If you’re getting this error but you’re still connected to the internet this page might help. This error is sometimes caused by repository’s which are down or broken.
Failed to download repository informationCheck your Internet connection.
From terminal run the following command:
sudo apt-get update
If the output runs through a few repositorys but ends with something similar to the below (most probably with different repositorys failing) and ultimately stopping your updating process then there is a good chance you can fix it by just removing those failing sources from the software sources.
Err http://ppa.launchpad.net maverick/main Sources
404 Not Found
Err http://ppa.launchpad.net maverick/main amd64 Packages
404 Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/bugs-sehe/gparted/ubuntu/dists/maverick/main/source/Sources.gz 404 Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/bugs-sehe/gparted/ubuntu/dists/maverick/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz 404 Not Found
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
Software Sources can be found under either:
Applications > Ubuntu Software Centre > Edit > Software Sources..
OR
System > Administrator > Synaptic Package Manager > Settings > Repositorys
Click the Other Software tab.
Nnow find the repositories which caused the failure on the update and uncheck them and then close the Software Centre.
Re-run the update command and hopefully everything will work!
sudo apt-get update
Check the example below where gparted was causing the error:
