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I've start a new job today and I am trying to set up my machine to run through their Windows server.

I've managed to get a internet connection through the server now but now I can't run apt-get update as I get a "403 Forbidden" error.

This is for every repo under my source list, apart from translations(?).

I do have a proxy in apt.conf, if I don't have it I get a 407 Permission Denied error.

Here's my apt.conf file (I have omitted my username and password)

Acquire::http::proxy "http://username:[email protected]:8080/";

Here's my sources.list

#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS _Precise Pangolin_ - Release amd64 (20130213)]/ dists/precise/main/binary-i386/

#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS _Precise Pangolin_ - Release amd64 (20130213)]/ dists/precise/restricted/binary-i386/
#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS _Precise Pangolin_ - Release amd64 (20130213)]/ precise main restricted

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu 
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to 
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in 
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise multiverse
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates multiverse

## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu precise partner

## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by third-party
## developers who want to ship their latest software.
deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main
deb-src http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main

I can sort-of fix this by changing all the http in sources.list to ftp but I still have issues with ppas

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3 Answers 3

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18
+50

This error is due to server and it is completely not your fault. Could be because of that repository was offline for maintenance.

However, you should try again later or/and I would suggest reverting to other country's server instead of the main archive.ubuntu.com, which is throttled and will not allow to experience full speed.

Choose server udate

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3
  • I will try these solutions and mark an answer soon, I'm having some other issues with dual booting currently so I can't test them.
    – Lerp
    Jun 17, 2013 at 10:30
  • You were correct, the servers were down. I don't need the proxy or anything now. Thanks!
    – Lerp
    Jun 17, 2013 at 13:35
  • Oops sorry, forgot to give that!
    – Lerp
    Jun 17, 2013 at 19:42
3

Look at the top two answers from:

how to install packages with apt-get on a system connected via proxy?

What do you get when you try?:

sudo http_proxy='http://user:[email protected]:8080/' apt-get update

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0

I have often experience this error, even when using main server.I noticed that this happens when apt-get process breaks for some reason. For instance when running apt-get update downloading of some file coudn't be completed. You will there after get 403 error for that particular file.

I learned that these partially downloaded files (I am not sure if they are exactly the files) during apt-get update are stored in /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/

So I did sudo rm -r /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/*(deleted all files in the directory)

After this I din't get the 403 error.

If you are getting the error when running apt-get install or apt-get upgrade or apt-get dist-upgrade

try sudo rm -r /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/*

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2
  • 1
    my /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/ is an empty directory, but I still have this 403 error
    – nbv4
    Jun 6, 2014 at 20:15
  • same with me, it is still there
    – Siddhant
    Jan 7, 2021 at 6:41

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