12.04.04 upgrade to 14.04 didnt work due to an unofficial mirror

[Jānis Kangarooo]

did sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo do-release-upgrade -d

login as: root
root@188.226.157.182's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.8.0-29-generic x86_64)

 * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/

  System information as of Mon Apr 21 17:55:22 EDT 2014

  System load: 0.12 Processes: 110
  Usage of /: 16.7% of 19.56GB Users logged in: 1
  Memory usage: 30% IP address for eth0: 188.226.157.182
  Swap usage: 73%

  Graph this data and manage this system at:
    https://landscape.canonical.com/

0 packages can be updated.
0 updates are security updates.

*** System restart required ***
No mail.
Last login: Mon Apr 21 17:28:43 2014 from 94.30.237.154
root@54321:~# do-release-upgrade -d
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Get:1 Upgrade tool signature [198 B]
Get:2 Upgrade tool [1,148 kB]
Fetched 1,148 kB in 0s (0 B/s)
authenticate 'trusty.tar.gz' against 'trusty.tar.gz.gpg'
extracting 'trusty.tar.gz'
Updating repository information

Third party sources disabled

Some third party entries in your sources.list were disabled. You can
re-enable them after the upgrade with the 'software-properties' tool
or your package manager.

To continue please press [ENTER]

Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security Release.gpg
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security Release
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/universe amd64 Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/universe i386 Packages
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/universe TranslationIndex
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/universe Translation-en
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty Release.gpg
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates Release.gpg [933 B]
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty Release
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates Release [58.5 kB]
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty/universe amd64 Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty/universe i386 Packages
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty/universe TranslationIndex
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/universe amd64 Packages [1,602 B]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/universe i386 Packages [1,601 B]
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/universe TranslationIndex
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty/universe Translation-en
Hit http://us.archive.ubuntu.com trusty-updates/universe Translation-en
Fetched 62.7 kB in 0s (0 B/s)

Checking package manager
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Building data structures... Done

Invalid package information

After updating your package information, the essential package
'ubuntu-minimal' could not be located. This may be because you have
no official mirrors listed in your software sources, or because of
excessive load on the mirror you are using. See /etc/apt/sources.list
for the current list of configured software sources.
In the case of an overloaded mirror, you may want to try the upgrade
again later.

Restoring original system state

Aborting
      g package lists... 4%
*** Collecting problem information

The collected information can be sent to the developers to improve the
application. This might take a few minutes.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Building data structures... Done
=== Command terminated with exit status 1 (Mon Apr 21 17:56:29 2014) ===

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: update-manager (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-29.42~precise1-generic 3.8.13.5
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-29-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.6
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Apr 21 17:57:46 2014
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 12.04.3 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20130820.2)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: update-manager
Symptom: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2014-04-21 (0 days ago)
VarLogDistupgradeAptlog:
 Log time: 2014-04-21 17:55:44.138443
 Log time: 2014-04-21 17:55:52.899749
 Log time: 2014-04-21 17:56:15.127181
 Log time: 2014-04-21 17:56:28.965233

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Your /etc/apt/sources.list file only has entries for the main component of the archive with http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu/ which is not an official mirror of Ubuntu. Subsequently, the upgrade was unable to find the essential package ubuntu-minimal. You'll need to either choose a different mirror or only use mirrors.digitalocean.com entries in your sources.list file and then respond Yes to the question about using an unofficial mirror and rewriting sources.list.

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio (andrewsomething)]

This seems to be an issue with virtualmin's repositories. You can see them at the bottom of your sources.list.

I just spun up two 12.04 droplets. One I immediately upgraded to 14.04. There were no issues at all. The next I installed virtualmin on. When I tried to upgrade it, I hit the same problem you described. I'd suggest opening a bug/support ticket with virtualmin.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The virtualmin entries were disabled when the upgrade was attempted and the issue here is the one I described in comment number 2.

2014-04-21 17:56:00,362 DEBUG examining: 'deb http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/ubuntu/ virtualmin-precise main'
2014-04-21 17:56:00,365 DEBUG entry '# deb http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/ubuntu/ virtualmin-precise main # disabled on upgrade to trusty' was disabled (unknown mirror)
2014-04-21 17:56:00,365 DEBUG examining: 'deb http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/ubuntu/ virtualmin-universal main'
2014-04-21 17:56:00,367 DEBUG entry '# deb http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/ubuntu/ virtualmin-universal main # disabled on upgrade to trusty' was disabled (unknown mirror)

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio (andrewsomething)]

You right about the issue Brian, but the cause is that the virtualadmin install script rewrites the user's source lists. Here's the diff between a fresh precise DigitalOcean image's source.list and one where the virtualmin install script has been run:

--- /home/asb/Desktop/digitalocean-precise-sources.list
+++ /home/asb/Desktop/after-virtualmin-sources.list
@@ -26,9 +26,9 @@
 deb-src http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
 deb http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe
 deb-src http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe
-# deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
+deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
 # deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
-# deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe
+deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe
 # deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates universe

 ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
@@ -66,9 +66,10 @@
 deb-src http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu/ precise-security 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 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.
@@ -83,4 +84,5 @@
 ## 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
-
+deb http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/ubuntu/ virtualmin-precise main
+deb http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/ubuntu/ virtualmin-universal main

So the probelm is that their install script tries to make sure universe is enabled, so it ends up with the mixed list. Either way, not a bug in Ubuntu.

Thanks Brain!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Andrew, ah thanks that is rather crazy.

@Kangaroo - it sounds like you should take this up with the virtualmin developers then.