On one of my servers I have setup, whenever I try to run the sudo apt-get upgrade command on my Ubuntu 14.04 LTS server, I get the following error:

mikey@Pylit2:/var/lib/apt/lists/partial$ sudo apt-get update
Ign http://download.webmin.com sarge InRelease
Ign http://download.webmin.com sarge Release.gpg
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty InRelease
Ign http://download.webmin.com sarge Release
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates InRelease
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security InRelease
Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty-backports InRelease
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty Release.gpg [933 B]
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security Release.gpg [933 B]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates Release.gpg [933 B]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty-backports Release.gpg [933 B]
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security Release
Get:5 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty Release [58.5 kB]
E: Couldn't create temporary file to work with /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_trusty_Release - mkstemp (2: No such file or directory)


I have tried looking at that file location, and here is what is listed in the /partial directory:

mikey@Pylit2:/var/lib/apt/lists/partial$ ls
security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_trusty-security_Release
security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_trusty-security_Release.gpg
us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_trusty-backports_Release.gpg
us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_trusty_Release.gpg
us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_trusty-updates_Release.gpg
webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk_repository_dists_sarge_Release
webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk_repository_dists_sarge_Release.gpg

I've tried deleting this whole directory to see what gets reloaded, and these files above keep getting reloaded, and when I compare these with another system running the same server, I get very similar files listed, but with a regenerate at the end of the file.

I cant' seem to figure out why I can't update this one system, and if anyone can help me figure this out, that would be totally awesome.....

On a side note, this system had to be step upgraded from 8.04 to 14.04 due to being an older system (Dell poweredge 600) with little video resources available. When I look at the /etc/apt/sources.list file, I get the following. Not sure if the problem is in here or not, but throwing it out there just in case.........

# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 12.04.4 LTS _Precise Pangolin_ - Release amd64 (20140204)]/ dists/precise/main/binary-i386/
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 12.04.4 LTS _Precise Pangolin_ - Release amd64 (20140204)]/ dists/precise/restricted/binary-i386/
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 12.04.4 LTS _Precise Pangolin_ - Release amd64 (20140204)]/ precise main restricted

# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 12.04.4 LTS _Precise Pangolin_ - Release amd64 (20140204)]/ dists/precise/main/binary-i386/
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 12.04.4 LTS _Precise Pangolin_ - Release amd64 (20140204)]/ dists/precise/restricted/binary-i386/
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server 12.04.4 LTS _Precise Pangolin_ - Release amd64 (20140204)]/ precise main restricted

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty universe
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates multiverse

## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty-security multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Ubuntu's
## 'extras' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by third-party
## developers who want to ship their latest software.
# deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main
# deb-src http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/respository sarge contrib
deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsol....uk/repository sarge contrib

Thank you for any help / suggestions on how to fix this one.....

Mikey

try the following, hopefully it will fix it:

sudo apt-get clean
sudo mv /var/lib/apt/lists /tmp
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/apt/lists/partial
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update

you can check: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto
for more information about the limitation in case of slow internet (maintainance commnds no. 7)

AZIZHAN,

Thank you so very muchly for this information. I tried your suggestion and it worked and I'm once again able to do the updates I needed on this server.

Thanks again.
Mikey

Mikey, You're most welcome.

Giving a 2 year later thank you. I couldn't figure this out for the life of me.