Update information outdated?

In my tray I have a red warning telling me “The update information is outdated”. The full error is as follows:

The update information is outdated. This may be caused by network problems or by a repository that is no longer available. Please update manually by selecting ‘Show updates’ from the indicator menu, and watching for any failed repositories.

When I choose ‘Show updates’ I get 'The software on this computer is up to date". No errors or warnings on repositories. The red warning in my tray doesn’t go away.

What are the next steps I need to solve this?

Which PPAs do you have enabled?

I’ve seen a similar indicator to this appear for the Wine Development Builds PPA, but for the most part it’s harmless and usually goes away after installing all the updates.

The following is listed in System >> Administration >> Software & Updates. Note I had to edit the links due to new user status.

Ubuntu Software

  • main
  • universe
  • restricted
  • multiverse

Other

  • Chrome stable: hxxp://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/
  • xenial main: hxxp://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mate-dev/welcome/ubuntu
  • xenial main source: hxxp://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mate-dev/welcome/ubuntu

Install Updates from

  • xenial-security
  • xenial-updates
  • xenial-backports

Maybe sudo apt-get update in a terminal can solve this? Or install Synaptic and push the Reload button.

This might be a problem related to Indicators or the Updater not displaying correct information.

That’s one great BOFH! :grin:

Right. So, what is happening here is that a certain class of apt errors will allow your apt update to update the index files for all repositories with the exception of those that gave that type of error.

Let me give an example since I realize the above sentence may be confusing. For instance, the GPG error is one such error. When the apt update routine reaches a repository that has an invalid signature or no signature key, that repository will generate a GPG error for that repository. You will see this being shown on the terminal if you are performing the update command there. When the apt update finishes, it will still update the indexes of all other repositories. But for the repository that generated the GPG error, it will use the previous index; i.e., it didn’t update that repository, but updated all others.

On the terminal, all you see is the error message I described above and nothing more. So this is for most purposes not a problem. It is just telling you that repository hasn’t been updated. Everything else has been updated and if there were new versions of installed packages, they will be marked for update.

But the GUI throws you that weird message. In order to see what repositories apt is having problems with, just run sudo apt-get update from the command line. Once you determine the repository (or repositories) giving the error, you have three options:

  1. Ignore the error. Usually it’s a connection error caused upstream and that will get fixed sometime later. Like I said, everything else updated just fine. So it’s generally safe to ignore it.
  2. Fix the error. Usually, if it is a GPG error, you can fix it by trying to generate a new key according to the repository owner instructions, usually at their website.
  3. Disable the repository. If you install Synaptic, you can disable the repository easily. You can also do it on the command line by editing the appropriate files, but I’ll leave those instruction for later if you ask for them. By disabling it, you get some respite from the error, because that repo is no longer checked, and decide when you want to fix it at your own convenience.
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sudo apt-get update
Hit:1 hxxp://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease
Hit:2 hxxp://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mate-dev/welcome/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Ign:3 hxxp://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Hit:4 hxxp://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release
Hit:5 hxxp://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:7 hxxp://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease
Hit:8 hxxp://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease
Reading package lists… Done

Didn’t find any errors, but the error has removed itself from the tray a few seconds after running. So doing ‘Show updates’ didn’t change anything, but doing the update via the terminal ran properly.

Thanks.

So it was probably a connection burp that eventually fixed itself. All is good :slight_smile:

I occassionally get the same message on my laptop AFTER I’ve closed the lid and subsequently reopen [99% of the time I use laptop on WIFI]. I simply use manual apt update, upgrade. I never investigated further in syslog to determine the EXACT cause.