Fix for the GitLab "Unable to locate package gitlab-ee" on Ubuntu 20

If you’re using Ubuntu 20 and you’re trying to install the self-hosted GitLab offering, you’re likely going to run into the dreaded “Unable to locate package gitlab-ee,” even if you follow all of the recommended steps.

Fortunately, it’s an easy problem to solve, as the following commands will address the issue:

curl -s https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/gitlab/gitlab-ce/script.deb.sh | sudo bash sudo EXTERNAL_URL="https://gitlab.mcnz.com" 
apt-get install gitlab-ee

Unable to locate package gitlab-ee

The reason for this error is simply due to the fact that GitLab hasn’t updated their publicly available binaries for Ubuntu 20. So you need to go right to the horse’s mouth and explicitly download them. GitLab will catch up with the Ubuntu 20, Focal Fossa release soon, so this Unable to locate package gitlab-ee error should disappear soon. That is, until the next release of Ubuntu comes out and the binaries for the self-hosted GitLab offering again need updating.

Once the libraries are updated, the following set of commands will be enough to get the on-premise, self-hosted GitLab Ubuntu installation to work seamlessly: 

sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install 
sudo apt-get install -y curl openssh-server ca-certificates
sudo apt-get install -y postfix
curl https://packages.gitlab.com/install/repositories/gitlab/gitlab-ee/script.deb.sh | sudo bash 
$ sudo EXTERNAL_URL="https://gitlab.mcnz.com" apt-get install gitlab-ee

Obviously you’ll need to change the domain name used in the example to your own, to something updated in the Ubuntu hosts file, or even just set it to localhost. When the installation completes, you’ll be able to put that domain name into your browser and the GitLab GUI will appear. From there you are all set to create and delete projects, work with GitLab branches, perform merge request, push branches into master and delete any resource you don’t want hanging around. The Git world is now your oyster.

The source code and sample project used for these examples can be found on the gitlab-made-easy project page on GitLab.