How to install software or upgrade from an old unsupported release? - Ask Ubuntu

recently have installed older version of ubuntu on old machine. whenever try install software, error saying couldn't found:

$ sudo apt-get install vlc reading package lists... done                building dependency tree        reading state information... done     e: couldn't find package vlc 

the repositories older releases not supported (like 11.04, 11.10 , 13.04) moved archive server. there repositories available @ http://old-releases.ubuntu.com

the reason is out of support , no longer receiving updates , security patches.

i urge consider supported distribution. if computer old in terms of memory or processor should consider distribution such lubuntu or xubuntu.

if want continue using outdated release edit /etc/apt/sources.list , change archive.ubuntu.com , security.ubuntu.com old-releases.ubuntu.com.

you can sed:

sudo sed -i -re 's/([a-z]{2}\.)?archive.ubuntu.com|security.ubuntu.com/old-releases.ubuntu.com/g' /etc/apt/sources.list 

then update with:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade 

sometimes, might faster create backups of system , reinstall using supported release instead.

source

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to upgrade new release:

once have performed above steps switch old-releases mirrors, update update manager , do-release-upgrade:

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install update-manager-core sudo do-release-upgrade 

see also:

• eolupgrades - community wiki