remove a Repository

2 Answers2