[lug] apt-get dist-upgrade errors

[Daniel Webb]

On Thu, Jan 04, 2007 at 11:45:38AM -0700, Elyse M. Grasso wrote:

> I'm about 1/3 of the way through the dist-upgrade download and there have been 
> some download failures:
> Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com edgy/main python2.4 2.4.4~c1-0ubuntu1
>   Connection timed out [IP: 146.137.96.7 80]
> Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com edgy/universe kpovmodeler 4:3.5.5-0ubuntu2
>   Connection timed out [IP: 146.137.96.7 80]
> Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com edgy/main freeglut3 2.4.0-5
>   Connection timed out [IP: 146.137.96.7 80]
> Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com edgy/main dictionaries-common 0.70.1ubuntu2
>   Connection timed out [IP: 146.137.96.7 80]
> Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com edgy-updates/main kdesktop 4:3.5.5-0ubuntu3.2
>   Connection timed out [IP: 146.137.96.7 80]

This is, in my experience, one of the worst problems with Debian.  For some
reason, apt is not tolerant at all to network failure.  It doesn't fail over,
it just hangs, and if you're patient enough, eventually times out.  I've even
seen the Tummy mirrors hang a few times, although they're the best ones I've
used (and I've forgotten if they mirror Ubuntu too or just plain Debian).
It's hard to be too critical of package mirror maintainers, since they're
providing a potentially expensive service for free.  It would be nice if apt
were able to handle mirror problems automatically, though, and it doesn't.

I've seen this behavior with woody, sarge, and now etch, each time with
installs from scratch (not upgrades), on completely different networks, so I
know it's not just my configuration.  apt just hangs a lot.  Sometimes just
Ctrl-C and restarting apt-get will fix it, sometimes you need to change your
mirrors or wait.  

On the plus side, it's very rare that an apt hang will mess up your upgrade.
Just keep retrying until it gets all the packages.  Also, apt has very good
resume support, so it always starts exactly where it left off.