Updating 10.10 to the latest version through a firewall

Question

I've had Ubuntu 10.10 on my server since I bought it several years back. I've tried to upgrade in the past but I'm always thwarted by my company's firewall. I receive messages like these:

W:Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.co/ubuntu/dists/natty-security/main/source/Sources.gz 407 Proxy Authentication Required (Forefront TMG requires authorization to fulfill the request. Access to the Web Proxy filter is denied. )

I have my System > Preferences > Network Proxy > HTTP proxy set appropriately (to use Port 80 to get through our firewall.) But still no luck.

I'm looking to upgrade from Ruby 1.8.7 to 1.9.3 and I'm really hesitant to install RVM until I've gotten this Ubuntu upgrade successfully completed. Can anyone suggest what I might be doing wrong / need to change?

Thanks,

Dean Richardson

Answer 1

Create the file /etc/apt/apt.conf and write this in it:

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://<username>:<password>@<proxy-ip-address>:<port>/";

Then follow How to install software or upgrade from an old unsupported release? to learn what to to next.

Answer 2

For using a proxy with apt you have to tweak your apt configuration. See man apt.conf

http

HTTP URIs; http::Proxy is the default http proxy to use. It is in the standard form of http://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/. Per host proxies can also be specified by using the form http::Proxy:: with the special keyword DIRECT meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified, http_proxy environment variable will be used.