How can I fix a 404 Error using a PPA?

Question

PPA seems to be constantly offline.

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/ 404  Not Found

How do I fix these errors?

Answer 1

Automated removal

skip to the bottom of this answer for a scripted way to remove offending software-sources

What are 404 errors

The 404 or Not Found error message is a HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server, but the server could not find what was requested.

The web site hosting server will typically generate "404 - Page Not Found" web page, when users attempts to follow a broken or dead link.

What are the causes of these errors in update-manager

Typically, three main areas cause these errors in update-manager

1. A user has just upgraded and has re-enabled a PPA software-source that no longer exists
2. A user has manually typed in a new software source incorrectly
3. A PPA was added, but the maintainer has subsequently deleted some/all of the PPA

where are these software-sources

PPAs typically are saved in one of two locations

1. /etc/apt/sources.list
2. in an appropriately named file with a .list file-extension in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ for example webupd8team-jupiter-natty.list

This list file typically contains:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/jupiter/ubuntu oneiric main
# deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/jupiter/ubuntu oneiric main

Note a # at the front of a line of text means that it is commented out and is not checked by the package manager.

How to eliminate these errors

Typically, if you run sudo apt-get update from a terminal or click the details button in Update Manager after hitting the refresh button you will see errors such as:

If the error is due to a PPA - usually unticking the similarly named PPA with the URL shown in the error message will resolve this.

If the 404 error was due to an additional repository that has been added to /etc/apt/sources.list then its easier to add # character to the start of the line to comment out the offending repository i.e.

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Scripted removal

I've written a quick script that checks for PPAs and Software-Sources that exhibit the 404 errors.

Its in my PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fossfreedom/packagefixes
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install banish404

You can just download the deb package and install that directly:

wget https://launchpad.net/~fossfreedom/+archive/packagefixes/+files/banish404_0.1-4_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i banish404_0.1-4_all.deb

N.B. its the same deb package for all distributions.

Questions/Comments/Improvement please via Launchpad Contact Me link

How to use:

sudo banish404

The script will automatically backup of your sources before modification - to be found in /etc/apt

Here is a bug report on the update manager to solve this problem:

• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/1049046

If you are getting these problems without PPAs, check out this question:

• How can I fix a 404 Error using the Ubuntu archives?
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu#Removing_.26_Disabling_Repositories

Answer 2

You are getting these errors because your PPA repositories don't provide packages for your distribution of Ubuntu (ie; quantal).

Look at the following screenshots:

ppa:petrakis/wdt-main

ppa:screenlets/ppa

You can see that the directory for quantal is missing and hence you are getting 404 Not Found Error Messages.

To get rid of these messages you have to remove these PPA repositories from your system. Follow this question on how to remove PPAs:

• See the section called "How to eliminate these errors" in this answer.
• Or, How can PPAs be removed?

---

How to investigate this and come to this conclusion?

These are the error messages you receive for wdt-main PPA:

W:Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/petrakis/wdt-main/ubuntu/dists/quantal/main/source/Sources  404  Not Found
, W:Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/petrakis/wdt-main/ubuntu/dists/quantal/main/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not Found
, W:Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/petrakis/wdt-main/ubuntu/dists/quantal/main/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found

Open your browser tab and open the link which gives 404 Not Found Errors. In this case http://ppa.launchpad.net/petrakis/ and go deeper as per the link which gives errors. You would be able to see what the actual problem is.