Cannot update APT list: “repository no longer has a Release file”

I cannot run apt-get update as I encounter the following error:

# apt-get update
Hit:1 http://ftp.br.debian.org/debian testing InRelease
Ign:2 http://security.debian.org/debian-security testing/updates InRelease
Err:3 http://security.debian.org/debian-security testing/updates Release
  404  Not Found [IP: 151.101.92.204 80]
Reading package lists... Done
E: The repository 'http://security.debian.org/debian-security testing/updates Release' no longer has a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
E: Repository 'http://ftp.br.debian.org/debian testing InRelease' changed its 'Codename' value from 'buster' to 'bullseye'
N: This must be accepted explicitly before updates for this repository can be applied. See apt-secure(8) manpage for details.

So there are two error messages here:

1. The repository no longer has a Release file, which is weird. I checked at http://security-cdn.debian.org/debian-security/zzz-dists/testing/updates/ ant it looks like the Release file is there. Am I looking in the wrong place or is there something else happening?
2. The repository changed its name from buster to bullseye and that this “must be accepted explicitly” (I saw this once today; it wasn’t there when I opened the question and it does not appear anymore). This isn’t really surprising, but I didn’t expect it to be a problem if I’m tracking the repository as testing instead of the release name.

What can I do? APT is telling me to read the apt-secure(8), but it either does not have the information I need or I cannot understand it.

Answers:

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Method 1

Change testing/updates to testing-security in your sources.list to match http://security-cdn.debian.org/debian-security/dists/testing-security/

Then run apt update instead of apt-get update to interactively accept the various changes.

According to this reddit post this repository name change was introduced in release 10.

Method 2

If you’re upgrading from testing to buster, also be sure to run

apt-get update --allow-releaseinfo-change

If not, apt-get update won’t let you update with Buster and will spit out messages like these:

N: Repository ‘http://deb.debian.org/debian buster InRelease’ changed its ‘Version’ value from ” to ‘10.0’

E: Repository ‘http://deb.debian.org/debian buster InRelease’ changed its ‘Suite’ value from ‘testing’ to ‘stable’

N: This must be accepted explicitly before updates for this repository can be applied. See apt-secure(8) manpage for details.

N: Repository ‘http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates InRelease’ changed its ‘Version’ value from ” to ’10’

E: Repository ‘http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates InRelease’ changed its ‘Suite’ value from ‘testing’ to ‘stable’
N: This must be accepted explicitly before updates for this repository can be applied. See apt-secure(8) manpage for details.

Method 3

According to Debian Project News published 1st of July, Debian 10 “Buster” was scheduled to transition from testing to stable on 2019-07-06.

It looks like the transition was in fact performed as scheduled, and so the testing distribution should now be catching up witn unstable, to eventually become Debian 11 “Bullseye”. You might be experiencing some temporary side effects because of this transition of the Debian mirrors.

If you want to stay with Debian 10 “Buster”, now would be a good time to switch your /etc/apt/sources.list to use the release name buster instead of testing.

Otherwise, you’ll soon be getting the raw bleeding-edge stuff from unstable, and you might accidentally get a partial upgrade to proto-“Bullseye”.

Also, this is a reminder for anyone using the word stable in their /etc/apt/sources.list to consider whether to change it to stretch and stay with the old version, or read the Release Notes and perform the recommended upgrade steps.

Method 4

Run apt update and accept changes (type y each time when asked). It will made all required changes.

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0