That is what I suspected.

Run;
When that comes up go to Edit>Select All. Click on that. When everything is highlighted hit your backs space key.

Make sure everything is gone from the page.

Go back to post 14 (on first page of this thread) to get the sources.list I sent you. Copy/Paste ALL of it (check to make sure you got it all) to that blank page we just created.

When you are sure you have it all go to File>Save As and click on that. Make sure that it says "sources.list" on the address bar, I am sure it will. If it does hit "save" bottom right of "save as" popup window.

Run
We need any errors generated.

You need to look, once more, for the "lucid-backports" repo in the results. If it is there we are still not getting the sources.list file changed.

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Went through the list did not see any Lucid Backports of a any size shape or how are you Mr Smith.

Did your "apt-get upgrade" work properly?

Sounds good so far.

I really do not understand how your system got into that shape.

It could be that it is your doing. I only say that because I have not lost the sense of wonder and freedom that Linux brings to a long time MS user.

The first 7 days I had Linux (Ubuntu 8.04 at that time) I couldn't fix a thing I broke and had to reinstall 5 times. I have improved since then. I can usually fix what I break now.

I also have several installs of different versions of Debian and a duplicate of this version (Wheezy) that I inflict my "improvements" on before doing it to this install that I actually want to have usable.

I started having a small install of my main OS on the 8th day of Ubuntu 8.04. Haven't had any real problems with whatever version or distro I am using since then. Some of my other installs have had problems but I don't care as it is a learning experiense with no pressure for them to work.

I have not tried the "apt-get upgrade". I'll do so now an report what happens?

Here's what came up after entering: sudo apt-get upgrade"

bill48@bill48-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
[sudo] password for bill48:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for bill48:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
N: Ignoring file 'Default' in directory '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/' as it has no filename extension

Had to do my password over, hit the wrong key. It is hard to tell when you make an error with your password when you can't see what you are typing.

You could move that "default" so that it is somewhere else like just in /etc/apt along with /sources.list.d and get rid of that message.

Or you could look over what is in there and try putting any of them back that you may want, one at a time, running "apt-get update" after each so that you know they work. Then just delete the bugger.

Most of what is in there is junk. That is why we saved them though. So you could look at them after everything is working.

This goes for your /etc/apt/sources.list.old too. No need to keep it if there is nothing in there you want.

There is no sense, however, trying to make those desisions while in the middle of trying to get things to work. That causes mistakes.

Glad the thing is working.

I think for the time being, at least a couple days, I'll let things alone. I will move the default folder but naught else.

I suspect that you will find that there is little in there that you need.

The only thing I remember is that there is a repo for some other web browser repo. Unless you need to be right up to date on those you can install from the Ubuntu repo and not worry about a third party repo.

Most of what is in there is a bunch of ppas and you are better off without them if you are trying to do version upgrades. They are one of the biggest causes of Ubuntu version upgrades (like 10.04>10.10). This is true for third party repos too.

It is actually recommended to remove those from the sources list and remove the packages from your system before version upgrades. There is a package called "ppa-purge" that will do the package removal for packages from ppas.

If you don't mind the message about the "default" file you could just leave it. I think it would drive me crazy if left more than a week.

I installed the "ppa-purge". If I wanted to use it would I open a terminal an use the command: "sudo apt-get ppa-purge" or would it be simply: "sudo ppa-purge" ?
Concerning the items it that Default folder I noticed some were ppa's while others were 'saved' copies or what might be considered duplicated and they appear to be of a text message type, although I did not open any to see for sure? Would using "ppa-purge" eliminate any and all ppa's in my system wherever they may hide?
When I open Update Manager it tells me I could upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04. The last time I tried using that method it was a total disaster. I would like to avoid any problems in the near future so the reason for asking you what you think is the best and safest mehtod for upgrading,

I believe the correct way to use ppa-purge is
You do it one at a time and it should simply revert the packages installed from any ppa back to the standard package in the Ubuntu repo. As all your ppas are listed this should be no problem.

The "maverick Release" ppa does not exist anymore and I am pretty sure that all packages from it are all standard now anyway.

You probably should move the ppas into your sources.list (or where they were before) so that ppa-purge can find them (it will remove them from there.

I prefer to do a clean install rather than upgrade. If you are installed on 2 partitions it is pretty easy to do that and still have all your data. You just point the installer at / (root) and let it format that, point it at /home and not let it format there. Backing up your data is still a good idea.

If doing a version upgrade it is important for the current version to be fully up to date. All ppa and non Ubuntu repos removed or commented out (can be put back after version upgrade).

This is really something that should be done with a healthy OS. If it is not then things can go wrong.

If you have installed packages not from the repos it can cause things to go wrong as the outside packages interact with the repo packages and the repo package version is being changed. The manually installed package from out side is not going to be changed.

I tend to install things, play with them and forget about them. Junk basically builds up over time. A clean install gets rid of all that in your system files.

I have upgraded several times. You can't install the early stages of Ubuntu-testing releases any other way. Have never really had a problem with it but a lot of folks do and that is not a big change at all because it is just the newly released version with the development tool kit to build the new version.

Tested the LTS to LTS upgrade for 8.04 to 10.04 and it worked. Did it from a new install of 8.04 and a copy of my "real" 8.04 install. Both worked. Did not upgrade my "real" install.

Backed up the data and did a clean install on the / partition. Lost no data from my /home partition so the back up stuff was just deleted. 10.04 with Plymouth did not boot well on my box so the actual clean install was to Debian 6 (Squeeze).

Attempted to remove all the ones marked ppa. I put in the command line:
sudo ppa-purge ppa:< ppa name> ppa/ Each time it tells me the file or directory does not exist. This is after I moved the ones so marked 'ppa' to the sources.list Go figure. Could I mark them all and simply delete them to the trash, then delete them from there?

Yup. I would delete them with the right click menu.

You probably do not have this enabled in Nautilus when working as root.

Easiest way to set that is;
When it comes up go to Edit>Prefences>Behaviour (I think, I use thunar so you might have to hunt around a little). What you are looking for is a simple check box to include "delete" in the right click menu uptions.

Using that does not send things to "trash". Things removed as root go to a different trash file than the one you can access as the normal user.

The root trash is in the hidden files that are only available in Nautilus as root and should be located in /root/.local/share/trash.

To get to the hidden files there is just like the normal user does= Ctrl+h. Delete is easier but permenant.

You may want to check that trash file anyway. May be stuff in it.

widget,
It would appear that those marked ppa are not going anywhere. I right clicked pressed 'delete' and naught happened. They were not deleted.Instead I got copies ending in 2.1 and 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 Each time I attempted to remove them. So I think i will leave them well enough alone.
On the subject of upgrading, the last time I attempted it, before it all went to the haberdasher in a hat box. I saw a brief warning about not having the right hardware or maybe software for Unity? Does the bit about not having the right hardware seem possible.

This is what I have: Gateway Profile 5S, Linux Ubuntu 10.10, Celeron 2.6 Ghz, 1GB RAM, 160 GB HD.

KlamAv

The Gateway is an all in one and is very old. Does this Unity require the PC to be more up to date? Would it be a smart move to acquire a DVD of the Ubuntu I wish to upgrade toward?

Sounds like a but in the delete function or perhaps in root trash.

Just move the buggers out to a file somewhere else.

This is another thing that makes me think a clean install would be a good idea when you do a version upgrade. One way of getting rid of those files that just will not go.

You can also install on 2 partitions this time if you are not now. This really is a good thing to do.

There are a number of people trying to get distros to change their installers to have that as an automatic function.

I am not sure about that. You would still need to determine the size of / at the very least. Seems like it is just more sensible to do the partitioning manually rather than add an auto function which increases the chance of an auto screw up.

Right now my Ubuntu takes up all of my PC. I did have a partition with WinXP some nine months ago. I would be interested in setting up a partition but am not to sure as to how to set about doing it? Also what exactly is meant by a clean install? I have been told that before making an upgrade it would be wise to do a back up? Within Ubuntu is there a program which would help me setting the back up...up?
herakles_14

A clean install is when you have a fresh install from installation media (LiveCD, Alt install disk or netboot install.

No matter what you do when you change versions is is a good idea to back up your data.

I do not know how much data you have but simply putting on DVD RW is pretty simple. All you need is what is in you /home directory. This probably adds up to less than you think, particularly if you get rid of files that you now have no idea why you kept them in the first place.

You could also use flash memory cards or a usb stick.

A clean install would be a real good idea, I think, in your case right now. As strange as your sources.list was there is reason to be nervous about an upgrade. You are still using the original partition that you first installed Linux of any type on, I think, and you have upgraded once.

From what I know of the first install I did and what shape it was in after that period of time I really think you need a clean install. You have had a learning experience all over your install. Start over clean, using what you now know about how to use a Linux OS and it will give you a lot less trouble.

You can also get it installed on 2 partitions that will make things easier to recover if things really go bad sometime down the road.

I have also no idea of the size of your drive(s). This makes a difference in how you set things up and maybe how you back things up.

If you want to explore those possibilities, though, it should be done in a different thread. You could start one, mark this one solved for the next poor user with this problem to find. You could drop a link here to the new thread but it will come up on the LQ Ubuntu section index.

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