Can't update php, "does not have a Release file", could I get some help please?

Syndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.

Can't update php, "does not have a Release file", could I get some help please?

I tried yesterday, trying again today but I'm no professional programmer and this is over my head, would love some help to update this on console please!

If I get:

Error: The repository 'https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu questing Release' does not have a Release file.
Notice: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
Notice: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

When running sudo apt update, how could I update to one of the safe php versions?

I tried

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ondrej/php
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo sed -i 's/oracular/noble/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ondrej-ubuntu-php-oracular.sources
sudo apt update

from: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1530400/install-older-php-versions-on-24-10 but I get sed: can't read /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ondrej-ubuntu-php-oracular.sources: No such file or directory

View original on kbin.earth

Comments3

3 replies

elmicha

feddit.org

Error: The repository 'https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu questing Release' does not have a Release file.

"questing" in your error message refers to Ubuntu 25.10, "questing quokka". Is that what you have? See lsb_release -a. Ubuntu 25.10 is EOL (End of Life) since July. If you still have 25.10, upgrade to 26.04, which is a LTS (Long Term Support) release.

If you don't have 25.10, remove the file that has the "questing". grep questing /etc/apt/sources.list.d/* to find the file. If there is no such file, the "questing" line might be in /etc/apt/sources.list . Find the line and delete the line (not the whole file).

sed: can't read /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ondrej-ubuntu-php-oracular.sources: No such file or directory

This file does not exist on your machine, so the sed command cannot do anything.

veggay reply

kbin.earth

Oooh, thank you! I did have 25.1, managed to upgrade to 26.04 but I still can't update php. I did the grep line and found several files that have questing, besides php there was also docker for example. I deleted with 'rm' the two from php and tried updating again but no success. It tells me there are 6 upgradable files, one of them is php-common but it refuses to upgrade:

Error: Unable to satisfy dependencies. Reached two conflicting assignments:
   1. php8.4-common:amd64 is selected for install
   2. php8.4-common:amd64 is available in version 8.4.11-1ubuntu1.2
      but none of the choices are installable:
      - php8.4-common:amd64=8.4.11-1ubuntu1.2 is not selected for install because:
        1. php-common:amd64=2:99ubuntu1 is selected as an upgrade
        2. php-common:amd64=2:99ubuntu1 Breaks php8.4-common

Could that be what's causing the issues?

elmicha reply

feddit.org

Yes. I would try to uninstall (apt remove) php8.4-common and/or php-common. This will probably also uninstall a whole lot of dependent packages. apt will show what it will remove, and ask if you want to proceed. Copy and paste these package name into a text file.

Then after removing all these packages, install them once again (only what you need).