Can't add PPA on Ubuntu 15.10 - user or team does not exist

Question

Since I have installed Ubuntu 15.10 I can no longer add ppa to my repository list:

@:~>sudo apt-add-repository ppa:git-core/ppa
Cannot add PPA: 'ppa:~git-core/ubuntu/ppa'.
ERROR: '~git-core' user or team does not exist.

Does somebody know what changed in 15.10? Maybe it is an issue with a proxy-server. I am behind a proxy server, but everything else like wget or apt-get is working with my current configuration.

Solution 1

You need to export environment variable first. Open a terminal and run:

export http_proxy="http://username:password@proxy:port/"
export https_proxy="https://username:password@proxy:port/"

Now add the PPA:

sudo -E add-apt-repository ppa:git-core/ppa

You will get a prompt:

➜  ~ sudo -E apt-add-repository ppa:git-core/ppa
 The most current stable version of Git for Ubuntu.

For release candidates, go to https://launchpad.net/~git-core/+archive/candidate .
 More info: https://launchpad.net/~git-core/+archive/ubuntu/ppa
Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel adding it

Press Enter and you will be able to install from a PPA.

Solution 2

OP's answer

I found the problem, it was really related to the proxy-server but with a different background. Our server uses authentication which was not set up here. After disabling it, the problem went away. The strange think is the misleading error message. So hopefully this will read somebody in the future with the same problem.

Comments

[mikemaccana]

This is not a duplicate. The cause of the issue is lack of network connectivity. Solutions may include setting up a proxy server, but they also include not doing that and fixing your network.

[gary69]

I added a print(e) to the catch block in def _get_https_content_py3 in /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/ppa.py to get the actual error

[Emad Omar]

In my case, it turned out that my ubuntu was disconnected from the internet. After fixing the internet connection issue (restarting fixed it), I was able to run the exact same command successfully.

[Ankit Shubham]

It should be: sudo -E add-apt-repository ppa:git-core/ppa

[Wins]

You mean you have to disable the authentication in your proxy server?

[desmond13]

I had the variables http_proxy and https_proxy already setup (checked with echo $http_proxy but without the username and password. I added the username (my email) and password but still did not work.

[Gulzar]

but what was the problem? what does this do?