Ubuntu 16.04.1 apt-get update error

November 4, 2016 21.6k views
DigitalOcean FAQ Getting Started Ubuntu 16.04
xuyuan8
By:
xuyuan8

I get error when apt-get update
how to resolve this problem?

Err:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease
  Could not resolve 'security.ubuntu.com'
Err:2 http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
  Could not resolve 'mirrors.digitalocean.com'
Err:3 http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease
  Could not resolve 'mirrors.digitalocean.com'
Err:4 http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease
  Could not resolve 'mirrors.digitalocean.com'
Reading package lists... Done
W: Failed to fetch http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu/dists/xenial/InRelease  Could not resolve 'mirrors.digitalocean.com'
W: Failed to fetch http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu/dists/xenial-updates/InRelease  Could not resolve 'mirrors.digitalocean.com'
W: Failed to fetch http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu/dists/xenial-backports/InRelease  Could not resolve 'mirrors.digitalocean.com'
W: Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/xenial-security/InRelease  Could not resolve 'security.ubuntu.com'
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
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4 Answers
ryanpq MOD November 4, 2016

The errors shown indicate that there is a network or DNS issue here. Have you changed the DNS servers listed in /etc/resolv.conf?

I would take the following steps to troubleshoot this:

  • Check that you can reach other outside services. Try a ping of security.ubuntu.com (Ctrl+c will exit the ping command)

  • If the ping fails, check that you can ping an IP address, try 8.8.8.8 (Google public DNS server)

  • If the IP address ping fails, open a ticket with our support team as there may be an issue with your droplet's network connection (especially if you are doing this from the console).

  • If that ping works, check the file /etc/resolv.conf and use that 8.8.8.8 address as a nameserver by adding the line (if it doesn't exist):

nameserver 8.8.8.8

I hope these steps help you to find a solution. If you get it resolved, let us know what worked.

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032f9b83 May 15, 2017

Correct nameserver in /etc/resolv.conf and ping works for security.ubuntu.com and 8.8.8.8 - However still struggling with 

W: The repository 'http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu xenial Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Data from such a repository can't be authenticated and is therefore potentially dangerous to use.

on sudo apt-get update

Reply
Unyte September 8, 2017

If you run into this issue remember to check, amongst other things, that you have not configured UFW or the DO Cloud Firewall to block outgoing http/https. I had done this accidentally and only realized it when I tried to do apt-get install for something

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decaluwepatrick January 25, 2018

Same problem as well. How can we solve this?

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