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Out-dated link in sources.list in debian image #76
Description
I'm using the latest version to set up a debian. When i run sudo apt-get update I get the following error:
Get:1 http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security InRelease [27.2 kB]
Get:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye InRelease [116 kB]
Get:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates InRelease [44.0 kB]
Ign:4 http://ftp.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports InRelease
Err:5 http://ftp.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports Release
404 Not Found [IP: 151.101.202.132 80]
Get:6 http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security/main amd64 Packages [387 kB]
Get:7 http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security/main Translation-en [256 kB]
Get:8 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 Packages [8,066 kB]
Get:9 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main Translation-en [6,235 kB]
Get:10 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates/main amd64 Packages [18.8 kB]
Get:11 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates/main Translation-en [10.5 kB]
Reading package lists...
E: The repository 'http://ftp.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports Release' does not have a Release file.
I have tried to google this and its sounds a lot like https://stackoverflow.com/questions/76693148/apt-debian-repository-does-not-have-a-release-file, i.e., there is an entry in the sources list that is no longer valid. I partially confirmed this by manually browsing the debian repository, the entire bullseye-backports is missing.
Is it possible as part of this action to fix that, or is this something out of control of the action itself?
If possible, i would appreciate it being fixed in the action itself, beacuse, assuming the SO article is indeed the issue, its kindof tedious to having to manually write code to fix up the file itself everywhere the action is used.
Or maybe that would even be a good improvement during setup, to, without updating, to verify the content and to validate that the links are indeed valid.
Activity
devversion commentedon Jul 24, 2025
We're seeing this too. Based on https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/#:~:text=on-,supportedDebian%20stable%20releases,bullseye%2Dbackports,-%2Dsloppy, I can see
bullseye-backports has reached end-of-life and is no longer supported or updated.Vampire commentedon Jul 24, 2025
I'd say that is to be reported to Debian folks.
It is their WSL distribution at
https://aka.ms/wsl-debian-gnulinuxthat contains these entries.My action just downloads and caches that distribution and installs it.
(I already tried to run with the distribution removed from cache, same thing happens)
And as they obviously removed those backports from that URL 2 days ago, it now fails.
Actually I think it is strange, because judging by the downloaded filename it should install Debian 1.12.2.0 which I blindly would assume means Debian 12, but that should be Bookworm, not Bullseye which was Debian 11.
But looking into the downloaded file it indeed is a Debian 11.3 filesystem that is installed.
Looking at the Microsoft Store page, the current one should install 12.9 instead.
So maybe just that short-link needs an update.
I reported it at microsoft/WSL#13282
ci: temporarily disable Windows CI for PRs
ci: temporarily disable Windows CI for PRs
plengauer commentedon Aug 5, 2025
@Vampire the MS issue you opened is closed, but it still fails for me. does the action need an update as well - as far as i understood the root cause you described, it should work without a new version of the action, right?
Can somebody confirm that the issue still persists and that its not a one-off on my side?
Vampire commentedon Aug 5, 2025
Yes and no.
The issue persists for you as you use the caching of the action.
If you would delete the
2:distributionDirectory_Debian_1.0.0cache from your actions area, it would use the new link.The problem is, that it will fail even worse, because the new link is not pointing to the correct file: https://github.com/Vampire/setup-wsl/actions/runs/16738701603/job/47394078882#step:4:18
plengauer commentedon Aug 5, 2025
oh,
<sarcasm>great</sarcasm>. so that means reopen on MS side i guessVampire commentedon Aug 5, 2025
Yes
plengauer commentedon Aug 9, 2025
@Vampire do i interpret the last comment on the MS issue correctly in that this action will need a modification after all?
fix(github-action): use ubuntu instead of debian
fix(github-action): use ubuntu instead of debian
fix(github-action): use ubuntu instead of debian
fix(github-action): use ubuntu instead of debian
fix(github-action): use ubuntu instead of debian
fix(github-action): use ubuntu instead of debian
27 remaining items
anunes1828-png commentedon Oct 9, 2025
Im not vampire ,im a person like you
Risaro commentedon Oct 10, 2025
Hello guys xD you find my repo wait 3 days im update this work
mathieubathalon commentedon Oct 18, 2025
[actions] fix WSL tests: properly handle Debian apt sources issue
[actions] fix WSL tests: properly handle Debian apt sources issue
[actions] fix WSL tests: properly handle Debian apt sources issue
[actions] fix WSL tests: properly handle Debian apt sources issue
[actions] temporary fix for WSL issue
Fix apt update on Debian (#76)
Fix apt update on Debian (#76)
Fix apt update on Debian (#76)
Fix apt update on Debian (#76)
Vampire commentedon Apr 9, 2026
As it turned out that the Debian shortlink will not get updated, I now incorporated the work-around described above into the action.
As soon as the next version is released (matter of days) Debian will work again without an extra external work-around necessary.