How can I fix the error "The value 'stable' is invalid for APT::Default-Release"?

Question

After an upgrade from Debian Squeeze (stable) to Wheezy (testing), Synaptic fails with the following error:

E: The value 'stable' is invalid for APT::Default-Release as such a release is not available in the sources
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

However, this value is set nowhere in /etc. How do I fix this error?

thejh · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-30 16:56:01Z

11

Have a look into /root/.synaptic/synaptic.conf. Look for the DefaultDistro line and change its value, e.g. replace stable with wheezy.

answered Mar 30, 2013 at 16:56

thejh

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math · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-21 13:45:13Z

10

I get the same error with apt, so it's unrelated to synaptic. However, this config exists:

# grep -ri stable /etc
/etc/apt.conf.d/99myDefaultRelease:APT::Default-Release "stable";

So changing that file to "jessie" would fix it in my case (as I'm on jessie.)

answered Jun 21, 2017 at 13:45

math

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this one solved my problem in my raspberry pie 3 :D
– Anik Islam Abhi
Nov 14, 2017 at 4:46
Thanks, solved same problem on Debian
– Matina G
Oct 15, 2019 at 9:59
In my particular case it happened when switching from stable to testing, so "testing" works too.
– Demindiro
Jul 7 at 10:42

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SMshrimant · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-14 18:10:55Z

Even I was getting the same error, While I was updating my kali linux using apt-get update This is what I did and it worked for me.

grep -ri stable /etc

(some of you might get stable, testing, or rolling in the error message. Just replace that keyword in the above command and fire it)

I got a list of paths to files that used a stable keyword. after having a closer look I found this path.

/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00local:APT::Default-Release "stable";

I removed this file using rm /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00local and tried updating and it worked.

For However, this value is set nowhere in /etc. How do I fix this error? Maybe you should try the above steps in other directories too. :)

3 Answers 3