apt-get can't find openssh-server

Question

I just received a dell with Ubuntu 14.04 preloaded, but I can't ssh in and I can't install openssh-server. I think apt-get is misconfigured, but I have no experience tweaking that. Maybe wrong repositories? Any clue for me?

# lsb_release -a

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
Release:    14.04
Codename:   trusty

# apt-get install rcs openssh-server

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package openssh-server is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Unable to locate package rcs
E: Package 'openssh-server' has no installation candidate

# cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

deb http://dell.archive.canonical.com/updates/ trusty-dell public
deb-src http://dell.archive.canonical.com/updates/ trusty-dell public
deb http://dell.archive.canonical.com/updates/ trusty-dell-ws-vivid-skl public
deb-src http://dell.archive.canonical.com/updates/ trusty-dell-ws-vivid-skl public
deb http://oem.archive.canonical.com/updates/ trusty-oem public
deb-src http://oem.archive.canonical.com/updates/ trusty-oem public
deb http://oem.archive.canonical.com/updates/ trusty-oem-sp1 public
deb-src http://oem.archive.canonical.com/updates/ trusty-oem-sp1 public

cat /etc/apt/sources.list

ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d

trusty-dell.list trusty-dell-ws-vivid-skl.list trusty-oem.list trusty-oem-sp1.list

Solution

use the "software & updates" gui panel. In the "ubuntu software" tab, check everything except "source code". in the "updates" tab, check "important security updates" and "recommended updates". Close the panel, saving changes. Then retry apt-get and it works.

Comments

[Konrad Gajewski]

Do an apt-get update first.

[sinclair]

What is the content of /etc/apt/sources.list ?

[Thomas Burns]

similar problem with apt-get update. not obviously wrong but probably wrong.

[Thomas Burns]

root@chrch:~# apt-get update Ign dell.archive.canonical.com trusty-dell-ws-vivid-skl [...] Ign dell.archive.canonical.com trusty-dell-ws-vivid-skl/public Ign oem.archive.canonical.com trusty-oem/public Translation-en Reading package lists... Done

[Thomas Burns]

# cat /etc/apt/sources.list {returns nothing, files is empty} # ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d trusty-dell.list trusty-dell-ws-vivid-skl.list trusty-oem.list trusty-oem-sp1.list

[Thomas Burns]

I went to the gui panel "software and updates". under "ubuntu software" and "update" nothing was checked. I checked a lot of stuff, basically everything. This solved my problem.