Where is APT::Default-Release stored? [SOLVED]

[Brian49]

I've recently been amending my sources.list to focus on Unstable. Now, when I try to run Synaptic, I get this error message:

"The value 'testing' is invalid for APT::Default-Release as such a release is not available in the sources"

This seems to imply that Testing is set as the default release. But I can't find any file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d where that is specified.

There was no file apt.conf in /etc, so I created one with this content:

APT::Default-Release "unstable";

But I still get the same error message when I try to run Synaptic. Can anyone point me in the right direction, please? Thanks very much.

[xircon]

Brian

Post the contents of your sources.list, perhaps one of us can spot the error.

Also try sudo apt-get update from a terminal to update the indexes.

Cheers

Steve

[Brian49]

Thank you for responding. I've managed to sort out the problem a few moments ago.

I was able to get Synaptic running by uncommenting the Testing repository in sources.list. Then I went to Settings - Preferences - Distribution where I found that the preference had been set to Testing (I certainly didn't set it that way). So I changed it back to Unstable. Then I commented Testing again in sources.list and reloaded all packages. All is now well.

There's just one small mystery remaining. Those Synaptic preferences must surely be stored in a file somewhere, but I can't find it anywhere on my system.

Thanks again.

[viking777]

There's just one small mystery remaining. Those Synaptic preferences must surely be stored in a file somewhere, but I can't find it anywhere on my system.

It is supposed to live in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00local in the form:

Code: Select all

APT::Default-Release "testing";

That file only exists if you mix sources and as I don't, I can't test if that statement is true or not.

[eanfrid]

Even if I prefer a centralized /etc/apt/apt.conf instead of multiple files under /etc/apt/apt.conf.d, it is actually the way it does work

[lahirdenganselamat]

I know this is old post, but now I know that the setting is stored on /root/.synaptic/synaptic.conf

[eanfrid]

I know this is old post, but now I know that the setting is stored on /root/.synaptic/synaptic.conf

In this case, this setting only applies to Synaptic. Any other package manager will still get its default settings in the system-wide "/etc/apt" tree.