apt-get does not work on ubuntu installed with VM on Windows

[charlotte]

I run windows XP and installed virtualbox on it.
The guest host is ubuntu which seems to be correctly installed, I can reach the network,but apt-get does not seem to work.
When I do sudo apt-get install gnuplot
It says that it cannot find the gnuplot package
In the sources.list all the lines with universe are uncommented.

Can someone help me please.

Charlotte

[Sasquatch]

Does internet on the Guest work? If not, please take a look at the VirtualBox FAQ for possible causes. Likely a firewall is blocking the VM from accessing the internet.

[charlotte]

Yes internet works fine.
Charlotte

[TerryE]

It doesn't go over the internet to find a package as this dpkg database is cached. Sounds to me as if you haven't updated your sources. What does sudo apt-cache search gpuplot and sudo apt-cache showpkg gpuplot return?

[d34th]

Select your adapter and make its attached to host interface

[The MAZZTer]

You need to use "sudo apt-get update" before you can install packages from newly-added sources. Ubuntu will eventually do this itself periodically but it won't happen immediately after adding sources.

Considering you have internet access, and that the package does exist (and I checked in the other versions of Ubuntu, it exists in all of them), I don't see any other reason why it would not find the package other than your package lists are out of date and need to be updated.

If you're not familiar with apt-get I recommend using the Synaptic Package Manager which will take care of all the package stuff for you, all you need to do is search, select, and install. Package lists get updated automatically. Very handy and easy to use, I use it regularly for searching package lists and whenever apt-get gives me an error I don't understand (usually packages "held back" but it won't tell me why).

[charlotte]

Thank you very much, now that I have updated, I can do my apt-get.

Charlotte

[bleriot13]

Hi!

Mi situation is the same as Charlotte's, but with one difference.

I cannot update apt. When I try

sudo apt-get update

The process freezes waiting for the data to download. Every now and then I get a message on screen saying that this or that file couldn't be downloaded.

Incredibly, I can surf the web without problems. Obviously, I cannot update the system nor install new applications, which renders it unuseful.

Any ideas???

Thanks alot!

[TerryE]

bleriot13, Welcome to our forum. You might want to browse the Forum Posting Guide. This contains some useful tips on how to search for VBox knowledge and how to frame Qs.

I get a message on screen saying that this or that file couldn't be downloaded.

If you quote an exact terminal dump of the update response (in a Code block), this will help.

[bleriot13]

Thanks alot for your comment. I'll do read the guide.

However, I didn't include the console output because my guest Ubuntu is installed in SPANISH, so the message would be, most probably, meaningless to most of you.

Next time, however, I'll try to provide with appoximate translations.

Thanks again.

[TerryE]

No just give us the Spanish output. I am not so worried about the language furniture (google translate will be good enough), it's just the codes and contents.

[Sasquatch]

It's possible that your apt is configured to run a different server than the default one, so check with your browser if it's accessible. It's also possible that your provider or company blocks access to this server.

[bleriot13]

Thank you to both of you.

I've checked whether the repository is available via browser... and it is. Moreover, the access to these repositories are not blocked. Other computers running Ubuntu as hosts use the same and work (usually) very well.

In fact, this morning the update process worked in a semi-random way. Some files at some times couldn't be downloaded. Later attemps were able to download the same files... so I suspect that the problem is NOT related to VirtualBox but to the repositories itself.

I'll keep tuned to provide with any news that might arise.

Thanks again,

Bleriot