Unable to install PHP packages with apt-get, gives “E: Unable to locate package”

I’m actually setting up my vagrant vm (trusty-64, Ubuntu distribution v14.04) and encountered an issue during the installation of all ppa:ondrej/php packages.

I tried the default way to install php…

$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install php7.3

But it still has this issue:

E: Unable to locate package php7.3
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'php7.3'

It seems he’s ignoring the added repository (it’s not listed in apt-get update) but the command seems fine:

gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1  (RSA: 1)
OK

Actually, i have no clue whats wrong. Maybe someone has an idea and can explain it? Thanks a lot.

UPDATE:

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 14.04.6 LTS
Release:        14.04
Codename:       trusty

used ubuntu/trusty64 vagrant box

It’s the most common vagrant box with few well predefined settings.

source.list

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ondrej-php-trusty.list
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ondrej-php-trusty.list.save

It’s in the source list, but it is still ignored. E.g. apt-cache search php7 gives always no result instead of an list.

I also destroyed the box an setup a new one.. but still the same issue.

Answer

I looked at the repository and it seems like 14.04 is no longer supported. Even though trusty is listed in the dist packages, when I looked into the pools there is nothing for ubuntu 14.04.

Take a look here:

http://ppa.launchpad.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu/pool/main/p/php7.3/

That probably explains why the repository is not being included when you run

sudo apt-get update

I guess that server update can’t wait any longer 😉