Skipping acquire of configured file 'contrib/binary-i386/Packages' as repository ... doesn't support architecture 'i386'

Question

I installed Ubuntu 18.04 and then while installing Virtualbox i get the 'i386' error message after I did:

$ sudo apt-get update
Get:1 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease [242 kB]
Hit:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease                                                                
Hit:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/danielrichter2007/grub-customizer/ubuntu bionic InRelease                                         
Hit:4 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease
Hit:5 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease
Get:6 http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic InRelease [4429 B]
Get:7 http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic/contrib amd64 Packages [1426 B]
Fetched 248 kB in 1s (209 kB/s)     
Reading package lists... Done
N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'contrib/binary-i386/Packages' as repository 'http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'i386'

I found several answers on Askubuntu for the 'i386' message but I don't know how to apply this to my situation

Answer 1

First, note this is just a note (N:), not an error (E:) and not even a warning (W:). Second, note the repository for which this note appears. In this case, that is http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian. Locate that repository in your sources:

grep -F 'http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian' /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list

This might show that the file is in, say, /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list. Then edit that file:

sudoedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list

and change the repository:

deb https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic contrib

to specifically be for amd64 only:

deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic contrib

Or open a terminal and execute the following command:

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list

Specifically for Virtualbox, you can run this bash script to install virtualbox and its dependencies from Oracle repository (tested in Ubuntu 18.04/20.04/22.04-unconfirmed):

sudo chmod +x VboxInstall.sh && sudo ./VboxInstall.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Oracle Repository
# Download and install .asc
wget -O- https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc | gpg --dearmor | tee /usr/share/keyrings/virtualbox.gpg &> /dev/null
# add repo
echo deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/virtualbox.gpg] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list/virtualbox.list
apt update
# install vbox
apt -y install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential gcc make perl dkms bridge-utils
apt -y install virtualbox-6.1
dpkg --configure -a && apt-get -f -y install
# install Extension Pack
export VBOX_VER=`VBoxManage --version | awk -Fr '{print $1}'`
wget -c http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/$VBOX_VER/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-$VBOX_VER.vbox-extpack
VBoxManage extpack install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-$VBOX_VER.vbox-extpack
# configure
usermod -a -G vboxusers $USER
update-grub
/sbin/vboxconfig
echo "Done. Reboot"
# check service after reboot
systemctl status vboxdrv

Source: Virtualbox kernel service is not running

Answer 2

You should try with a https deb source:

deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic contrib

Answer 3

I wanted to add a comment to secretAgent regarding this but I don't have enough reputation for that.

We need not use https for apt packages for the reasons listed on this site: https://whydoesaptnotusehttps.com/

Also, incase your virtualbox source is in /etc/apt/sources.list, ajcg's answer can be modified to:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Edit the line

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic contrib

to

deb [arch=amd64] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic contrib

Or you could just fire up your terminal and type

echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list