Manually copy software (.deb files) from apt-get archives from one machine to another causes fetch error

Question

I copied the apt source directory from /var/cache/apt/archives/ on my laptop (11.10) to my work PC (11.10). I then removed /var/lib/apt/lists/*.

Now when I try to update my pc from the terminal, it shows "Failed to fetch" errors. If f use the Ubuntu update manager to install updates, it says: "waiting for unattended-upgrade to exit", but no update happens. Now it won't update anything.

Answer 1

Go to /var/cache/apt and delete the lock file. Clear the "updates" folder. Thats it.

Answer 2

Are you referring to the '/etc/apt/' directory, with the 'sources.list' file in it? Or the '/var/cache/apt/archives/' directory, where package archives are stored?

Can't really answer your question as to what's wrong without knowing which. If you want to update one machine from the files downloaded by apt-get off another, you're going to need to become familiar with how apt-get structures its package lists and archive files and set up a 'sources.list' file to suit, or use something like apt-mirror.