Ubuntu 10.10 installation failure, apt configuration problem

**scquote** · January 10th, 2011

Hi! This is my first time installing or using anything linux related and I'm having a problem installing the thing.

Used both a USB (Unetbootin) and a CD to install but neither works and both give me the same error:

Apt configuration fail; an attempt to configure apt to install additional packages from the cd failed.

followed by a

Installation failed (or something similar).

Any help is appreciated.

**Bucky Ball** · January 10th, 2011

Go for 10.04 LTS. You will get a smoother ride as a new user. 10.10 has issues at the moment.

If you have the same issues with that we can start digging ...

Welcome!

**scquote** · January 10th, 2011

Just downloaded; I'll give it a go.

Edit: 10.04 installation worked but I still got the "apt configuration problem" error. I don't entirely know what that means :[

**Redsandro** · January 15th, 2011

I have the same problem when installing Ubuntu 10.10 x64 from USB created with unetbootin and, on a different machine, Lubuntu 10.10 i386 from USB, also created using unetbootin.

This is a serious flaw in the installer. I don't get what a bug like that is doing in an operating system installer three months after the release. Is there a command to skip the install additional packages from the (non-existing) cd?

-edit-

Description of problem:
When trying to install Ubuntu 10.10 from USB, ubiquity crashes with this message: "An attempt to configure apt to install additional packages from the CD failed."

Root of problem:
The problem is that the file structure on the usb differs to what is on a livecd and apt-setup is unaware of this.

Workaround:
To resolve this, simply copy the contents of filesystem.squashfs on the iso into the usb stick. Luckily the parts it is reading from this appear to be just apt config files so the fact that you lose symbolic links or permissions on a FAT32 usb stick shouldn't matter.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ty/+bug/658865

**snehalmasne** · February 5th, 2011

I used both a USB (Unetbootin) and a CD (10.10) to install but neither worked and both gave me the same error:

"Apt configuration fail; an attempt to configure apt to install additional packages from the cd failed."

Then I tried the same with 10.04 LTS from CD still its throwing same problem.

Interesting thing is that before some days I successfully did UEC setup with 10.04 LTS and now its not working. WTF !! Is something wrong with me or my devices ?

Someone please help me out...

Regards,
Snehal Masne

**Redsandro** · February 5th, 2011

Just a thought:

10.04, which used to work, is now 10.04.1 on download.
Maybe they 'fixed' something with the same broken installer used for 10.10?

**snehalmasne** · February 7th, 2011

Here goes what happened to me and the workaround I got for successful cloud setup:

I used both a USB (Unetbootin+Universal USB) and a CD (10.10) to install but neither worked and both gave me the same error:

"Apt configuration fail; an attempt to configure apt to install additional packages from the CD failed."

Some days ago, I successfully did UEC setup with 10.04 LTS from CD. But even that was also not working. I thought that something went wrong with me or my devices.

After searching a lot on net, I got following:

Root of problem:
The problem is that the file structure on the usb differs to what is on a livecd and apt-setup is unaware of this.
Workaround:
To resolve this, simply copy the contents of filesystem.squashfs on the iso into the usb stick. Luckily the parts it is reading from this appear to be just apt config files so the fact that you lose symbolic links or permissions on a FAT32 usb stick shouldn't matter.

I don't think that's the problem, as I was getting same error while using CD. As setting up the cloud is part of my project work, I spent almost a week and many CDs but all failed.

I thought its somehow related to the broken filesystem. So I tried Universal USB Installer to create bootable USB with PartedMagic (you can try paragon partition manager also) and deleted all partitions from HDD. Then created primary and extended partitions followed by the installation of UEC on extended partition. It worked for 3 other machines as well.

It's worth trying. All the best !!

Regards,
Snehal Masne

**dagoss** · February 20th, 2011

I was experiencing this problem when installing lubuntu 10.10. I had used unetbootin to create the boot the USB disk. I used the exact same disc image, but I created it with the USB start-up disc creator that comes with Ubuntu. That disc worked just fine after that.

I'd suspect that this issues has something to do with unetbootin, since everyone in this thread that seems to have run into this problem created the disc that way.

**Redsandro** · February 20th, 2011

I'm wondering, why are major problems like this never fixed during a release? Is there some kind of policy that only minor changes are allowed within a release?