Error in installing available packages in kali linux

Question

I want to set up a PPTP VPN connection in kali linux. I need to install this package: network-manager-pptp-gnome. I simply tried this:

apt-get update

apt-get install network-manager-pptp-gnome

but I got this error:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  network-manager-pptp
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  network-manager-pptp network-manager-pptp-gnome
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2067 not upgraded.
Need to get 141 kB of archives.
After this operation, 806 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Err:1 http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling/main amd64 network-manager-pptp amd64 1.2.4-5
  404  Not Found
Err:2 http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling/main amd64 network-manager-pptp-gnome amd64 1.2.4-5
  404  Not Found
E: Failed to fetch http://http.kali.org/kali/pool/main/n/network-manager-pptp/network-manager-pptp_1.2.4-5_amd64.deb  404  Not Found
E: Failed to fetch http://http.kali.org/kali/pool/main/n/network-manager-pptp/network-manager-pptp-gnome_1.2.4-5_amd64.deb  404  Not Found
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?

On the other hand, this package is available in the repository:

root@kali:~# apt-cache policy network-manager-pptp network-manager-pptp-gnome

network-manager-pptp:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.2.4-5
  Version table:
     1.2.4-5 500
        500 http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling/main amd64 Packages
network-manager-pptp-gnome:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.2.4-5
  Version table:
     1.2.4-5 500
        500 http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling/main amd64 Packages

I also tried to edit /etc/apt/sources.list, but it didn't solve my issue. So, how can I solve this annoying problem?

Answer 1

If your Apt index is very old, it will attempt to fetch files which no longer exist on the server, because they have been superseded with newer versions. Try apt-get update -y before running apt-get install.

Answer 2

I happened to get this issue on my Kali Linux in Windows subsystem.

The following worked for me and allowed me to get the updates; as per https://www.kali.org/news/kali-linux-repository-https-support/:

### Copied from kali Support - 
root@kali:~# apt install apt-transport-https

root@kali:~# cat /etc/apt/sources.list

deb https://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib

# deb-src https://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib
root@kali:~#

I used vi to edit the source file and add the https mirror in it.

Now any update or upgrade operation preformed against our mirrors will be HTTPS enabled:

root@kali:~# apt update
Hit:1 https://archive-3.kali.org/kali kali-rolling InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
root@kali:~#