Yesterday we had to upgrade a Ubuntu Linux server from a really old version of Ubuntu to the latest and greatest version of Ubuntu. When attempting to run the upgrade from the command line from a file on a Ubuntu CD we were getting an error which is described in more detail below along with what can be done to resolve the issue.
I was doing a dual boot install today for a customer who wanted to dual boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu linux. I installed the Unbuntu operating system fine but when I went to update the distro some thing was clearly wrong. Each time I tried to use the GUI package manager it would stall and lock up. This prompted me to try with the command line package manager apt-get since the GUI is just a front end for it. Normally command line tools give better error messages so I was hoping for some more detail. Below I show the error and the very simple fix.