The regular release is supported for nine months, while the long-term support releases are supported for five years. Check if you are using an active Ubuntu release

Now if you try to install the package, things should be fine. You must also update the cache so that your system is aware of the new packages available through these repositories: sudo apt update If the intended package is available for your Ubuntu version but in a repository like the universe or multiverse, you should enable these additional repositories: sudo add-apt-repository universe multiverse If you are wondering what the heck is Universe repository, please refer to the Ubuntu repository article I had mentioned earlier. This means the package shutter is available for Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic but in the ‘Universe repository’. In my case, the package name is an exact match. In my case, I searched for Shutter screenshot tool and this is what it showed me for Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic version: Package Search Result This will show if the package is available for your Ubuntu version and if yes, which repository it belongs to. When you have set these three details, hit the search button. Enter the package name (which your system cannot find) and then set the correct distribution codename. Scroll down a bit on this page and go to the Search part. Once you have the version number and the codename, head over to the Ubuntu packages website: You may have something else but you get the gist of what you need to note here. The codename is what is important here: lsb_release -aĪs you can see here, I am using Ubuntu 18.04, whose codename is bionic. You’ll get the Ubuntu version number and the codename in the output. Open a terminal and use the following command: lsb_release -a I’ll explain it for you.įirst step, check the Ubuntu version you are running. Either the package is available in the Universe repository and your system hasn’t enabled it or the package is not available on your Ubuntu version altogether. But you are following the instructions mentioned on some website and everyone else seems to be able to install it like that. You run the update command to rebuild the cache and yet you see the 'unable to locate package' error. Check if the package is available for your Ubuntu versionĪlright! You checked the name of the package and it is correct.

This is why you should run the apt update command right after installing Ubuntu or any other distributions based on Ubuntu (like Linux Mint).Įven if it's not a fresh install, your apt cache might be outdated. When you have a freshly installed Ubuntu system, the cache is empty. If the package is not in this cache, your system won’t be able to install it. When you use the install command, apt package manager searches the cache to get the package and version information and then downloads it from its repositories over the network. Basically, the ‘apt update’ command builds a local cache of available packages. I recommend to get through the concept of Ubuntu repositories. This command won’t update Ubuntu straightaway. If this is the first time you are using your system after installing, you should run the update command: sudo apt update And that's numeric 1, not the letter L in small cases. With Snap, VS Code package is named code, not vscode.Ī practical example is installing zlib package on Ubuntu. In Ubuntu, Docker package is docker.io because docker was an existing package. Remember that the installable package name could be different than the popular software name.

For example, the command name should be vlc, not Vlc or VLC. So make sure that you are typing the correct package name. Typos are common, so make sure you have not made any mistakes in typing the package's name.Īlso, the commands in Linux are case-sensitive. Typos are one of the main reasons behind 'package not found error' Did you make a typo in the package name? I mean, if you are trying to install vlc and you typed vcl, it will surely fail. Let’s see how to troubleshoot this issue one step at a time. Fixing ‘Unable to locate package error’ on Ubuntu But why is it so? Why can it not find the package? Let’s see some of the actions you can take to fix this issue. Your Linux system cannot find the package that you are trying to install. The error reads: sudo apt-get install package_name Sometimes, you may encounter an error while trying to install application in this manner. You open a terminal and use the program name to install it like this: sudo apt install package_name One of the many ways of installing software in Ubuntu is to use the apt-get or the apt command.

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