unable to install locate or mlocate
6,039
Solution 1
After further investigation it turns out this has been disabled by the hosting company.
By default mlocate is not installed, and disabled if it is installed by default. The reason for this is due to the cron tasks and IO load it puts on the servers which can impact other servers on the same host. IO is the biggest cause for slow down on hosts which is why we are fairly strict. We prefer to encourage people to use the find command to find things eg find / -iname "somename"
When trying to figure this out the first place I turned to was google, I was unable to find anything useful on this problem.
I have added this as an answer so that hopefully people Googleing "unable to install locate" in the future can know to ask their hosting company first!
Solution 2
Create the /var/lib/dpkg/arch file with the following text:
amd64
i386
Then do, sudo apt-get update and now you can start installing things again.
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Author by
P4ul
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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P4ul over 1 year
I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS
Ruinning
cat /etc/apt/sources.listshows:
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise-security main restricted universe multiversebut if I run
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install mlocate locate
I getPackage locate is a virtual package provided by: locate:i386 4.4.2-4ubuntu1 [Not candidate version] E: Package 'mlocate' has no installation candidate E: Package 'locate' has no installation candidatePlease help! I never realised how much I depend on the find command..
Cheers, Paul
Update to answer @braiam
#apt-cache policy locate mlocate locate: Installed: (none) Candidate: (none) Package pin: 4.4.2-4ubuntu1 Version table: 4.4.2-4ubuntu1 -10 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe amd64 Packages mlocate: Installed: (none) Candidate: (none) Package pin: 0.23.1-1ubuntu2 Version table: 0.23.1-1ubuntu2 -10 500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages #uname -a Linux xxxx 3.0.20-xenU #1 SMP Wed May 15 04:27:08 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/LinuxSecond update to answer @braiam
:~# dpkg --print-foreign-architectures i386 :~# cat /var/lib/dpkg/arch amd64 i386Third update to answer @braiam
sudo apt-get update Get:1 http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security Release.gpg [198 B] Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise Release.gpg Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security Release [49.6 kB] Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates Release.gpg [198 B] Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise Release Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates Release [49.6 kB] Get:5 http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/main amd64 Packages [342 kB] Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main amd64 Packages Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted amd64 Packages Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/universe amd64 Packages Get:6 http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted amd64 Packages [4,627 B] Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/multiverse amd64 Packages Get:7 http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe amd64 Packages [85.2 kB] Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main i386 Packages Get:8 http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/multiverse amd64 Packages [2,439 B] Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted i386 Packages Get:9 http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/main i386 Packages [360 kB] Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/universe i386 Packages Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/multiverse i386 Packages Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main TranslationIndex Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/multiverse TranslationIndex Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted TranslationIndex Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/universe TranslationIndex Get:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main amd64 Packages [708 kB] Get:11 http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted i386 Packages [4,620 B] Get:12 http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe i386 Packages [88.9 kB] Get:13 http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/multiverse i386 Packages [2,635 B] Hit http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/main TranslationIndex Hit http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/multiverse TranslationIndex Hit http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted TranslationIndex Hit http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe TranslationIndex Get:14 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted amd64 Packages [11.5 kB] Hit http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/main Translation-en Get:15 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe amd64 Packages [222 kB] Hit http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/multiverse Translation-en Hit http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted Translation-en Hit http://security.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe Translation-en Get:16 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/multiverse amd64 Packages [14.0 kB] Get:17 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main i386 Packages [729 kB] Get:18 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted i386 Packages [11.4 kB] Get:19 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe i386 Packages [226 kB] Get:20 http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/multiverse i386 Packages [14.2 kB] Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main TranslationIndex Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/multiverse TranslationIndex Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted TranslationIndex Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe TranslationIndex Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main Translation-en Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/multiverse Translation-en Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted Translation-en Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/universe Translation-en Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main Translation-en Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/multiverse Translation-en Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted Translation-en Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe Translation-en Fetched 2,925 kB in 19s (150 kB/s) Reading package lists... Done-
Braiam over 10 yearsHave you used
sudo apt-get install mlocate:amd64?
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P4ul over 10 yearssorry no dice, after doing this I get same results.
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P4ul over 10 yearsdone, I removed the old output
