TeXLive update error: tlmgr: Remote repository is newer than local (2017 < 2018)

Question

I am having a problem configuring the automatic update for the TeXLive even though I am pretty sure that I downladed the 2018 TeXLive version I get is this error

$ ls -l /usr/local/texlive$ sudo tlmgr update --self --all
[sudo] Passwort : 
(running on Debian, switching to user mode!)
tlmgr: Remote repository is newer than local (2017 < 2018)
Cross release updates are only supported with
update-tlmgr-latest(.sh/.exe) --update
Please see https://tug.org/texlive/upgrade.html for details.

looking for my TexLive version it shows that it is the 2018 version

$ ls -l /usr/local/texlive
insgesamt 8
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4096 Nov 20 17:50 2018
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 Nov 20 16:13 texmf-local


$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Release: 18.04
Codename: bionic

But running this command it shows another version of it

$ tlmgr version
(running on Debian, switching to user mode!)
tlmgr revision 46207 (2018-01-04 19:34:36 +0100)
tlmgr using installation: /usr/share/texlive
TeX Live (http://tug.org/texlive) version 2017

$ tex --version
TeX 3.14159265 (TeX Live 2017/Debian)
kpathsea version 6.2.3
Copyright 2017 D.E. Knuth.
There is NO warranty. Redistribution of this software is
covered by the terms of both the TeX copyright and
the Lesser GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file
named COPYING and the TeX source.
Primary author of TeX: D.E. Knuth.

$ latex --version
pdfTeX 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.18 (TeX Live 2017/Debian)
kpathsea version 6.2.3
Copyright 2017 Han The Thanh (pdfTeX) et al.
There is NO warranty. Redistribution of this software is
covered by the terms of both the pdfTeX copyright and
the Lesser GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file
named COPYING and the pdfTeX source.
Primary author of pdfTeX: Han The Thanh (pdfTeX) et al.
Compiled with libpng 1.6.34; using libpng 1.6.34
Compiled with zlib 1.2.11; using zlib 1.2.11
Compiled with poppler version 0.62.0

Answer 1

Change the repository to an older version fixed this for me.

tlmgr option repository ftp://tug.org/historic/systems/texlive/2017/tlnet-final

After that, I can run the update command.

Found this solution in a comment at stackoverflow.com, but I don't know the thread anymore.