How do I fix a "E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found." error?

I tried updating my packages from the terminal and this is what I got:

$ sudo apt-get update
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found.
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found.
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found.
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found.
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/http could not be found.

What does this mean? I'm using the United States mirror an I've tried using the main server for the mirror and I keep getting the same result is this because there are no updates?

2

9 Answers

SirCharlo said in the duplicate of this question:

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

I tried it and it worked for me.

5

in my case, find all the source in .list file, eg:

/etc/apt/sources.list
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/passenger.list

some source in the list are forced using https:// even if you changed it into http:// it will redirected to https://

the solutions is :

1. backup and remove the https source first
2. then run apt-get update
3. run sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https
4. restore the https source

2

Had the same problem on fresh OrangePi image. Swapping https to http didn't help. Finally I created a symlink to http with name https and was able to perform apt-get update. The first thing to install was apt-transport-https than I re-run the update.

2

My problem was the Opera browser in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list was, it was wrote:

https//:

but the correct is:

https://

So I fix the line this way:

deb stable non-free #Opera Browser (final releases)

and all solved!

0

My error read method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/htttp and after reading here and trying all offerings, I was about to give up when I noticed that the http had one extra t.

I went to did this:

sudo -H gedit /etc/apt/source.list

Ctrl + F to find all instances of htttp.

removed the extra t

Saved (twice to make sure the bugger took it)

And viola, problem solved.

Guess that means I need to REALLY Read the error messages as I had been skimming over them. Lesson learned. that won't happen again

I realize this is a very old thread, but in my case the sources.list file was missing "http." in the address. (ie, vs ) I discovered this when comparing two VM's in my environment. Not sure where the error came from, but replacing that solved the issue.

I have faced this problem before, in my case the problem was in /etc/apt/sources.list. Make sure there are no quotation marks '' or "":

deb " maverick partner (Source Code)"

Remove quotes and change those lines to:

deb maverick partner (Source Code)

Also, as @arhimed suggests, make sure the protocol is well-formed: http://

1

look for https links in /etc/apt/sources.list check if http link of the same link works. if it does then replace http with https and enjoy. otherwise install sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https as said in the above answer by Damiön la Bagh

My comments here aren't directly related to the OP's question, but since this page comes up in google's first result when searching E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/https could not be found. which is the error I was originally trying to solve, I am adding some information which helped me solve my problem.

I happen to be on an ethernet network which contains a "firewall" type device that redirects an unknown computer's web traffic to a webpage that requires you the "agree" to the terms of service for the network before you can continue. This page happens to be served as a HTTPS page. Therefore, any time apt-get tried to connect, it was ending up at an HTTPS site. This is also why trying to install apt-transport-https wasn't working for me.

1