Hash sum mismatch notice when updating [Solved]

[mhenriday]

On my main computer, running 64-bit Mint 16, I've been getting messages these last couple of days concerning a «hash sum mismatch» when attempting to update via Update Manager ; see the attached screenshot below. The odd thing is that I do not encounter this problem on an ancient Dell laptop (Inspiron 1300) on which I've installed a 32-bit version of the OS. The same standard mirrors, for the main repository the US http://packages/linuxmint.com, for the Saucy base, the British http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu, are used in both cases. Any suggestions as to how I can resolve the problem ?...

Henri

[karlchen]

Hello, mhenriday.

You are not alone today. Exactly the same error message hit thanosfrag today. So maybe a temporary error affected your download servers?
Anyway, please, see this thread: Update Manager - Failed to fetch... [solved]

HTH,
Karl

[mhenriday]

Thanks for your speedy reply, karlchen ! I implemented the solution to which you pointed :

sudo rm -R /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/*

and then

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

In the terminal, I then got the following response :

...

W: Misslyckades med att hämta gzip:/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/download.01.org_gfx_ubuntu_13.10_main_dists_saucy_main_binary-amd64_Packages Hash-kontrollsumman stämmer inte [mismatch]

W: Misslyckades med att hämta [Failed to fetch] gzip:/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/download.01.org_gfx_ubuntu_13.10_main_dists_saucy_main_binary-i386_Packages Hash-kontrollsumman stämmer inte

E: Några indexfiler gick inte att hämta. De kommer att ignoreras eller så används de gamla istället. [Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.]

Not encouraging, and when I rebooted I saw the same error message. But only a few seconds later, that depressing message disappeared, and now, rather than a red cross in the Update Manager icon on my panel, I see a green check!...

So in the end, your suggestion seems indeed to have done the trick ! Many thanks !...

Henri

[mhenriday]

Alas, karlchen, the situation seems to be even more complex than I had first thought. What I've now noticed is that red cross tends to reappear on the Update Manager icon, as does the error notice I mentioned earlier upon clicking on it. If I then click on the Update button inside the Update Manager window, I once again see the «failed to fetch» notices, but the red cross on the Update Manager icon is then replaced by an innocuous green check ! My question is whether the Update Manager, aside from showing these contradictory notices, is functioning at all - are my ppas, such as the VLC master-daily, really being updated as they should ?...

Henri

[karlchen]

Hello, Henri.

If you do not mind I suggest going through these commands, please.

Code: Select all

inxi -r

(display the list of configured repositories)

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ls -l /var/lib/apt/lists/partial

(should be empty. If it is not then

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sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/*

trying to remove partial downloads)

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sudo apt-get update

(update the local copy of the available software list)

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sudo apt-get upgrade

(actually fetch any update and apply it)
And it would be kind to post the screen output of each command so there is a chance of finding out where something fails. - Actually I wonder whether the whole problem is related to the fact that a security patch has been published for the GnuTLS libraries only recently and now everybody tries to download and install it as quickly as possible, which is reasonable, but may lead to "stress" on the servers.

Cheers,
Karl

[mhenriday]

When I booted to Linux Mint 16 on my main box this morning, I once again saw that red cross on the Update Manager icon and upon clicking it, the hash sum mismatch notice described above reappeared. However, upon opening a terminal and performing

sudo rm -R /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/*

and then

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

once again, I no longer received that «failed to fetch» notice ; instead a series of updates that obviously had been in the works for some time were installed. Nearly three hours have passed since the above procedure was carried out, and the green check still appears in my Update Manager icon, so I draw the conclusion that the problem has finally been resolved....

Thanks, karlchen, for your help and your patience !...

Henri