cannot install apt upgrade in Ubuntu 16.04LTS

Trusty hit EOL (end of life) in April 2018.

Once a release hits EOL, all related repositories are retired/deleted.

Your next step is to update + likely best to update to at least Bionic (LTS), so you have another 5ish years of package updates.

Tip: The way I update old Trusty systems is as follows.

1) Setup a machine running Ubuntu Bionic + LXD at host level.

2) On Trusty machine, run the lxc-p2c command, to clone the entire running system onto a into an LXD container on machine #1.

3) Retire the only Trusty machine.

4) Clone the newly created Trusty container into a dev container, with a different IP.

5) At this point, you'll have your old Trusty system + an exact clone running side by side.

6) Now you can take runs at various update strategies + if the update destroys the container, delete it + do #4 again, start over.

Tip: If your Trusty system is running PHP code, likely this is PHP 5. Use https://github.com/PHPCompatibility/PHPCompatibility to upgrade your code.

phpcs - finds problems, up to PHP-7.3.2

phpcbf - does mass fixes of problems, up to PHP-7.3.2

These 2x tools can save months of human hours working + be far more consistent making correct changes.

David, I'm sorry I mistyped the Version - it was a late night yesterday. The system is 16.04LTS

Hi,

tricky since it's apt but you might give it a shot:

sudo ldconfig
sudo dpkg -r apt
sudo apt-get check
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade --fix-missing
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Select allOpen in new window

Some applications might fail so reconfigure now:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

Select allOpen in new window

Reconfigure the failing application:

sudo dpkg --configure apt

Select allOpen in new window

Fix any broken packages:

sudo apt-get install -f

Select allOpen in new window

Fix the broken package:

sudo apt-get install apt -f

Select allOpen in new window

Install any dependencies that might be needed:

sudo apt-get build-dep apt

Select allOpen in new window

Reinstall failed apps:

sudo apt-get install

Select allOpen in new window

Cheers

Not good results apt-get appears to be missing as well as apt

root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# ldconfig
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# dpkg -r apt
dpkg: warning: ignoring request to remove apt which isn't installed
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# apt-get check
apt-get: command not found
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# apt-get update
apt-get: command not found
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# apt-get upgrade --fix-missing
apt-get: command not found
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# apt-get upgrade
apt-get: command not found
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get: command not found
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# dpkg --configure -a
Setting up man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Updating database of manual pages ...
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# dpkg --configure apt
dpkg: error processing package apt (--configure):
 no package named 'apt' is installed, cannot configure
Errors were encountered while processing:
 apt
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# apt-get install -f
apt-get: command not found
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# apt-get install apt -f
apt-get: command not found
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# apt-get build-dep apt
apt-get: command not found
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# apt-get install
apt-get: command not found

Hi,

If it's missing than you can install the apt deb package from here .

sudo dpkg -i apt.deb

Select allOpen in new window

Cheers

Hi,

sorry you mentioned 16.04:

Get the apt here .
Cheers

Starts the install and sits here forever:

# dpkg -i apt_1.2.29ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package apt.
(Reading database ... 132298 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack apt_1.2.29ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking apt (1.2.29ubuntu0.1) ...
Setting up apt (1.2.29ubuntu0.1) ...

I'll leave it to sit for a few hours but that doesn't seem right

Hi,

it shouldn't take too long indeed but like you said let it run and check back.

Cheers

dfke if you look at the question this was what I'd tried earlier with no success:
 dpkg -i apt_1.2.29ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package apt.
(Reading database ... 132298 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack apt_1.2.29ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking apt (1.2.29ubuntu0.1) ...
Setting up apt (1.2.29ubuntu0.1) ...
^C^Cdpkg: error processing package apt (--install):
 subprocess installed post-installation script was interrupted
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu10) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 apt

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases show life cycles.

Xenial will be around for another year, so you have some other problem.

Before doing anything else, best to stop doing anything + determine the true problem here.

If the apt commands are truly gone, then some catastrophe has occurred on your machine.

First things first, provide the following data...

echo $PATH

locate apt-get

which ls

uname -a

lsb_release -a

dpkg -l | grep apt

Select allOpen in new window

All these should return sensible results... If not... installing a single apt package will likely have no effect on fixing the actual problem.

For example, if apt is truly gone, then more than likely deep repairs will be required to return your system to the land of the living.

It’s gone because I’ve folloed another article that said to remove and reinstall it. The remove part wasn’t hard and I’ve got the Deb files for reinstall it just doesn’t complete the install. Other than apt the system is functioning just fine. We were patching Thursday evening and it hung at the point it tried to upgrade apt versions. Since then nothing has worked to repair apt. Other functions of the system are just fine.

Tip: Never believe any article which tells you to remove APT or any other crucial packages, for example...

lxd: mta1.joymta.com # apt-get purge apt
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  python3-debconf
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  apt* apt-utils* ubuntu-minimal* update-notifier-common*
WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed.
This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing!
  apt
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 6155 kB disk space will be freed.
You are about to do something potentially harmful.
To continue type in the phrase 'Yes, do as I say!'
 ?] 

Select allOpen in new window

Crucial packages removal will emit a potential harmful message. Anytime you see this, you're likely doing something very wrong.

Post the following to determine best recovery approach.

uname -a

lsb_release -a

dpkg -l | egrep -e apt -e ubuntu-minimal -e update-notifier-common

Select allOpen in new window

Also, if you still have your terminal window open where you removed apt, scroll back up, then cut + paste every bit of information emitted during the removal.

Here you go, David:

Normally I wouldn't have removed it but another post in the Ubuntu forum with an "expert" rating had a "solution". I question the "expert" rating and obviously its not a solution. Thanks for your assistance.

# uname -a
Linux sgdesbvuapp301 4.15.0-43-generic #46~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Dec 7 13:31:08 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
~#
~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS
Release:        16.04
Codename:       xenial
root@sgdesbvuapp301:~# dpkg -l | egrep -e apt -e ubuntu-minimal -e update-notifier-common
ii  apt-transport-https                   1.2.29                                     amd64        https download transport for APT
ii  laptop-detect                         0.13.7ubuntu2                              amd64        attempt to detect a laptop
ii  libapt-inst2.0:amd64                  1.2.29ubuntu0.1                            amd64        deb package format runtime library
ii  libapt-pkg-perl                       0.1.29build7                               amd64        Perl interface to libapt-pkg
ii  libapt-pkg5.0:amd64                   1.2.29ubuntu0.1                            amd64        package management runtime library
ii  libpcap0.8:amd64                      1.7.4-2                                    amd64        system interface for user-level packet capture
ii  python-apt                            1.1.0~beta1ubuntu0.16.04.2                 amd64        Python interface to libapt-pkg
ii  python-apt-common                     1.1.0~beta1ubuntu0.16.04.2                 all          Python interface to libapt-pkg (locales)
ii  python3-apt                           1.1.0~beta1ubuntu0.16.04.2                 amd64        Python 3 interface to libapt-pkg

Select allOpen in new window

The only thing I was trying to accomplish was a simple monthly update that we do every 3rd Thursday for this envirenment. Command initially run were
purge-old-kernels
apt-get update
apt-get -y dist-upgrade
apt-get -y autoremove

that's it. IdnT hung trying to upgrade apt which gets us to here and now. How it got a mix of 16 & 18LTS I haven't a clue. I will check with our DevOps folks and see if someone decided to sudo su - and accidentally ran some kind of update script and isn't admitting their actions+. It would n't be the first time so I'm thinking that's the cause. I can rebuild a base OS system in VMware in under+ an hour so i'll do that then they can move their data ad I'll kill this one.

Thank you both for your assistance.

You're welcome.

You might check your /etc/apt files to see if you somehow accidentally got a Bionic repository merged into your repository definitions.

If this has occurred... then I could see the above happening.