When I try to install any package through the command line, I get an error.
$ sudo apt-get install <package>
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package <package>
Can anyone help me on this?
First, check if the package actually does exist:
Go to packages.ubuntu.com with a web browser.
Scroll down to "Search package directories"
Enter the package which you're trying to install into the "Keyword" field.
Enable "Only show exact matches:"
Change the "Distribution" to the codename of the version of Ubuntu you're using, e.g. focal in Ubuntu 20.04 or it's displayed by lsb_release -sc
If there are no results, the package you are looking for doesn't exist and the next steps will not work. It may require a third party PPA or an alternative installation method.
If results are found, the package exists and you may continue with these steps:
Update the package lists, then test with these commands:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install <TEST_PACKAGE>
There are many questions about this topic. Here I provide a basic/general answer.
When apt-get install is unable to locate a package, the package you want to install couldn't be found within repositories that you have added (those in in /etc/apt/sources.list and under /etc/apt/sources.list.d/).
The following (general) procedure helps to solve this:
Make sure you have enabled Ubuntu repositories:
To enable all repositories (main, universe, restricted, multiverse), use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository main
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo add-apt-repository restricted
sudo add-apt-repository multiverse
Visit Help for more information.
For finding PPA for more packages:
button. or Visit
PPAs.Add PPA (by command-line):
Use this command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:<repository-name>
Visit Ubuntu community help for more information.
Don't forget to update (make apt aware of your changes):
It is essential to run this command after changing any repositories:
sudo apt-get update
Selecting best download server may help to speed up update.
Finally install the package:
sudo apt-get install <package>
Refer to Package management by commandline.
Additional/Tip: you can find the correct package-name (i.e the name in the repository) using apt-cache search <package-name>.
Note: If package is not available on repository any how, than you have to wait until it is available (in the case of new/updated versions) or use other installation processes than apt-get e.g. compiling from source, downloading executable binary, etc.
Many times just updating the package lists from all repositories and PPA's does the trick:
sudo apt-get update
This should be the first thing to do.
If this does not work you need search for the repository or PPA which contains the package you are after, add it, and run sudo apt-get update again. Steps for the process are well explained on the other answers on this page.
xbmc is only available in the universe repository, only since Ubuntu 12.04 (precise). If you have an older release of Ubuntu, you'll need to upgrade or to get xbmc from another place.
If you have Ubuntu 12.04, make sure that you have turned on the universe repository. You can see what repositories you have enabled in the file /etc/apt/sources.list (and in files in the directory /etc/apt/sources.list.d). Check that this file contains a line like
deb http://al.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise universe
or
deb http://zw.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse
If you only find a line like
deb http://mn.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted
and no line with universe, add universe at the end of that line, or a separate line with precise universe, as illustrated above.
If you need to modify /etc/apt/sources.list, run sudo apt-get update afterwards, then try installing again. If the package is still not found, post the complete content of /etc/apt/sources.list and the output of sudo apt-get update.
I'm new to Ubuntu but i'm writing this as I discovered some solutions to avoid this "Unable to Locate Package" errors. There are three circumstances where this might occur to a shock.
sudo apt-get killmanager, if not working no problem proceed to type sudo apt-get update, then type sudo apt-get upgrade.Now you should be able to install any software through Terminal.
In the case where tried to install a file:
sudo apt-get install libstdc++.so.6
instead of a package. You get the error message:
E: Unable to locate package libstdc++.so.6 E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'libstdc++.so.6'
because you tried to install a file libstdc++.so.6 that you can't install, because it is located in a debian package.
You can use apt-file to search for the package that contains that file. To install it, type:
sudo apt-get install apt-file
Then you have to update the index.
sudo apt-file update
After that, you can search for the package which contains the file libstdc++.so.6:
sudo apt-file find libstdc++.so.6
Then you find a lot packages that contains the searched file. For this example I paste only one search result:
libstdc++6: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6
Then you can install the needed package libstdc++6:
sudo apt-get install libstdc++6
you must supply either full path or relative path to reach the xxx.deb file
# bad way since PATH env var does not
# and should not contain the '.' (current) directory
sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb # proper way
notice in above I supply the relative path to reach the xxx.deb file as in ./xxx.deb
this is an intentional security measure to prevent sudo from installing a rogue xxx.deb from a potentially polluted PATH variable
below also works ... its using full path to reach the file
sudo apt-get install /tmp/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
