Debian stretch (oldstable) apt source list problem: The repository does not have a Release file

Question

I have an old Debian stretch machine and I've been facing some problems with apt's source list. I found some questions related to my problem (like this one), however they don't quite work for me.

I had several repos in my source list that were failing to update. To isolate the problem I commented them all and left only deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main:

# Debian Stretch, dépôt principal
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main
# Debian Stretch, mises à jour de sécurité
#deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main
# Debian Stretch, mises à jour "volatiles"
#deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch/updates main

#deb http://archive.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main

When I try an apt-get update this is what I get:

# apt-get update
Ign:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch InRelease                                                                                                    
Ign:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch Release                                                                                                      
Ign:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 Packages                                                                                          
Ign:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main all Packages                                                                                            
Ign:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en_US                                                                                       
Ign:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en                                                                                          
Ign:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 Packages                                                                                          
Ign:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main all Packages                                                                                            
Ign:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en_US                                                                                       
Ign:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en                                                                                          
Ign:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 Packages                                                                                          
Ign:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main all Packages                                                                                            
Ign:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en_US                                                                                       
Ign:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en                                                                                          
Ign:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 Packages                                                                                          
Ign:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main all Packages                                                                                            
Ign:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en_US                                                                                       
Ign:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en                                                                                          
Ign:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 Packages                                                                                          
Ign:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main all Packages                                                                                            
Ign:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en_US                                                                                       
Ign:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en                                                                                          
Err:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 Packages                                                                                          
  503  Cache storage error - No such file or directory                                                                                                  
Ign:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main all Packages                                                                                            
Ign:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en_US                                                                                       
Ign:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main Translation-en                                                                                          
Reading package lists... Done                                                                                                                           
W: The repository 'http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch Release' does not have a Release file.                                                          
N: Data from such a repository can't be authenticated and is therefore potentially dangerous to use.                                                    
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.                                                                    
E: Failed to fetch http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stretch/main/binary-amd64/Packages  503  Cache storage error - No such file or directory          
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Do you know what might be the problem and how I can fix it?

Thanks :)

Edit #1

The release file is correctly downloaded from deb.debian.org:

# wget http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stretch/Release && head Release
--2020-04-23 11:56:43--  http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stretch/Release                                                                              
Resolving deb.debian.org (deb.debian.org)... 151.101.122.133, 2a04:4e42:1d::645                                                                         
Connecting to deb.debian.org (deb.debian.org)|151.101.122.133|:80... connected.                                                                         
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK                                                                                                          
Length: 117951 (115K)                                                                                                                                   
Saving to: ‘Release’                                                                                                                                    

Release                               100%[=========================================================================>] 115.19K  --.-KB/s    in 0.03s    

2020-04-23 11:56:43 (4.03 MB/s) - ‘Release’ saved [117951/117951]                                                                                       

Origin: Debian                                                                                                                                          
Label: Debian                                                                                                                                           
Suite: oldstable                                                                                                                                        
Version: 9.12                                                                                                                                           
Codename: stretch                                                                                                                                       
Changelogs: http://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs/@CHANGEPATH@_changelog                                                                     
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2020 12:23:08 UTC                                                                                                                     
Acquire-By-Hash: yes                                                                                                                                    
Architectures: amd64 arm64 armel armhf i386 mips mips64el mipsel ppc64el s390x                                                                          
Components: main contrib non-free

Edit #2

No apt-cacher-ng

# apt show apt-cacher-ng
N: Unable to locate package apt-cacher-ng                                                                                                               
N: Unable to locate package apt-cacher-ng                                                                                                               
E: No packages found

Edit #3

Thanks to @user4089 I found a proxy configuration that was wrong and now apt is working fine.

I just commented out the line Acquire::http::Proxy "http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:XXX" from apt.conf.

The "Cache storage error - No such file or directory" messages may indicate a local issue rather than an issue with the remote repository. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about apt to know what directory may be missing, but it seems that it's trying to save something in a directory that does not exist. — Kusalananda, Apr 22 '20 at 10:35
Apparently not:
apt show apt-cacher-ng

N: Unable to locate package apt-cacher-ng
N: Unable to locate package apt-cacher-ng
E: No packages found — Cassius Puodzius, Apr 22 '20 at 11:44
Does wget http://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stretch/Release produce anything useful when run from the system where apt-get update fails? — Stephen Kitt, Apr 22 '20 at 14:18
Apparently it works fine (I added more details in the question) — Cassius Puodzius, Apr 23 '20 at 10:03
Could you list /etc/apt/apt.conf and /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/* files ? — user4089, Apr 23 '20 at 12:40
Thank you @user4089. As I copying the content of apt.conf I saw that there was a proxy configuration that was indeed the root of my problem. — Cassius Puodzius, Apr 27 '20 at 10:22

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 27 '20 at 10:36

0

Thanks to @user4089 I found a proxy configuration that was wrong and now apt is working fine.

I just commented out the line Acquire::http::Proxy "http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:XXX" from apt.conf.

answered Apr 27 '20 at 10:36

Cassius Puodzius

1

Or apt -o acquire::http::proxy="http://yourproxyaddress:proxyport" – Pablo A Jun 06 '23 at 16:17

Debian stretch (oldstable) apt source list problem: The repository does not have a Release file

apt show apt-cacher-ng

1 Answers1