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I am trying to install apt on my Linux EC2 Micro Instance. I am trying to do as it is mentioned in the first answer of this question. But when I try to edit and save the sources.list file, I am getting the following error. "/etc/apt/sources.list" E212: Can't open file for writing

I have logged in as ec2-user and changed to root using sudo su -. But Still I am not able to save the file. Can you please help me to fix this.

Community
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John
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2 Answers2

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Can't you do a 

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

? Should work this way. If it does not allow you, maybe you're not in the sudoers file. To include yourself, do

sudo visudo

(that should get you in a vi editor with the sudoers config file open). You can edit using the "I" key to start adding text, but first move the cursor just below where it says 

root ALL=(ALL) ALL

From there, as I say, press I and write:

ec2-user ALL=(ALL) ALL

To sabe your changes, press "ESC", ":" and "w", and ENTER. To quit, "ESC", ":", "q".

After editing sudoers, you should be able to try again the

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

And edit the file normally. Should work.

javipas
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  • Thanks for your answer. I tried your suggestions. When I tried to do save, I got [ Error writing /etc/apt/sources.list: No such file or directory ]. – John Dec 11 '10 at 11:23
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    Are you sure you're using a Ubuntu/Debian instance? Maybe you've set up a RPM based distribution. In that case that file wouldn't be there because the package manager is not apt-get. Instead you should use yum, for example. – javipas Dec 11 '10 at 11:25
  • Hey thanks, yea i was able to install using yum :) – John Dec 11 '10 at 12:40
  • You're welcome! Happy to help :) – javipas Dec 11 '10 at 13:56
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Not all GNU/Linux distributions use apt-get. Your micro instance is probably not Debian-based, and does not use apt-get to provide packages.

raphink
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