Unable to add ondrej repository apt in Ubuntu 20.04

Question

I am unable to add ondrej to my Ubuntu 20.04 installation.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

The above command returns the following error

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/add-apt-repository", line 363, in <module>
    addaptrepo = AddAptRepository()
  File "/usr/bin/add-apt-repository", line 41, in __init__
    self.distro.get_sources(self.sourceslist)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/distro.py", line 91, in get_sources
    raise NoDistroTemplateException(
aptsources.distro.NoDistroTemplateException: Error: could not find a distribution template for Ubuntu/focal

Following is the LSB release information.

Distributor ID: Ubuntu 
Description:Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS  
Release:    20.04 
Codename:       focal

Am I doing anything wrong?

End goal: I want to be able to install PHP 8.1 extensions from apt

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=20.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=focal
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS"

apt-cache policy -> https://pastebin.com/84HauP14
aptitude search ~o -> https://pastebin.com/VhaW9qWq
namei /etc/os-release -> https://pastebin.com/XwjZHkKa
cat /etc/os-release -> https://pastebin.com/CywsZvEh

@guiverc it's mostly brand new server with very minimal changes. The output for python3 --version is "Python 3.8.10" — Mihir, Feb 17 '22 at 08:08
Try `sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install --reinstall libpython3-stdlib libpython3.8-minimal libpython3.8-stdlib python-apt-common python3 python3-apt python3-certifi python3-chardet python3-dbus python3-distro-info python3-gi python3-idna python3-minimal python3-pkg-resources python3-requests python3-requests-unixsocket python3-six python3-software-properties python3-urllib3 python3.8 python3.8-minimal software-properties-common` and then run `sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php` again. — N0rbert, Feb 17 '22 at 08:23
Please add output of `cat /etc/lsb-release`. See also: https://askubuntu.com/questions/49040/apt-could-not-find-a-distribution-template-error/ — pLumo, Feb 17 '22 at 08:25
@pLumo DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_RELEASE=20.04 DISTRIB_CODENAME=focal DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS" — Mihir, Feb 17 '22 at 08:33
Please upload output of `apt-cache policy` and `aptitude search ~o` to the pastebin and share link. — N0rbert, Feb 17 '22 at 08:48
@N0rbert apt-cache policy -> https://pastebin.com/84HauP14 aptitude search ~o -> https://pastebin.com/VhaW9qWq — Mihir, Feb 17 '22 at 09:11
`namei /etc/os-release` please. It reminds me on this https://askubuntu.com/questions/1190336/software-properties-gtk-crashes-on-startup-19-10/1190636#1190636 — nobody, Feb 17 '22 at 12:30
@nobody f: /etc/os-release d / d etc l os-release -> ../usr/lib/os-release d .. d usr d lib - os-release — Mihir, Feb 17 '22 at 12:35
Okay, the link is there. Checking correct content. `cat /etc/os-release ` Please [edit] your question for output; it is hard to read in comments without codeblock. — nobody, Feb 17 '22 at 12:39
looks normal python3 version on your system too; out of idea in the moment. And it is also not a problem with the ppa I could add it. I'm sorry. — nobody, Feb 17 '22 at 16:16
@nobody No worries. For the moment, I manually added the repo and public key. — Mihir, Feb 18 '22 at 05:14
try to reinstall your python3 and add the repo again `LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php` — abu-ahmed al-khatiri, Feb 18 '22 at 08:59

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 23 '22 at 13:30

11

I could not get the add-apt-repository command to work so I added the repository and the signing key manually using the following commands:

Open the sources.list file with a text editor (for example nano):
```
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
```

Add the following lines to the file:

deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu focal main 
#deb-src https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu focal main

Add the repository signing key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 4f4ea0aae5267a6c

edited Feb 23 '22 at 13:30

Error404

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answered Feb 23 '22 at 13:23

Mihir

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thank bro, save my day...... – Aabir Hussain Jun 17 '22 at 21:53
Where did you get the repository signing key? – Charles Wood May 05 '23 at 17:37
1

the add-apt-repository is part of the software-properties-common apt package, so you'd need to first install that one obv. -> the keys will be imported automatically when adding the repository – clockw0rk May 12 '23 at 10:30

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 09 '23 at 20:08

I solved with this command:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

As cloclw0rk wrote:

the add-apt-repository is part of the software-properties-common apt package, so you'd need to first install that one obv. -> the keys will be imported automatically when adding the repository – clockw0rk

Unable to add ondrej repository apt in Ubuntu 20.04

2 Answers2