SOLVED: Download from repository problem

[jonhen]

I'm really not sure what category to put this in so I'm putting it here. Sorry if it should be somewhere else.

I've recently (3 weeks ago) rebuilt my server with LM 13 xfce running apache with no particularly special settings and ejabberd. I'm unable to complete updating it with mint update. various packages failed, Firefox, libc-bin, libtelepathy-glib0, etc, etc but others download and install fine. I've been manually selecting a few and letting them download and install (it needs some 400 updates so I've given up for now). I came to the conclusion that it was one particular repository that files weren't downloading fully from, they start but then stall, at say 23% depending on the file. So I tried downloading them with firefox, no go, then wget, no go. If I download them from my laptop on the same network, no problem.

I have disabled the firewall, reconfigured resolvconf, checked the network settings (server is on a static ip) and everything seems to be correct. I've checked to see if I can download from other websites like linuxtv and downloaded some firmware for dvb with no problem.

The strange thing is it's just one directory.

The directory is this:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main

but if I try downloading files from here:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/multiverse

or here:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe

they download fine.

Just to reiterate, I can download from this particular directory with this laptop no problem just not the server.
Beginning to lose sleep here, anybody got any ideas, please?

[karlchen]

Hello, jonhen.

Please, post the output of the commandline

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inxi -r

Please, indicate more explicitly which of the repository locations which inxi will list it is that cause the problems.
In case the affected address is packages.linuxmint.com, please, select a mirror server closer to your own location.
MintUpdate => Edit => Software Sources => 1st tab "Linux Mint Software" => Download from ... Select a regional mirror.

Oh, I see you mention, archive.ubuntu.com. This is unrelated to the main Mint repository address. Never experienced any serious trouble affecting archive.ubuntu.com. There must be an error message explaining why problems occur downloading from archive.ubuntu.com, e.g. something about an invalid GPG key or something similar. Knowling the exact error message would greatly help.

As a matter of fact, I installed Mint 13 more than once last year. Have always had to face the fact that after the initial installation a list of roundabout 500 software packages were waiting to be updated. I am on a feable 6 MBit DSL connection. Nonetheless, performing the initial mega update has never required anything else but patience. No fiddling around with anything and no trying to download softare packages manually. Never.

HTH,
Karl

[jonhen]

Hi Karl,

Thanks for replying. Yes I have installed various editions numerous times and never had this problem before.

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Repos:     Active apt sources in file: /etc/apt/sources.list
           deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ maya main upstream import
           deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse
           deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security main restricted universe multiverse
           deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ precise partner
           deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ precise free non-free

Looks like it's the repository for Precise updates.

If I try to update I get:"Some of the packages could not be retrieved from the server. Do you want to continue ignoring these packages?" so I select no and get various errors: "W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main ......." and the files that fail are all from the same server location. No indication of GPG key failure. If I copy the url and try to download with wget the download just stalls. Same with firefox.

So I selected a ubuntu mirror server and get the same problem with the same files. The only error is "W: Failed to fetch...." Try to manually download them with wget to my home directory and the downloads just stall after a few seconds.

Utterly confused.

Edit: Think I am wrong about it just being one directory of one repository, looks like it's all the ubuntu repositories.
Also some files do download and can be installed. Just not all of them.

Thanks
Jon

[karlchen]

Hello, Jon.

Are you certain that before trying to download and install inside MintUpdate, MintUpdate has successfully updated the list of available software packages? - You can make sure manually by clicking on the appropriate [Update] button inside the MintUpdate GUI.
It is imaginable and also has happened here that if I tried installing software without updating the list of available software packages beforehand the download process would fail, because the cached list on the local disk and the list on the repository servers did no longer match.

Kind regards,
Karl

[jonhen]

Hi Karl,

Yes mintupdate has definitely updated fully (up until now ... it no longer does and I don't know why that has started to play up).

Here's a typical example of what happens when I try to down load using wget:

this downloads fully in a timely manner:
wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 3_i386.deb

this does not download and stalls at 23% the same as in mintupdate:
wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 3_i386.deb

both in the same directory. I found this by accident. So I don't think it's a mintupdate problem. It rather looks like my install is corrupt, looking like I might have to reinstall, not my preferred option I have to say

Thanks for your assistance.
Jon

[jonhen]

I've found the culprit. My firewall rules were not being flushed out completely. It was just a hunch so I deleted my iptables rule file. Everything downloads fine now. Don't why I didn't do that in the first place. Still had some issues with mintupdate and had to follow the procedure here to get package manager working properly again. I had tried backing up then removing the lists but that wasn't enough and this fixed it.

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s ... ion/180881

Thanks again for your assistance Karl.

Jon

[karlchen]

Hi, Jon.

Great you sorted it out successfully.

Cheers,
Karl