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New articles: - Python smtplib: Missing Date/Message-ID Headers Break Mail Clients - Fantastical MCP: Permission Denied (macOS Quarantine) - Ubuntu dist-upgrade Repo Quarantine Updated: troubleshooting index, SUMMARY.md nav, WOL article edits. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
98 lines
4 KiB
Markdown
98 lines
4 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Ubuntu dist-upgrade Quarantines Third-Party Repos"
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domain: troubleshooting
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category: ubuntu
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tags: [ubuntu, apt, dist-upgrade, repositories, tailscale, digitalocean]
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status: published
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created: 2026-04-28
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updated: 2026-04-28
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---
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# Ubuntu dist-upgrade Quarantines Third-Party Repos
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## Problem
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When running `do-release-upgrade` (e.g., Jammy 22.04 to Noble 24.04), Ubuntu renames all third-party `.list` files in `/etc/apt/sources.list.d/` to `.list.distUpgrade`. This silently disables every third-party repo — packages from those repos stop receiving updates with no warning.
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The upgrade process does this intentionally because it can't guarantee third-party repos will have packages for the new release. Some repos get re-added as `.sources` files during the upgrade, but many don't.
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## Symptoms
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- `apt list --upgradable` shows nothing for packages you know have updates (e.g., Tailscale stuck on an old version)
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- `apt list --installed` shows packages as `[installed,local]` instead of `[installed]` — the "local" tag means apt has no repo to check for updates
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- `.distUpgrade` files accumulate in `/etc/apt/sources.list.d/` indefinitely
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## Diagnosis
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Check for quarantined repos:
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```bash
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ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.distUpgrade
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```
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For each file, check whether a replacement `.list` or `.sources` file already exists:
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```bash
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ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.sources
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```
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## Fix
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### Distro-agnostic repos (e.g., DigitalOcean agents)
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If the repo URL doesn't reference a distro codename (jammy/noble), just rename:
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```bash
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mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/digitalocean-agent.list.distUpgrade \
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/etc/apt/sources.list.d/digitalocean-agent.list
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```
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### Distro-specific repos (e.g., Tailscale, ondrej-php)
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The quarantined file references the old distro (jammy). Re-run the upstream install script to get a correct entry for the new release:
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```bash
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# Tailscale
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curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
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# Or manually: update the codename
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sed 's/jammy/noble/' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list.distUpgrade \
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> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list
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apt update && apt upgrade tailscale
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```
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### Already replaced by .sources
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If the upgrade process already created a `.sources` replacement (common for ubuntu-esm-apps, ondrej-php), the `.distUpgrade` file is just clutter — delete it:
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```bash
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rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ondrej-ubuntu-php-jammy.list.distUpgrade
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```
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### After all fixes
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```bash
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apt update
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apt list --upgradable # should now show pending updates
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apt upgrade
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```
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## Real-World Example: MajorsHouse Fleet (2026-04-28)
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Five Ubuntu 24.04 servers were dist-upgraded from Jammy in October 2024. The `.distUpgrade` quarantine was discovered 6 months later when Tailscale's website wouldn't load (Pi-hole was blocking subdomains, but the investigation revealed teelia was stuck on Tailscale 1.76.0 — 20 versions behind — because the repo was disabled).
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| Host | Quarantined files | Impact |
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|------|------------------|--------|
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| dcaprod | 8 | Tailscale, DO agents, MySQL, ondrej-php, ESM, vector |
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| teelia | 4 | Tailscale (stuck on 1.76.0), DO agents, certbot bionic PPA |
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| majorlinux | 8 | Tailscale, DO agents, MySQL, ondrej-php, ESM, apt-fast |
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| majortoot | 11 | Tailscale, DO agents, nodesource, PostgreSQL, vector, zabbix, ESM |
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| tttpod | 0 | Clean — was likely rebuilt rather than upgraded |
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All files were audited, stale ones deleted, distro-agnostic repos renamed, and distro-specific repos re-added via upstream install scripts. DO agents upgraded from 3.16.11 to 3.18.12, teelia's Tailscale jumped from 1.76.0 to 1.96.4.
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## Prevention
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- **Post-upgrade audit:** After any `do-release-upgrade`, immediately run `ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.distUpgrade` and resolve each file.
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- **Prefer `.sources` format:** When adding new third-party repos, use the DEB822 `.sources` format — it's what Ubuntu itself uses on Noble and is handled more gracefully during upgrades.
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- **Ansible playbook:** Consider a post-upgrade play that checks for `.distUpgrade` files and alerts or auto-fixes distro-agnostic repos.
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