How to Fix Ubuntu 24.10 Apt Update Error: Repository No Longer Has a Release File

If you are using Ubuntu 24.10 (Oracular Oriole) and run sudo apt update, you may encounter the following error:

E: The repository 'http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu oracular Release' no longer has a Release file.
E: The repository 'http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu oracular-security Release' no longer has a Release file.

This happens because Ubuntu 24.10 is a non-LTS release with only 9 months of support. Once support ends, Canonical moves the package repositories from the standard Ubuntu mirrors to the old-releases archive.

Solution

You need to update your APT source URLs to point to the old releases server.

sudo sed -i 's|http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu|http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu|g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources

sudo sed -i 's|http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu|http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu|g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources

sudo apt update

Why This Works

Ubuntu 24.10 repositories are no longer available on archive.ubuntu.com and security.ubuntu.com. By replacing those URLs with old-releases.ubuntu.com, APT can locate the archived packages and continue to function.

Verify the Changes

To confirm the repository URLs were updated, run:

cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources

You should see:

URIs: http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu

Common Issue: /etc/apt/sources.list Not Found

On newer Ubuntu versions, package sources are often stored in:

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu.sources

instead of the traditional:

/etc/apt/sources.list

That is why editing /etc/apt/sources.list may have no effect.