Failed to download repository information, check internet connection

[peterg17]

I have been getting this error attempting to upgrade to 20.04 on the software-updater. Repeated "Try Again" presses fails to resolve it.

I can easily get around it. I simply click on settings (in the software-updater window), close, and I then have the option to upgrade.

This behaviour is identical on two different repositories, including the master repository.

I am up to date with 18.04, according to the software-updater.

My internet connection is USB tethering through my mobile phone.

Also when I attempt to upgrade, I have 458 broken amd64 packages, out of 3229 amd64 installed packages, total installed packages 4641. (Not reporting as a problem here, just a feature of the issue.) Otherwise my system appears to be OK.

Very quirky.

[dino99]

So start to clean the system first, via disabling all external sources (ppa,...) and running 'sudo apt-get autoremove'. Then update again.

[peterg17]

I started working on the broken packages with "conflicts" and removed two packages, consolekit and libpam-ck-connector. Now the error no longer occurs. Do not know which one caused the issue.

[rsteinmetz70112]

Glad you resolved the error. We you able to successfully upgrade?

The broken packages most likely caused the error although using a tethered internet could create problems with connecting to the repositories. Was the phone connected via WiFI or via the phone network?. Before upgrading you should always make sure all packages are up to date and fully configured. PPAs and alternate repositories can cause the upgrade to fail.
The large number of "broken" packages indicate some basic package has an issue, possible from incompatible version or build not obtained from the Ubuntu repositories.

[GhX6GZMB]

I had this a couple of weeks ago, where a broken link to a PPA caused trouble. Interestingly, the broken PPA was not listed as the error, but two other PPAs that were fully OK.

So yes, update/upgrade and clean up your PPAs first.

[peterg17]

The usb-tethered phone is via the phone network.
I did have a launchpad ppa, but had not yet installed anything, and purging it did not change the upgrade failure.

Starting with the conflicts in apt.log, as there are only two of them, I note that libsensors4 is conflicted, as this quote from apt.log shows:
$ grep libsensors4 apt.log
Broken libsensors-config:amd64 Conflicts on libsensors4:amd64 < 1:3.4.0-4 @ii mK >
Considering libsensors4:amd64 10 as a solution to libsensors-config:amd64 0
Holding Back libsensors-config:amd64 rather than change libsensors4:amd64

When I used dpkg to investigate libsensors4, it confirms the version:
$ dpkg -p libsensors4
Package: libsensors4
Priority: optional
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 142
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Architecture: amd64
Multi-Arch: same
Source: lm-sensors
Version: 1:3.3.4-2ubuntu1
.
.

However when i try apt-get install to check the package installation, the following occurs:
$ sudo apt-get install libsensors4
[sudo] password for garrone:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
libsensors4 is already the newest version (1:3.4.0-4).
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.

So apt is reporting libsensors4 as 1:3.4.0-4, and dpkg is reporting it as 1.:3.3.4-2, which is breaking the upgrade.
Any explanation/remedy appreciated.

[dino99]

1) check /etc/apt/sources.list for possible mixed releases entrie(s)
2) purge /var/cache/apt/archives/
3) update again

[peterg17]

Thanks Dino99. Unfortunately your suggestion was unproductive. The sources.list looked entirely reasonable. I removed all files within /var/cache/apt/archives. I ran the software update tool for absolutely the same result. Here is my sources.list sans comments etc.

deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic main restricted
deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic main restricted
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates main restricted
deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates main restricted
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic universe
deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic universe
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates universe
deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates universe
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic multiverse
deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic multiverse
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates multiverse
deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates multiverse
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted
deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security universe
deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security universe
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security multiverse
deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic partner
deb http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

[dino99]

maybe the 'au' archive is actually down; try the main one (without 'au') and you can remove all the deb-src entries if you never compile softs

note that bionic is near end of life in a few months ahead https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOL so why not moving to a more recent LTS release ?

Myself i use 'synaptic' to get an easier experience to resolve such broken download, rather than the obscure sofware-updater.

[rsteinmetz70112]

What happens with

sudo dpkg --configure -a

and

sudo apt install -f