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I am running Ubuntu 18.04. I wanted to install node and npm on my machine. The apt repository version of node is 8.x, whereas I wanted to have version 12.x (Current LTS version).

I followed the guide here: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-node-js-on-ubuntu-18-04

As per the guide, I downloaded curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x -o nodesource_setup.sh

and then ran it with sudo -E ./nodesource_setup.sh

However, my machine fails to run sudo apt update with the following (full) output:

maxim@fujitsu:~/scripts$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                 
Hit:2 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease         
Get:3 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease [88.7 kB]
Hit:4 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease              
E: Repository 'http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease' changed its 'Suite' value from 'bionic-updates' to 'bionic-security'
N: This must be accepted explicitly before updates for this repository can be applied. See apt-secure(8) manpage for details.
Do you want to accept these changes and continue updating from this repository? [y/N] N
Fetched 88.7 kB in 8s (10.5 kB/s)                                                      
Reading package lists... Done
E: Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic-security/InRelease  
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

This answer suggests that one should use apt update instead of apt-get update. None the less, I am running apt update.

This answers suggests to answer "Y" to the prompt.

This github issue, from the Docker community, makes it clear that doing so is a bad idea.

However, this answer, suggests that sometimes repositories change the names of package sources.

So my question is, is it OK to answer Y here? I don't want to just blindly accept whatever error the package manager throws at me.

Maxim Blinov
  • 143

2 Answers2

3

If you don't answer Y to the question you never will get apt-get (or apt) working.

It seems reasonable that a security repository sets its 'Suite' value to 'bionic-security'. Why it was bionic-updates I can't tell, but it probably was an error.

As for apt-get contra apt, apt was introduced in Ubuntu 16.04 as a new interface to the package system - se here: https://itsfoss.com/apt-vs-apt-get-difference/

Soren A
  • 7,191
3

To fix the "changed its 'Suite' value" issue run the following commands:

sudo apt clean
sudo apt autoclean
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Hicham
  • 39