Can't update or install anything on Ubuntu 10.04.1

Silly question first:
You are using a proxy. Firefox seems fine with it, but you entered settings in Firefox directly, right? So maybe the system-wide proxy settings are not correct ?

Did you try to access the internet with another software than Firefox ? For instance, can you open a terminal and type "ping www.google.com" ? Does it reach the Google website ?

If not, you have a proxy setting problem.
If it does, I need to ask more questions :)

Well the message is:
ping www.google.com
ping: unknown host www.google.com
And how can I have a proxy problem when I have used it hundred of times before I change to Ubuntu 10.04.1

Because I am using x64 Ubuntu I used to install my flash player from the terminal by typing the link and extracting it in specific folder and..... and one they while I was installing Ubuntu on my friend's computer I could not download that file it was like the terminal could not see the proxy settings. Then I went to "network proxy preferences" and I removed in the tab
"ignored hosts" localhost and 127.0.0.0/8 and *.local and I fixed the problem.
Now I tried that but it did not work.
Any ideas how to fix this annoying problem. For proxy program I am using CCproxy on windows PC.

W:GPG error: http://archive.ubuntu.com maverick Release: The following signatures were invalid: NODATA 1 NODATA 2, W:Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/maverick/multiverse/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 Bad header line
, W:Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/maverick/universe/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 Bad header line
, W:Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/maverick-updates/multiverse/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 Bad header line
, W:Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/maverick-security/Release.gpg Bad header line
, W:Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/maverick-security/main/i18n/Translation-en.bz2 Bad header line
, E:Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
I believe that happens because of the proxy and I will appreciate if someone helping me solve it.
I did most of the suggestions on the net but nothing worked.
Thanks in advance.

If you do this in a terminal :
"ping archive.ubuntu.com"

do you get any answer?

And if you try this:

"ping 91.189.88.45"

Any better ?

Just want to check if it's really a proxy problem or a DNS problem.

"If you do this in a terminal :
"ping archive.ubuntu.com"

do you get any answer?" And the answer is:
~$ ping archive.ubuntu.com
ping: unknown host archive.ubuntu.com

"And if you try this:

"ping 91.189.88.45"" I got:
~$ ping 91.189.88.45
connect: Network is unreachable

Ok, your proxy settings seem be the problem, the network is not working.

Would you mind telling me what you have set in the Proxy settings windows ?
And if Firefox can connect to the internet (it can, right?), could you also tell us what are its own proxy settings ?

Thanks !

On the windows PC I am using CCproxy and the settings are:
-the program is using one of the ehternet cards with the internet supplyer settings(and I don't have any problem with internet connection on my WINDOWS(I have dual boot operating system))
-the other ethernet card on the windows PC is set by me with:
IP 169.254.254.50 mask 255.255.255.0 and all the other settings are managed by windows
-my ethernet card is set with:
IP 169.254.254.39 mask 255.255.255.0 and all the other settings I left unset so Ubuntu could automaticly set them.
-the ports that CCproxy uses are
*for http 808
*for https 808
*for socks 1080
*for ftp 2121
-so my global settings in Ubuntu are:
169.254.254.50:808
169.254.254.50:808
169.254.254.50:2121
169.254.254.50:1080(I believe they are like that because I don't have right now access to my PC)
My mozzila is using the same proxy settings and I have no problem using it, now I managed to configure terminal so I can use Wget command. BUt only that is working. I tried to set package manager to use proxy from the graphic interface but it did not work. It still saing that something is wrong with the internet connection so it could not load the repositories.

Ok, let me summarize :
you have a computer with Windows, which is connected to the internet, and is running the proxy software
your ubuntu computer is connected to this computer, but can't access to the internet.

Is it correct ? Sorry to ask all those questions, but I want to make sure I understand how everything is set.

Now another command in a terminal:

"ifconfig"

Thanks in advance !

Yes it is correct? And don't sorry for all those questions because is hard for you to understand how a perfect stranger have set his connection. And thanks for the quick replies.
the terminal command shows:
vasil@vasil-desktop:~$ ifconfig

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:18:f3:67:29:4a

        inet addr:169.254.254.39 Bcast:169.254.254.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

          inet6 addr: fe80::218:f3ff:fe67:294a/64 Scope:Link

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

          RX packets:50 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:62 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

         RX bytes:7254 (7.2 KB) TX bytes:9359 (9.3 KB)

          Interrupt:43

lo Link encap:Local Loopback

        inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0

          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1

          RX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:1166 (1.1 KB) TX bytes:1166 (1.1 KB)

vasil@vasil-desktop:~$

Ok, I found some documentation online about proxy settings in Ubuntu (never used one, so I need to discover how it works).

There are some network settings in Synaptic in fact. If you click on "configuration>preferences>Network", did you set your proxy settings there? I think it's worth a try. If it's not working, it could be your general proxy settings, but I think you should check this setting in Synaptic first.

I found the same documents about the Synaptic and I try to set the proxy there but with no luck. It did not work!
And my general proxy settings are correct because I use the same for Mozzila.

Sorry for the late reply. I'm running a bit out of ideas as I'm not using a proxy here.

A silly but maybe "worth a try" idea: can you set the gateway to "169.254.254.50" in Ubuntu instead of "169.254.254.255" ?