Hello Craig and all, Thanks Craig for your suggestions and help. Sorry about the length of this post. I've supplied the command outputs which are a bit long in some cases. Here is the full output of the error. I did abbreviate earlier because it's long. I was after inxi which has tree as a dependency. ----------------start error message------------------ [root@owl /etc/apt]# apt-get install inxi Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following additional packages will be installed: hddtemp libglew2.1 lm-sensors mesa-utils tree Suggested packages: libcpanel-json-xs-perl | libjson-xs-perl libxml-dumper-perl glew-utils fancontrol read-edid i2c-tools The following NEW packages will be installed: hddtemp inxi libglew2.1 lm-sensors mesa-utils tree 0 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 731 kB of archives. After this operation, 2,625 kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y Err:1 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 hddtemp amd64 0.3-beta15-53 Connection failed [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] Err:2 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 inxi all 3.1.08-1-1 Could not connect to ftp.au.debian.org:80 (150.203.164.37), connection timed out Could not connect to ftp.au.debian.org:80 (2001:388:1034:2900::25), connection timed out [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] Err:3 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 libglew2.1 amd64 2.1.0-4+b1 Unable to connect to ftp.au.debian.org:http: [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] Err:4 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 lm-sensors amd64 1:3.6.0-2 Unable to connect to ftp.au.debian.org:http: [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] Err:5 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 mesa-utils amd64 8.4.0-1+b1 Unable to connect to ftp.au.debian.org:http: [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] Err:6 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 tree amd64 1.8.0-1+b1 Unable to connect to ftp.au.debian.org:http: [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] E: Failed to fetch http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/pool/main/h/hddtemp/hddtemp_0.3-beta15-53_am... Connection failed [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] E: Failed to fetch http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/pool/main/i/inxi/inxi_3.1.08-1-1_all.deb Could not connect to ftp.au.debian.org:80 (150.203.164.37), connection timed out Could not connect to ftp.au.debian.org:80 (2001:388:1034:2900::25), connection timed out [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] E: Failed to fetch http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/glew/libglew2.1_2.1.0-4+b1_amd64... Unable to connect to ftp.au.debian.org:http: [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] E: Failed to fetch http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/lm-sensors/lm-sensors_3.6.0-2_am... Unable to connect to ftp.au.debian.org:http: [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] E: Failed to fetch http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/pool/main/m/mesa-demos/mesa-utils_8.4.0-1+b1... Unable to connect to ftp.au.debian.org:http: [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] E: Failed to fetch http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/pool/main/t/tree/tree_1.8.0-1+b1_amd64.deb Unable to connect to ftp.au.debian.org:http: [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing? ----------------------end error message------------------- Firefox does not connect to http://ftp.au.debian.org/ . It just leaves the screen blank with a moving dot on the tab at the top of the page. Firefox does connect to http://ftp.nz.debian.org/. Using host au debian is not found: [ben@owl ~]$ host ftp.au.debian.org/ Host ftp.au.debian.org/ not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) [ben@owl ~]$ host http://ftp.au.debian.org Host http://ftp.au.debian.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) The nz debian is found. [ben@owl ~]$ host ftp.nz.debian.org ftp.nz.debian.org is an alias for mirror.fsmg.org.nz. mirror.fsmg.org.nz has address 163.7.134.112 mirror.fsmg.org.nz has IPv6 address 2404:138:4000:: When I changed sources.list to ftp.nz.debian.org, and tried installing inxi, the error was: [root@owl /etc/apt]# apt-get install inxi Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package inxi My /etc/network/interfaces: # The loopback network interface auto lo iface lo inet loopback #ben amend allow-hotplug enp3s0 iface enp3s0 inet dhcp iface enp3s0 inet6 auto Testing with the Force config. I used the cowsay program as the test: [root@owl Downloads]# apt-get -o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true update Hit:1 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian bullseye InRelease Hit:2 http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security InRelease Reading package lists... Done [root@owl Downloads]# apt-get -o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true install cowsay Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Suggested packages: filters cowsay-off The following NEW packages will be installed: cowsay 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 67 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B/21.4 kB of archives. After this operation, 94.2 kB of additional disk space will be used. Selecting previously unselected package cowsay. (Reading database ... 141859 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../cowsay_3.03+dfsg2-8_all.deb ... Unpacking cowsay (3.03+dfsg2-8) ... Setting up cowsay (3.03+dfsg2-8) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.3-2) ... I purged cowsay and then tried the nz mirror but it failed: [root@owl /home/ben/Downloads]# apt-get -o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true install cowsay Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package cowsay I added 8.8.8.8 to /etc/resolv.conf, but it made no difference. I'm using a Telstra smart modem: [root@owl /etc]# cat resolv.conf domain gateway search gateway nameserver 192.168.0.1 Traceroute results: [root@owl /etc]# traceroute ftp.au.debian.org traceroute to ftp.au.debian.org (150.203.164.37), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets 1 mymodem (192.168.0.1) 0.357 ms 0.415 ms 0.551 ms 2 gateway.nb10.sydney.asp.telstra.net (58.162.26.74) 18.963 ms 19.616 ms 19.601 ms 3 ae10.ken-ice301.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.61.81) 19.682 ms 19.666 ms ae20-20.chw-ice301.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.61.66) 21.422 ms 4 bundle-ether25.ken-core10.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.61.80) 22.631 ms ae20-20.ken-ice301.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.61.67) 22.166 ms bundle-ether25.ken-core10.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.61.80) 22.159 ms 5 bundle-ether1.ken-edge903.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.11.173) 22.224 ms bundle-ether1.chw-edge903.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.11.177) 22.221 ms bundle-ether1.ken-edge903.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.11.173) 26.174 ms 6 bundle-ether2.ken-edge903.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.11.174) 26.190 ms aar3533567.lnk.telstra.net (139.130.0.78) 22.049 ms 22.045 ms 7 et-0-3-0.pe1.actn.act.aarnet.net.au (113.197.15.11) 26.960 ms 22.122 ms 23.241 ms 8 et-0-3-0.pe1.actn.act.aarnet.net.au (113.197.15.11) 23.204 ms 138.44.161.3 (138.44.161.3) 23.243 ms et-0-3-0.pe1.actn.act.aarnet.net.au (113.197.15.11) 23.266 ms 9 138.44.161.3 (138.44.161.3) 22.888 ms 22.751 ms 22.733 ms 10 core-te-1-1-4.anu.edu.au (150.203.201.5) 22.644 ms 22.724 ms 23.481 ms 11 vlan-2100-palo.anu.edu.au (150.203.201.33) 24.957 ms 27.060 ms linux.anu.edu.au (150.203.164.37) 26.719 ms !X [root@owl /etc]# traceroute ftp.nz.debian.org traceroute to ftp.nz.debian.org (163.7.134.112), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets 1 mymodem (192.168.0.1) 2.635 ms 2.930 ms 3.021 ms 2 gateway.nb10.sydney.asp.telstra.net (58.162.26.74) 21.866 ms 21.867 ms 21.886 ms 3 ae10.ken-ice301.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.61.81) 21.956 ms 22.473 ms 22.685 ms 4 bundle-ether25.chw-core10.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.61.64) 23.341 ms bundle-ether25.ken-core10.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.61.80) 24.386 ms bundle-ether25.chw-core10.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.61.64) 23.247 ms 5 bundle-ether1.chw-edge903.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.11.177) 23.176 ms bundle-ether1.ken-edge903.sydney.telstra.net (203.50.11.173) 23.045 ms 27.094 ms 6 cen3361629.lnk.telstra.net (203.54.217.110) 27.110 ms 20.918 ms 20.733 ms 7 * * * 8 113.29.115.254 (113.29.115.254) 20.359 ms 19.552 ms 19.495 ms 9 ae0-500.grt.and05-mdr.reannz.co.nz (210.7.33.236) 44.972 ms 47.031 ms 45.168 ms 10 163.7.134.120 (163.7.134.120) 47.039 ms 46.417 ms 46.330 ms 11 * * * 12 * * * 13 * * * 14 * * * 15 * * * 16 * * * 17 * * * 18 * * * 19 * * * 20 * * * 21 * * * 22 * * * 23 * * * 24 * * * 25 * * * 26 * * * 27 * * * 28 * * * 29 * * * 30 * * * Whilst going through the process that was suggested and running the commands above, I returned to Firefox, and it now brings up http://ftp.au.debian.org/. The only extra thing that I have done which is not described above is to return the /etc/hosts file that I use to its original from the Pollock hosts file. -------start /etc/hosts------- 127.0.0.1 localhost 127.0.1.1 owl # The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts ::1 localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback ff02::1 ip6-allnodes ff02::2 ip6-allrouters -------end /etc/hosts--------- I have now written the /etc/apt//apt.conf.d/zzz-ipv4.conf with the ipv4 Force config as suggested. The nz mirror still fails. I would really like to be able to change mirrors if I need to in the future. Is there anything in the results that looks like it can help? I'm wondering if this is an intermittent error of DNS, and if so, what I could do about it. Thanks again. ben bnis@fastmail.fm On Sat, Nov 7, 2020, at 2:26 PM, Craig Sanders via luv-main wrote:

On Sat, Nov 07, 2020 at 12:01:54PM +1100, bnis@fastmail.fm wrote:

...

In my /etc/apt/sources.list I have been using the following mirror: deb http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/ bullseye main non-free contrib

The last few days it's returning error messages such as the following:

E: Failed to fetch http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/pool/main/t/tree/tree_1.8.0-1+b1_amd64.deb Unable to connect to ftp.au.debian.org:http: E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?

Running the suggested apt-get update also fails, and with -f does too of course.

Can you show the full output of "apt-get update"? or "apt install tree"? Without details, the best anyone can do is guess....so here's some diagnostic tests for you to try and a guess:

Can you connect to either http://ftp.au.debian.org/ or http://ftp.nz.debian.org/ with a web browser? I had no problems connecting to either site with firefox, with both sites being very fast and responsive.

what happens if you try to traceroute to either site?

I'm suspecting there's something weird going on with your DNS resolution - or perhaps your system is configured to use IPv6 in preference to IP4v addresses or something (both sites have both IPv4 A records and IPv6 AAAA records).

$ host ftp.au.debian.org ftp.au.debian.org is an alias for mirror.linux.org.au. mirror.linux.org.au has address 150.203.164.37 mirror.linux.org.au has IPv6 address 2001:388:1034:2900::25

$ host ftp.nz.debian.org ftp.nz.debian.org is an alias for mirror.fsmg.org.nz. mirror.fsmg.org.nz has address 163.7.134.112 mirror.fsmg.org.nz has IPv6 address 2404:138:4000::

You can test this with:

apt-get -o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true update apt-get -o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true install tree

If they work, make it permanent by adding the following to /etc/apt/apt.conf (or to a file in the directory /etc/apt/conf.d/, give it a name like zzz-ipv4.conf to make sure the filename comes last in the sort order)

Acquire::ForceIPv4 "true";

and make sure there isn't any line with 'Acquire::ForceIPv6 "true";' in /etc/apt/apt.conf or any files in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/

grep -ir ForceIPv6 /etc/apt/apt.conf /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/

...

I'm writing to ask if the problem I'm having is common and there's a problem like congestion with the au mirror,

Nope, not common. It's almost certainly some weird problem on your end, either a misconfiguration or something weird your ISP is doing.

...

and also how to change mirrors in the sources.list so that I can install and update.

the way you changed it should work.

for more details on the sources.list file format, run "man sources.list".

craig

-- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au https://lists.luv.asn.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/luv-main

Hello Craig and all, That's a super post of yours for me and my issues. I believe I can work through all of them with the information you've provided. I am very grateful. The "Pollock" hosts file which I mentioned is a hosts file from: http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ which is basically a listing of sites that one may not want to mess with your computer. Dan Pollock's words about his hosts file: # Use this file to prevent your computer from connecting to selected # internet hosts. This is an easy and effective way to protect you from # many types of spyware, reduces bandwidth use, blocks certain pop-up # traps, prevents user tracking by way of "web bugs" embedded in spam, # provides partial protection to IE from certain web-based exploits and # blocks most advertising you would otherwise be subjected to on the # internet. Thanks again. ben On Sat, Nov 7, 2020, at 5:22 PM, Craig Sanders via luv-main wrote:

On Sat, Nov 07, 2020 at 03:58:51PM +1100, bnis@fastmail.fm wrote:

...

[root@owl /etc/apt]# apt-get install inxi Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following additional packages will be installed: hddtemp libglew2.1 lm-sensors mesa-utils tree Suggested packages: libcpanel-json-xs-perl | libjson-xs-perl libxml-dumper-perl glew-utils fancontrol read-edid i2c-tools The following NEW packages will be installed: hddtemp inxi libglew2.1 lm-sensors mesa-utils tree 0 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 731 kB of archives. After this operation, 2,625 kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y Err:1 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 hddtemp amd64 0.3-beta15-53 Connection failed [IP: 2001:388:1034:2900::25 80] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

OK, that's clearly using the IPv6 address for ftp.au.debian.org

Does your ISP support IPv6? If not, then force apt to use ipv4 as i mentioned in my last message.

BTW, if you don't know how to recognise an ipv4 or ipv6 address, it's pretty easy.

ipv4 address are short, usually printed in decimal, with **exactly** four groups of 8-bit decimal numbers (i.e. 0 to 255), separated by periods ".". e.g. 192.168.1.1. sometimes with an optional netmask suffix like /24 or /32.

ipv6 addresses are longer, usually printed in multiple groups of four hexadecimal digits (i.e. 16 bits worth), separated by colons. e.g. 2001:388:1034:2900::25

see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4#Addressing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_address

While it's useful to know the basics of IP networking, you don't actually need to understand all the details. For practical purposes, you really only need to know if your ISP support ipv6 routing or not. If not, then disable it (at least on your uplink interface). Most ISPs still do not support ipv6. This is because they're slack-arse lazy bastards who find the shortage of ipv4 addrress space convenient for limiting what their customers do on the internet.

...

Using host au debian is not found:

[ben@owl ~]$ host ftp.au.debian.org/ Host ftp.au.debian.org/ not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

that's not a domain name. that's just a string ending in /

host doesn't know what to do with a string ending in a /

...

[ben@owl ~]$ host http://ftp.au.debian.org Host http://ftp.au.debian.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

that's not a domain name either. That's a URL.

host doesn't know what to do with a URL either.

...

The nz debian is found. [ben@owl ~]$ host ftp.nz.debian.org

that's a domain name. host knows what to do with one of those. which is why it worked:

...

ftp.nz.debian.org is an alias for mirror.fsmg.org.nz. mirror.fsmg.org.nz has address 163.7.134.112 mirror.fsmg.org.nz has IPv6 address 2404:138:4000::

...

When I changed sources.list to ftp.nz.debian.org, and tried installing inxi, the error was:

[root@owl /etc/apt]# apt-get install inxi Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package inxi

that's because you didn't update the packages lists after changing the repo.

when you change sources.list, you have to run "apt-get update" (or "apt update", etc)

...

Testing with the Force config. I used the cowsay program as the test: [...it worked...]

not surprising. the problem was, as I suspected, that your machine was using the mirror's IPv6 IP address rather than IPv4.

...

I purged cowsay and then tried the nz mirror but it failed:

[root@owl /home/ben/Downloads]# apt-get -o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true install cowsay Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package cowsay

again, this is because you didn't run "apt-get update" after changing sources.list

...

Whilst going through the process that was suggested and running the commands above, I returned to Firefox, and it now brings up http://ftp.au.debian.org/. The only extra thing that I have done which is not described above is to return the /etc/hosts file that I use to its original from the Pollock hosts file.

-------start /etc/hosts------- 127.0.0.1 localhost 127.0.1.1 owl

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts ::1 localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback ff02::1 ip6-allnodes ff02::2 ip6-allrouters -------end /etc/hosts---------

that hosts file looks OK. And isn't relevant here because it doesn't have entries for either ftp.au.debian.org or ftp.nz.debian.org.

Dunno why you're calling it a "Pollock" hosts file.

...

I have now written the /etc/apt//apt.conf.d/zzz-ipv4.conf with the ipv4 Force config as suggested.

The nz mirror still fails. I would really like to be able to change mirrors if I need to in the future.

Just remember to run 'apt-get update' whenever you change sources.list.

In fact, you should be running it before you do any apt/aptitude/apt-get/etc operations like "upgrade", "dist-upgrade", "install", etc. Not before every single apt-get command, but at least once for any day you intend to install or upgrade packages, so that apt is working with an up to date Packages list and knows WHAT packages & versions are available and WHERE they can be downloaded from.

...

Is there anything in the results that looks like it can help?

I'm wondering if this is an intermittent error of DNS, and if so, what I could do about it.

If you don't use IPv6 at all, you could disable it in the kernel. e.g. by adding IPV6_DISABLE=1 to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX entry in /etc/default/grub and then running "update-grub"...the next time you reboot, ipv6 will be disabled.

It's important to **ADD** it, not replace whatever might already be in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX. e.g. on one of my systems, I have this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="boot=zfs amd_iommu=on iommu=on amd_iommu_dump=hw IPV6_DISABLE=1 log_buf_len=1M"

I do this because my ISP doesn't support ipv6 and lots of software will happily try to use an ipv6 address if a dns lookup returns an AAAA record and the network interface has an ipv6 address, so it's just easier to disable ipv6 entirely in the kernel.

Note that at some point in the far distant future when the promised day arrives and ipv6 is used everywhere (or maybe earlier if your ISP starts supporting it), you'll have to undo this. This has been "imminent" for years now and is likely to remain imminent for the forseeable future. IMO, this is not likely to happen until spyware corporations like LG and Samsung and thousands of other IoT companies lobby/demand/bribe ISPs to get off their arses and implement ipv6 so that it's easier for them to access their smart tvs, fridges, toasters etc without annoying things like NAT getting in the way.

craig

-- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au https://lists.luv.asn.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/luv-main