apt-get permission denied

Question

I recently built a new machine, using Debian Jessie. Soon after I upgraded to stretch, and everything seems fine except, one stubborn error which keeps popping up when I run "apt-get update".

Err:12 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/non-free Translation-en ***Could not open file /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/security.debian.org_dists_stretch_updates_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 - open (13: Permission denied) [IP: 212.211.132.32 80]****

and finally

E: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/dists/stretch/updates/non-free/i18n/Translation-en  Could not open file /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/security.debian.org_dists_stretch_updates_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 - open (13: Permission denied) [IP: 212.211.132.32 80]

At the time there was little advice about how the file should be formed, I simply took my existing sources.list, and replaced any mention of "Jessie" with "Stretch"

Can anyone pitch in with ideas?

Answer 1

So the solution is to remove the content of the /var/lib/apt/lists/partial as root (just the content not the directory)

rm /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/*

and after do this command :

apt-get update

tell us if the problem persist ;).

Answer 2

Ok problem solved, and interestingly enough has uncovered a problem I didn't even know I had.

After making a copy of all of the "lists" directory, I deleted all of the contents (including the "partial" folder), re-ran apt-get update and voila, no errors.

And the bonus issue solved, was the fact that for some time, when I had run apt-get upgrade, it was coming back no updates to apply. I thought nothing of it, only that the teams might be a little slack. However now when I try the "upgrade" I am getting a healthy number of updates coming through.

Many thanks for your help. Might not seem it, but as usual ll it took was the input of a 3rd party, to help trigger a response I hadn't come to on my own. Who'd have thunk it, the system works!! =)

Cheers,

Answer 3

im sorry if this is not in the correct place (ie answering my own question with an update, but it was too long for a "comment", and I did not want to edit the previous answer, anywhoo here we go...

Thanks for your reply. First I tried to rm using sudo as advised, but got permission denied. Then was able to cd up to the "/var/lib/apt/lists/" directory, but no further. So using "su" I could cd into the "partial" directory and run "rm ./*", clearing out the contents.

Re-running "apt-get update" (as root... sigh*) first gave me

Ign:13 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/non-free Translation-en
Hit:12 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/non-free amd64 Packages
Err:13 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/non-free Translation-en
  BZ2_bzread: /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/security.debian.org_dists_stretch_updates_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 Read error (-5: DATA_ERROR_MAGIC)
Ign:14 tor+http://zcaptnv5ljsxpnjt.onion jessie InRelease
Hit:15 tor+http://zcaptnv5ljsxpnjt.onion jessie Release
Fetched 295 kB in 2s (130 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
E: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/dists/stretch/updates/non-free/i18n/Translation-en  BZ2_bzread: /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/security.debian.org_dists_stretch_updates_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 Read error (-5: DATA_ERROR_MAGIC)
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

The running update again gave me the same error as before...

Ign:13 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/non-free Translation-en
Ign:12 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/non-free amd64 Packages
Err:13 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/non-free Translation-en
  Could not open file /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/security.debian.org_dists_stretch_updates_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 - open (13: Permission denied) [IP: 195.20.242.89 80]
Ign:12 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/non-free amd64 Packages
Fetched 62.9 kB in 1s (43.0 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
E: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/dists/stretch/updates/non-free/i18n/Translation-en  Could not open file /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/security.debian.org_dists_stretch_updates_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.bz2 - open (13: Permission denied) [IP: 195.20.242.89 80]
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Here is the directory entry for my "partial" directory, are the permissions the same for everyone else?

drwx------ 2 _apt root    16384 Aug  5 15:41 partial

Thanks again for the help.