[rudra]

first things first..
"debian 9 release is " testing/unstable" Sid"
NOT TRUE!!!!!!

release code name / alias can be - jessie, stretch, buster, sid etc. these are fixed.

release class can be - oldstable, stable, testing, unstable. these indicate code names...true. but they keep changing with time. Right now,
Deb 8 jessie is oldstable
Deb 9 stretch is stable
Deb 10 buster is testing
beyond Deb 12 lies unstable or sid.

If you don't want to upgrade to buster when it launches (= becomes stable) then use code name 'stretch' after source url. You will stay with debian 9 stretch all the way to its end of life.
Example,
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main
If you use 'stable' in place of 'stretch' then it will (or try to) upgrade the software to its stable version when you run 'apt update'. that means when Deb 10 buster gets stable (and that means Deb 9 stretch becomes oldstable) your software will upgrade to its Deb 10 version (or throw error if dependency issues arise).

If you want to use newer versions available in 'testing' then use it there. Your system will keep updating accordingly. But meeting the dependencies for them and keeping the system in working order will be no small task.

NOW CHECK YOUR OLD POSTS HERE FOR THE SOURCE URLS. YOU HAVE SOME MAJOR MIX UP.

I even see this
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty InRelease

don't think trusty is a code name associated with Debian. hehe
It is Ubuntu. The URL too.

straighten it up and clean the package cache. Hopefully that will solve the problem unless you have a piece of software that is keeping an old version of something that is breaking things.....or something else.

Also WTBD is suri.org ?
is it a main repository for your php for debian?

Personally, I always use main USA or UK repository. Always.

Source.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian_version_history


EDIT.

SO clearly your solution is use 'stretch' and not friggin 'testing'. that is why it says thise installations require newer packages but your installable is older. mismatch.

Dean...

CentOS is good. But I love Ubuntu and never had a problem I didn't manage to google and solve.

[sagher]

@sagher  Do you want me to reinstall your OS?  Just remember you'll have to make backups of everything as it will erase the contents of the VPS.

This thread almost feels like deja vu for me.  Like looks as though Ubuntu is not good with updates - you're not the only one with problems if you Google this.  Do you want to change to CentOS perhaps, as I haven't had an issue ever with updating it.  CentOS is very simple and easy to use for every one.

@deanhills Just wait for my PM. i ll collect all backup and after then PM you to reinstall OS.

[rudra]

@sagher

use the following 3 lines in your sources list only (comment out the rest) and do an update..

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib non-free

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-updates main contrib non-free


or install the https package mentioned by HR and then use https. then do update.

experiment is good for learning.

[Mashiro]

What a mess this ended up to be. Exactly as I thought. Messing with unstable package sources on a stable system is one of the worst ideas. Thank god it didn't came to apt-get upgrade. This would have resulted in a disaster if the upgrade had been pulled through without error messages from the package manager. It would have upgraded packages to unstable verions of pretty much the whole system and that would have wrecked the whole VPS.

[rudra]

What a mess this ended up to be. Exactly as I thought. Messing with unstable package sources on a stable system is one of the worst ideas. Thank god it didn't came to apt-get upgrade. This would have resulted in a disaster if the upgrade had been pulled through without error messages from the package manager. It would have upgraded packages to unstable verions of pretty much the whole system and that would have wrecked the whole VPS.

HAHAHA

so true. Thanks for pointing that and it reminds me. for the sake of completeness.. here I mention an url where anyone interested will find in depth information on how to install some testing or unstable packages on a stable system.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions...n-provides

in short.
the simple way is to use backports. Debian has backports repositories just like Ubuntu.

Another messy way is to use pinning with properly configured priority assignment. But I guess that will be too much for our copy-paste-hit enter and cross fingers audience...

WTBD people wont read and want to know what the steps are meant for and how they work !! escapes me.

[sagher]

first things first..
"debian 9 release is " testing/unstable" Sid"
NOT TRUE!!!!!!

release code name / alias can be - jessie, stretch, buster, sid etc. these are fixed.

release class can be - oldstable, stable, testing, unstable. these indicate code names...true. but they keep changing with time. Right now,
Deb 8 jessie is oldstable
Deb 9 stretch is stable
Deb 10 buster is testing
beyond Deb 12 lies unstable or sid.

@rudra Check this out ..

root@xxxxxxxxx:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux buster/sid
Release: testing
Codename: buster

root@xxxxxxxxxx:~# cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux buster/sid"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

it's my machine information.

i generate source.list from there
https://debgen.simplylinux.ch/

---

I think it's enough to mess-up with this thing. kindly suggest me a good stable ubuntu 64bit version for my vps-9. what you say about ubuntu 18.04 lts ?

[rudra]

@sagher
Wait before you do a fresh install and let us do some testing. haha

In light of the new info from you..... that you have a Debian 10 buster installation.... (unless it is some crippled fk up shyte that got upgraded from Deb 9 through commands as HR pointed out)

use these two lines in your sources list.. there is a space between org/ and buster in the first line. comment out or remove other lines.

deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main contrib non-free

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free


now do
apt update

then
apt upgrade

if you see issues... try
apt dist-upgrade

please post what happens. thanks.

[Mashiro]

What happens if you use a online generator for a sources.list file for Debian/Ubuntu and you select the wrong release... I assume since his server says Buster he did perform a apt-get update and apt-get upgrade after installing the wrong sources already and that probably went through as I mentioned before. What happens is that you wrongfully update all your packages of the one from the wrong release. This can break pretty much everything.

I still stand with a reinstallation to a clean system and this time if anyone plays around with the sources.list file... MAKE SURE you use the right release name/version of your Debian/Ubuntu installation.

[sagher]

@rudra  Ok. as you said. i replace those two lines into sources.list
and then again try command apt-get update

long stuck at 98% ... at the end.

root@xxxxxxxxxxxx:~# apt-get update
Get:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster InRelease [158 kB]
Get:2 http://security.debian.org buster/updates InRelease [38.3 kB]
Ign:3 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch InRelease
Get:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/main amd64 Packages [7966 kB]
Ign:5 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch Release
Ign:6 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main amd64 Packages
Get:7 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/main Translation-en [5990 kB]
Ign:8 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main all Packages
Get:9 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/contrib amd64 Packages [52.8 kB]
Get:10 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/contrib Translation-en [46.1 kB]
Get:11 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/non-free amd64 Packages [88.3 kB]
Get:12 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/non-free Translation-en [88.8 kB]
Ign:13 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main Translation-en
Ign:6 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main amd64 Packages
Ign:8 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main all Packages
Ign:13 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main Translation-en
Ign:6 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main amd64 Packages
Ign:8 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main all Packages
Ign:13 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main Translation-en
Ign:6 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main amd64 Packages
Ign:8 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main all Packages
Ign:13 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main Translation-en
Ign:6 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main amd64 Packages
Ign:8 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main all Packages
Ign:13 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main Translation-en
Err:6 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main amd64 Packages
 The HTTP server sent an invalid reply header
Ign:8 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main all Packages
Ign:13 https://packages.sury.org/php stretch/main Translation-en
Fetched 14.4 MB in 6min 5s (39.4 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
W: The repository 'https://packages.sury.org/php stretch Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Data from such a repository can't be authenticated and is therefore potentially dangerous to use.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
E: Failed to fetch https://packages.sury.org/php/dists/stre...4/Packages  The HTTP server sent an invalid reply header
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

now time for apt dist-upgrade

root@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:~# apt dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Error!
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
dpkg : Breaks: libapt-pkg5.0 (< 1.7~b) but 1.4.8 is to be installed
E: Error, pkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breaks, this may be caused by held packages.

[deanhills]

@sagher - serious warning - you need to put those long copy and paste items in quotation marks. Looks as though you just ignored all of the notes I made in your previous posts. Further posts without quotation tags will be removed from the Forum without any prior notice to you.

Also, please don't PM me instructions when you could easily have posted this in this thread or you could have opened a thread in the private support forum if you wanted to.

I'm closing this thread for now as it's got completely out of hand.

Since your last post (which was posted after your PM to me) indicates you're still doing work on your VPS, please open a thread in the Private Support forum if you want me to reinstall an OS. Please note there isn't an up to date version of Ubuntu. And definitely if you try to update it in future you will have similar problems.