37

So I am on my college network which requires me to sign in to the browser before I start using the internet. I do so succesfully but on a clean install of Ubuntu, when I try to do sudo apt update, I get the following output:

$ sudo apt update
Get:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease [2,847 B]
Err:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease                    
Clearsigned file isn't valid, got 'NOSPLIT' (does the network require authentication?)
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease [2,854 B]    
Err:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease             
...
Get:3 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease [2,855 B]   
Err:3 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease
...
Get:4 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease [2,857 B]
Err:4 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease
Clearsigned file isn't valid, got 'NOSPLIT' (does the network require authentication?)
Fetched 11.4 kB in 0s (18.3 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
E: Failed to fetch http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/xenial/InRelease  Clearsigned file isn't valid, got 'NOSPLIT' (does the network require authentication?)
...
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

But when I do wget http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/xenial/InRelease, I get this output success:

2017-04-01 05:34:57  http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/xenial/InRelease
Resolving in.archive.ubuntu.com (in.archive.ubuntu.com)... 91.189.88.162, 91.189.88.149, 91.189.88.152, ...
Connecting to in.archive.ubuntu.com (in.archive.ubuntu.com)|91.189.88.162|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 246846 (241K)
Saving to: ‘InRelease.3’

InRelease.3         100%[===================>] 241.06K   110KB/s    in 2.2s    

2017-04-01 05:35:00 (110 KB/s) - ‘InRelease.3’ saved [246846/246846]

Clearly I have internet access from my browser and on wget but when I do sudo apt (or apt-get) update I get this error.

PS: This question is not similar to other threads as their solutions do not seem to work on mine

As I have found out, this problem is happening only to me, not others on the college network. Despite setting up the network according to instructions, this still happens. Any more help would be appreciated

EDIT: So as it turns out, 50% of us in the college are facing this issue, while 50% aren't despite having no issues with the hardware and sudo apt update before the last week. Thanks to @David Foerster for helping me throughout all this time.

As it stands, the issue has been raised to our college's networking department :)

13
  • What's the output of wget -qO- http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/xenial/InRelease | head? Apr 1, 2017 at 9:11
  • Did you configure any HTTP proxy server on your system or for Apt specifically? How is the system connected to the internet? Usually this type of error stems from faulty proxy configuration or misbehaving proxy servers. Apr 1, 2017 at 11:44
  • 1
    For the third time now, could you please change the Ubuntu repository mirror and try to reproduce the issue? If this only happens in your college network I advise you to contact the local network administrators for support because they know the local network infrastructure and HTTP proxy servers. Thanks. Apr 2, 2017 at 20:11
  • 2
    To close voters: The issue was related to an upstream network problem according to OP's answer. Jul 11, 2017 at 16:13
  • 1
    I think what the OP was saying was that there is a difficulty using Ubuntu in their environment. You could argue that the problem is with the environment, but there may also be a valid Ubuntu solution (there is for some people with matching symptoms). Oct 3, 2017 at 21:35

6 Answers 6

18

I had the same issue. It turns out that apt-get uses /etc/apt/apt.conf for the proxy settings (my browser settings are already set). Making apt.conf match my browser proxy settings solved the problem.

/etc/apt$ cat apt.conf

Acquire::http::proxy "http://<proxy>";
Acquire::https::proxy "https://<proxy>";
Acquire::ftp::proxy "ftp://<proxy>";
Acquire::socks::proxy "socks:<proxy>";
7
  • 2
    Note: you have to create this file in 16.04 (it doesn't previously exist). May 31, 2017 at 21:55
  • It is clearly a bug that this is required. A major bug for those affected. May 31, 2017 at 21:58
  • You probably only need the http row. And don't forget the port: http://<name>:<port>. May 31, 2017 at 23:00
  • Yep! First thing I had to do with my WSL of Ubuntu was running echo Acquire::http::proxy \"http://$proxy:$port\";" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/apt.conf and echo Acquire::https::proxy \"https://$proxy:$port\";" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/apt.conf; then I was golden for using apt-get Dec 8, 2017 at 0:32
  • 2
    @brian What should I write instead of <proxy> ?
    – TSR
    Feb 3, 2018 at 12:40
9

Turns out it was a problem in our college's network backend. Issues still exist with it, other WiFi networks work fine.

4
  • 4
    This does not do any help to anyone. What was the problem with your college network? Nov 21, 2018 at 4:28
  • Well, can't say what but they have blocked any request that comes from apt, because when I open the repository URL, it works fine
    – Sparker0i
    Nov 22, 2018 at 19:07
  • @MusaHaidari it just helped me out :D Mar 3, 2020 at 9:49
  • Noone needs such an answer when googling
    – IceFire
    Nov 17, 2023 at 9:00
4

when you having such issued, first make sure the DNS can resolve the links, which l think is the problem.

sudo vim /etc/resolv.conf

make sure you use google dns :

nameserver 8.8.8.8

as the first name server to check. restart the networking.service and you will be good to go

4
  • 2
    The name resolution is fine according to the question (compare the listed IP addresses with the output of host in.archive.ubuntu.com 8.8.8.8) but the HTTP proxy settings were not. -1 Mar 7, 2018 at 13:55
  • 2
    In my case, this didn't resolve the issue. Haven't found the issue yet, but DNS wasn't it. I don't need to use a proxy and don't have one set in apt.conf, either.
    – user323094
    Oct 11, 2019 at 13:07
  • solved my problem
    – hzh
    Oct 9, 2020 at 16:04
  • this doesnt work
    – NMukama
    Dec 3, 2021 at 16:23
3

I know this is a 3 year old thread but adding my solution so that it could be a help for someone in the future.

I too was facing the same problem and it turned out it was because of exceeding the FUP data cap of my connection. On the browser I was redirected to the ISP's FUP reminder page after which the problem went away.

3

For me this error message was accompanied by another one:

E: Failed to fetch http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code/dists/stable/InRelease  Clearsigned file isn't valid, got 'NOSPLIT' (does the network require authentication?)
E: The repository 'http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable InRelease' is no longer signed.

This post gives a workaround for the second issue (it basically disables the bad PPA), and after fixing the second issue the first one disappeared as well.

This is not a permanent solution though, since packages from the disabled PPA will not be updated anymore.

5
1

For some reason, the repository URL changed:

  • from: https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode
  • to: https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code

So updating the APT source to the following fixed the issue for me:

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/microsoft-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main

Source

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