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Development Tools Console Foundations Installing Software Building Software From Source

Alex Lowe
Alex Lowe
15,147 Points
Posted by Alex Lowe
Alex Lowe
15,147 Points

problems with get-install

I'm trying to follow these steps on my computer running linux mint, and I've run into a couple problems.

After sudo apt-get update, i see lots of lines that start: "Failed to fetch" and the final message is: "E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead."

After build-essential : "E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?"

After trying curl: "The program 'curl' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing: sudo apt-get install curl"

And after trying sudo apt-get install curl, again I see: "Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?"

Anything I can do about this?

2 Answers

Joshua Ferdaszewski
Joshua Ferdaszewski
12,716 Points
Joshua Ferdaszewski
Joshua Ferdaszewski
12,716 Points

I think your issues stem from sudo apt-get update failing to fetch the info it needs. Update downloads lists of files and programs from the repositories your Linux distro uses (and any you may have added). If this fails, your computer does not have an updated list of the programs, so any install command you execute, may have issues.

I would verify that your internet connection is up and then try sudo apt-get update again. Good luck!

Alex Lowe
Alex Lowe
15,147 Points
Alex Lowe
Alex Lowe
15,147 Points

Thanks. I'm really just starting to learn about Linux. I was using Mint 10, no longer supported. I installed it on an old Laptop a while ago and hadn't really thought about it until now. I switched to Mint 17 Xfce, and I'm good to go.