after using ubuntu for about a year, it's time to pose my first question.
I am running ubuntu 12.04.3 and recently I've had some issues with resynchronizing the package index files.
sudo apt-get update
produced these errors:
W: Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy-security/main/source/Sources 404 Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy-security/main/binary-amd64/Packages 404 Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy-security/main/binary-i386/Packages 404 Not Found
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
A look at my /etc/apt/sources.list reveals the following:
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 11.10 _Oneiric Ocelot_ - Release amd64 (20111012)]/ oneiric main restricted
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 11.10 _Oneiric Ocelot_ - Release amd64 (20111012)]/ dists/oneiric/main/binary-i386/
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main restricted
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-updates main restricted
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-updates main restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-updates universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-updates universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-updates multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-updates multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security multiverse
deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main
deb-src http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main
Apparently, the file contains two Hardy repositories, which cause the problem, as Hardy has reached its EOF, as can be seen here.
I found two possible solutions to this problem:
1. change the url for the hardy repositories from http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
to http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
(old releases server, source)
2. remove / replace the hardy repositories
So here are the questions for you:
1. which approach should I pursue? (I think the second one, as using outdated repositories isn't a good idea anyways, see e.g. here)
2. if I choose the second approach, can I simply delete the hardy-security repos (as the corresponding precise repos are already contained)? Is this procedure safe in terms of system stability?
Thanks in advance,
silvio