Cannot install Brave - Repository does not have a Release file

Hi All,

I am trying to install Brave on a new Kali 2020.1 installation and on the “apt update” command it throws: “E: The repository ‘https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable Release’ does not have a Release file.”
I did successfully install Brave on the same Kali version in a VM running on Fedora 31 but this time it’s on the HDD.
Any ideas?
(Terminal screenshot attached)

Regards,

Owen.

1 Like

Hello @omccabe. Try from here: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v1.4.95

Hi rolak,
That just links to the standard Brave install instructions.
Which I’ve obviously tried already! :slight_smile:

1 Like

Sorry. Have no more ideas. Maybe an admin can help more.

So, apt ignored the first Brave repository and got the error from the second one, but the messages afterward suggest that the first one was ignored because it didn’t have a release. I’m wondering if it was just that the server was down and maybe just trying again now might work. Here’s what I got using same version of Kali in a fresh VM (pasting actual install command results at bottom of post):

hnk@KaliHnk:~$ curl -s https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc | sudo apt-key --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/brave-browser-release.gpg add -
[sudo] password for hnk: 
OK
hnk@KaliHnk:~$ echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
hnk@KaliHnk:~$ sudo apt update
Get:1 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable InRelease [3,181 B]
Hit:2 http://archive.linux.duke.edu/kalilinux/kali kali-rolling InRelease
Get:3 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages [3,626 B]
Fetched 6,807 B in 1s (11.8 kB/s)  
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
hnk@KaliHnk:~$ 

So that appeared to succeed. I don’t know Kali and apt well enough to efficiently debug. I’m hoping @Mattches can help debug or point us to another who can. Until then, flailing around a bit on the off chance that maybe some of this differs from what your drive has, checking the sources list created by following the Brave installation instructions using less /etc/apt/sources/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list shows it’s a one-liner (as expected):
deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
and here are the contents of the only other subdirectory that had anything looking relevant:

hnk@KaliHnk:/etc/apt$ ls trusted.gpg.d
brave-browser-release.gpg                     debian-archive-buster-stable.gpg              debian-archive-stretch-automatic.gpg
brave-browser-release.gpg~                    debian-archive-jessie-automatic.gpg           debian-archive-stretch-security-automatic.gpg
debian-archive-buster-automatic.gpg           debian-archive-jessie-security-automatic.gpg  debian-archive-stretch-stable.gpg
debian-archive-buster-security-automatic.gpg  debian-archive-jessie-stable.gpg              kali-archive-keyring.gpg

I went ahead with the install after poking around and encountered another problem after successful installation:

hnk@KaliHnk:~$ sudo apt install brave-browser
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  brave-keyring
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  brave-browser brave-keyring
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 86.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 258 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
Get:1 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 brave-keyring all 1.9 [5,044 B]
Get:2 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 brave-browser amd64 1.4.95 [86.6 MB]
Fetched 86.6 MB in 33s (2,595 kB/s)                                                                                                                        
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (No usable dialog-like program is installed, so the dialog based frontend cannot be used. at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Dialog.pm line 76, <> line 2.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
Selecting previously unselected package brave-keyring.
(Reading database ... 289657 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../brave-keyring_1.9_all.deb ...
Unpacking brave-keyring (1.9) ...
Selecting previously unselected package brave-browser.
Preparing to unpack .../brave-browser_1.4.95_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking brave-browser (1.4.95) ...
Setting up brave-keyring (1.9) ...
OK
Setting up brave-browser (1.4.95) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/brave-browser-stable to provide /usr/bin/x-www-browser (x-www-browser) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/brave-browser-stable to provide /usr/bin/gnome-www-browser (gnome-www-browser) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/brave-browser-stable to provide /usr/bin/brave-browser (brave-browser) in auto mode
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24-1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...
Processing triggers for kali-menu (2020.1.8) ...
hnk@KaliHnk:~$

That worked:
image
but launching from the menu gave a blank window (that was active, just couldn’t see page elements). That could very well just be because of the way my VM is configured, but to fix it, I launched from Terminal using brave-browser --disable-gpu andn got a usable, visible Brave window that I then used to turn off hardware acceleration:


On relaunch from the menu, Brave now works fine:

3 Likes

Hi hnktong,
I think your suggestion of a server down or such is correct, just before you posted I tried again and it all ran fine!
Anyway, many thanks for your time!
Regards,
Owen.

1 Like

Awesome. Glad you got it installed. I’ve been wanting a Kali VM for a long time, anyway. :smiley:

1 Like