Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Server — apt-get install commands fail

aptgnomeinstallationUbuntuubuntu-10.10

I'm new to Ubuntu Server and am trying to get a basic instance up and running. I'm having some issue installing the GUI (GNOME, correct?) through apt-get.

Background:

Host OS: Windows 7 Pro x64

VM App: VirtualBox x64 (latest version)

Network for VM: Bridged to my laptop's wireless card (gets connection fine; tested)

Guest OS: Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Server x64

So Far:

  • I installed Ubuntu Maverick x64 with no problems. However, I didn't set up network connection during install (no connection at the time).
  • Edited my /etc/network/interfaces file to read the following (may be incorrect):

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet dhcp

  • I edited /etc/apt/sources.list to remove comments for all repositories except the backport.
  • I ran "sudo apt-get update". It appeared to run fine and complete.
  • I ran "sudo apt-get upgrade". It appeared to download and upgrade a number of packages.

The Issue:

Whenever I run "sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop" it gives me an error that the package cannot be found. Same for many other popular packages (gedit, etc.) I have not been able to get a single package to install.

Questions:

  • Does my network interfaces file appear to be correct or did I miss something?
  • Is "ubuntu-desktop" the correct package name that I should be searching for?
  • Can you think of anywhere else I might have gone wrong?

Update: Error Information

After being informed that I should try "sudo apt-get install gnome-desktop-environment", I tried that, but I got the same error that I've been getting.

The error message, regardless of which package I try to install, continually comes back:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package gnome-desktop-environment

This error happens with ubuntu-desktop, gnome-desktop-environment, gedit, and any other packages I can think of.

Update: sources.list snippets

Because I think it might help, I'm re-typing some of my sources.list files so you get an idea of what's happening:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list outputs repositories such as:

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick universe

Best Answer

Your /etc/interfaces file looks fine, and since you managed to run apt-get update and apt-get upgrade successfully, this indicates that your network config is good.

As to why you can't install GNOME, the package is called gnome-desktop-environment rather than ubuntu-desktop. You may want to opt for gnome-core instead, which contains less bloat than the full blown desktop environment would.

If that doesn't work, please could you edit your original question to include the error text from apt-get.

Edit 1
Since you're getting package not found for everything, check out /etc/apt/sources.list and check the repositories for universe and multiverse aren't commented out (i.e have a # at the beginning of the line). If they are, remove the # and try again.

Edit 2
For the key error, try the following command sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 16126D3A3E5C1192. (Source)

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