Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Ubuntu Synaptic Manager unable to install any new packages

This was a major problem for me in the initial stages as an Ubuntu noob. The synaptic manager simply didn't install any new packages saying there were from unreliable sources. Changing the repositories to global and fiddling with the settings of the Synaptic Manager had no effect. Its a big turn off when you can't install VLC player and other stuff just when you were beginning to think Ubuntu was awesome.

I finally got a way around it last week. I changed the server which was used for the installation of packages. It was set to the default server (server for India). This can be changed by going to System>Synaptic Package Manager>Settings>Repositories>Ubuntu Software>Download from:
Here you choose Other.. and Select Best Server. It will try pinging a few servers and after a few seconds..Bingo! You have got the best server to install packages. For me, it was somewhere in Indonesia!

I cannot guarantee whether this might work for you. But, if changing repositories and other settings in Software Sources doesn't get you anywhere, try this out.

2 comments:

  1. I like using command line sudo apt-get over synaptic package manager

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had tried sudo apt-get through terminal as well but was getting the same errors. I think if it it doesn't work with Synaptic Package Manager, it shouldn't work with terminal as well.

    ReplyDelete