Update an old debian: 404 Not Found; Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com; Failed to fetch

Today I stumbled into a weird problem. My debian server 5 couldn't update anymore. My /etc/apt/sources.list looked like this:

  deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/  main restricted universe multiverse

Running apt-get update gave all sorts of problems as it couldn't find repository servers anymore:

  $ sudo apt-get update
  Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com  Release.gpg
  Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com  Release
  Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com /main Packages
  Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com /universe Packages
  Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com /main Packages
  Ign http://us.archive.ubuntu.com /universe Packages
  Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com /main Packages
    404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.180 80]
  Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe Packages
    404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.180 80]
  W: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/main/
    404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.180 80]

  W: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/jaunty/universe/Packages
    404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.180 80]

  E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

To upgrade a really old Debian release, we first need to edit our sources.list and change all (xx.)archive.ubuntu.com to old-releases.ubuntu.com.

   $ sudo emacs /etc/apt/sources.list

So your lines should instead of

   deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty main restricted universe

look like

   deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu main restricted universe

it works the same on other releases.
Now update the repos

   $ sudo apt-get update

Thanks to Matjaž Kljun for guiding to the solution.

Regards:

Imran shahmeer