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I'm unable to upgrade 15.04 to 16.04 LTS. Support has ended and all codes to edit sources.list have failed to work. I cannot use gksu since I don't have it and I'm unable to install it from software center or terminal. sed commands have also not worked. Software&updates is just repeating Failed to download repository even after making changes given here:
How to install software or upgrade from an old unsupported release?

Output of trying to install gksu:

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
The program 'gksudo' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install gksu
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package gksu is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source

E: Package 'gksu' has no installation candidate`

Output of sed command:

sudo sed -i.bak 's_ftp.iitb.ac.in/distributions/ubuntu/archives_http://old-releases.ubuntu.com_g‌​‌​' /etc/apt/sources.list
sed: -e expression #1, char 80: unknown option to `s'

and without 'g'

sudo sed -i.bak  

's_ftp.iitb.ac.in/distributions/ubuntu/archives_http://old-releases.ubuntu.com_​‌​‌​‌​' /etc/apt/sources.list
sed: -e expression #1, char 79: unknown option to s'
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  • Can you add to your question the details of the error messages you see in the terminal?
    – edwinksl
    Jul 11, 2016 at 15:29
  • @edwinksl I have added the outputs in the question. The graphical method given here www.askubuntu.com/a/311010/320386 didn't help either. Jul 11, 2016 at 16:47
  • You don't have to edit sources.list file in graphical mode. you can do it in terminal. just use sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list. I recommend you to do a fresh install instead of an upgrade. If you have to do a upgrade to last version you can use sudo do-release-upgrade and if it's telling you there is no new version then use: sudo do-release-upgrade -d let me know if it's worked for you. then I'll post it as an answer ;)
    – Ravexina
    Jul 11, 2016 at 16:56
  • Actually, the do-release-upgrade commands had not worked earlier either. But, since we managed to fix my usb, I did a fresh install. :) Thanks! Jul 12, 2016 at 0:01
  • To close and re-open voters: Why is a question about a release upgrade closed as off topic for being about an EOL release? Jul 12, 2016 at 10:04

2 Answers 2

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Use sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list. It will open the file in an editor in the terminal window. It works like a GUI editor, except that the mouse doesn't work and you use the arrow keys to move around.

With nano, commands are listed on the bottom, where ^ means Ctrl. So, to save or Write Out the file, you press Ctrl+O, and to exit, you press Ctrl+X.

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After the g at the end of your sed command are some weird non-printable characters when I copy & paste it. The hexadecimal representation of the UTF-8 encoded characters looks like this (67 being the UTF-8 encoded letter g):

67 e2 80 8c e2 80 8b e2 80 8c e2 80 8b

(Further investigation revealed them to be 2 zero with space (U+200B) and 2 zero with non-joiner (U+200C) characters.)

Please delete these characters and try again. Placing the terminal cursor after the g, pressing Backspace and re-entering g did it for me.

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  • I get it now. But I have done a fresh install of 16.04 LTS. Will check this for future relevance though. Jul 12, 2016 at 0:04

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