Troubleshooting • apt update fails on 64-bit Buster

I have a 2 GiB Raspberry Pi 4 which I use to test a commercial background service and also to create the 64-bit version of the service application to maximize compatibility. An application built on an older base distribution with an older version of glibc runs on newer base distributions with newer versions of glibc. The 64-bit version of our application runs on 64-bit Buster, 64-bit Bullseye and 64-bit Bookworm.

I downloaded the experimental 64-bit Buster image file and I have worked well until recently.

During the last weekend I ran 'sudo apt update' on the 64-bit Buster Pi and got the following output:

Ign:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster InRelease
Ign:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates InRelease
Ign:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates InRelease
Fel:4 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster Release
404 Not Found [IP: 199.232.174.132 80]
Fel:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates Release
404 Not Found [IP: 199.232.174.132 80]
Fel:6 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates Release
404 Not Found [IP: 199.232.174.132 80]
Läs:7 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster InRelease [54,2 kB]
Läs:8 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster/main armhf Packages [400 kB]
Läs:9 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster/main arm64 Packages [311 kB]
Läser paketlistor… Färdig
E: The repository 'http://deb.debian.org/debian buster 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: The repository 'http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/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: The repository 'http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-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.

Has the previously available 64-bit Buster package repositories been removed or moved? I know that Buster is no longer supported but having 64-bit Buster available and having the ability to run 'sudo apt update' and 'sudo apt full-upgrade' on a Raspberry Pi 4 have been very useful.

In contrast does the corresponding operation on 32-bit Buster still work without errors:

Läs:1 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster InRelease [54,2 kB]
Bra:2 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian buster InRelease
Bra:3 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Läs:4 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster/main armhf Packages [400 kB]
Hämtade 455 kB på 1s (426 kB/s)
Läser paketlistor… Färdig
Bygger beroendeträd
Läser tillståndsinformation… Färdig
1 paket kan uppgraderas. Kör ”apt list --upgradable” för att se det.

The upgradable package is Microsoft Visual Studio Code that aren't support on Buster anymore.

I could build the 64-bit version of our application on 64-bit Bullseye instead that leaves some customer installations behind.

I would appreciate any information on how to change the apt configuration or if I have to abandon 64-bit Buster as a test and build platform.

Statistics: Posted by mats-olov_rustad — Mon Jul 14, 2025 5:10 pm

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