Yesterday, I did $ sudo apt update and I ended up getting the following error –
Err:25 http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable/main amd64 Packages Hash Sum mismatch
To be honest, I had no idea what does this error even stands for, so I searched for ubuntu apt-update hash sum mismatch fix on google, and got the following results –
- Trouble downloading packages list due to a “Hash sum mismatch” error
- How do you fix apt-get update “Hash Sum mismatch”
One of the users wrote that the easiest fix would be –
$ sudo apt clean $ sudo apt update
Another fix, according to a user, was to remove the contents of
/var/lib/apt/lists
and run
sudo apt update
A comment on that answer suggested –
If you remove all files, you have to download them again. You can just remove the invalid file to make this process faster.
Part 1
Now, I had two options to fix the issue, but for some reasons, I didn’t want to remove the contents of
/var/lib/apt/lists
so I started with –
sudo apt clean sudo apt autoclean sudo apt update
Unfortunately, the solution didn’t work. I was still getting the hash sum mismatch error
Part 2
Removing the contents of /var/lib/apt/lists
Since the source of the problem was Visual Studio Code, it was completely unnecessary to remove all the files. So, I just had to delete the files which were related to vscode –
1 – Search for files
cd /var/lib/apt/lists ls | grep vs
packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_InRelease packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_main_binary-amd64_Packages
2 – Enter superuser mode and delete files
sudo su cd /var/lib/apt/lists rm packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_InRelease rm packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_main_binary-amd64_Packages
3 – Clean, remove and update
sudo apt clean && sudo apt autoclean && sudo apt remove && sudo apt autoremove && sudo apt update
ISSUE
The problem didn’t disappear.
It was still getting the same error while updating. Only this time, I read the error carefully.
- Failed to fetch http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.bz2
- Hash Sum mismatch
- E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
Part 3
This part is all about hit and trial, and trusting my instincts alongside!
Failed to fetch http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.bz2
The above error made me check if Packages.bz2 file exists in /var/lib/apt/lists. So, I checked –
ls /var/lib/apt/lists | grep Packages.bz2
Result – Nothing. Packages.bz2 was missing! Good News?
My initial thought – Add Packages.bz2 to /var/lib/apt/lists and run sudo apt update.
Problem – I had already deleted the two files. –
packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_InRelease packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_main_binary-amd64_Packages
How to get those files back?
The files available in /var/lib/apt/lists are in the form of site.com_foo_bar_buzz. Now, if you replace _ with /, you’ll get –
site.com/foo/bar/buzz
So,
packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_InRelease
will become –
packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode/dists/stable/InRelease
Since two of the files related to VSCode were already gone, I had to download them and put them back to their place. Kudos to history.
history | grep packages.microsoft
I also needed the Packages.bz2 file, so I grabbed the downloadable link from the error message.
http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode/dists/stable/InRelease http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode/dists/stable/main_binary-amd64_Packages http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.bz2
- Step 1 – Download the files.
- Step 2 – Rename files. The name of the files should be similar to the url they were obtained form, except / will be replaced by _. InRelease, Packages, and Packages.bz2 will become –
packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_InRelease packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_main_binary-amd64_Packages packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_main_binary-amd64_Packages.bz2
Now, move those files to /var/lib/apt/lists
sudo su mv packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_InRelease /var/lib/apt/lists mv packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_main_binary-amd64_Packages /var/lib/apt/lists mv packages.microsoft.com_repos_vscode_dists_stable_main_binary-amd64_Packages.bz2 /var/lib/apt/lists
- You can move them all together. It doesn’t matter.
Run sudo apt update.
This fixed the whole Hash Sum Mismatch error for me!
I had no idea if it would work or not. I attempted to solve a problem, and everything went fine.
Links
This article was originally posted here!
Rishi Giri 