Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

intgr · 2010-02-08 22:04:21

Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

Don't you just hate it when you can't upgrade/install some package because the mirrors are yet again out of sync with the database? So I decided to make this rage comic.

PS: sudoers "Defaults insults" ftw

Last edited by intgr (2010-02-08 22:35:15)

hatten · 2010-02-08 22:06:11

Oh no! This will give Arch bad reputation! O_O;;;; How could you!

Primoz · 2010-02-08 22:13:10

You know I was thinking in this direction...
Few days ago, I decided to check the mirrorlist and make sure if my mirrors are in sync. Well as it turns out my mirrors were like day out of sync. So I went and find mirrors that were near to me and in sync.
Since then I started to think about a script which would get the mirrors that are most in-sync and then use ratemirrors to determine the fastest for use.
I have no idea if this already exist and how hard would it be to make it, but I think something like that would really be needed.

skanky · 2010-02-08 22:25:31

Primoz wrote:

You know I was thinking in this direction...
Few days ago, I decided to check the mirrorlist and make sure if my mirrors are in sync. Well as it turns out my mirrors were like day out of sync. So I went and find mirrors that were near to me and in sync.
Since then I started to think about a script which would get the mirrors that are most in-sync and then use ratemirrors to determine the fastest for use.
I have no idea if this already exist and how hard would it be to make it, but I think something like that would really be needed.

Check out reflector (pacman -S reflector).
Read the man page before you use it as there's a couple of gotchas (like using -r on its own).

tomk · 2010-02-08 23:18:20

intgr - are you really using just one mirror? No wonder you have problems...

I have every mirror uncommented in my mirrorlist, with my five favourites at the top. On the rare occasion that all five of those throw a "Not Found", invariably one of the others serves up the file, and pacman moves on unperturbed.

You should try it.

intgr · 2010-02-08 23:27:31

tomk wrote:

intgr - are you really using just one mirror? No wonder you have problems...

Nope, I only used 1 there because I couldn't fit more in the panel

In fact I have 20 mirrors uncommented, yet sometimes I still manage to update at moments when all of them are missing a file or two. Especially with the recent libpng/libjpeg breakage, I couldn't update my boxes for 2 days!

I've heard that i686 guys have it easier than x86_64 because that subtree gets synced first -- i686 is first alphabetically.

tomk · 2010-02-09 00:19:49

I'm x86_64.. and it just works for me, as described above.

santodelaespada · 2010-02-09 00:30:51

I'm getting a little bit tired with this kind of stuff, makes me miss my debian.
between the xorg 1.6 -> 1.7 update last year, the crappy intel kms driver (not arch specific) and this, I allmost beat two computers to the dead. Only to find out later the problem comes with the update.

sad sad rolling "down the hill" release

ataraxia · 2010-02-09 00:38:21

Use kernel.org mirror. It syncs every hour, and points to multiple servers. I had everything I needed from the jpng update within one day.

tomk · 2010-02-09 06:53:39

santodelaespada - if you don't like using Arch, don't use Arch. Simple really.

davidm · 2010-02-09 16:18:13

santodelaespada wrote:

I'm getting a little bit tired with this kind of stuff, makes me miss my debian.
between the xorg 1.6 -> 1.7 update last year, the crappy intel kms driver (not arch specific) and this, I allmost beat two computers to the dead. Only to find out later the problem comes with the update.
sad sad rolling "down the hill" release

I think a little common sense comes into play though. For example it isn't too bright to start trying to upgrade to KDE 4.4 when it is so new unless you a) know what you are doing b) have checked the usual places for notes and problems c) know that your mirrors are set up correctly and ready for this. Arch definitely is a distro which expects the user to (usually) exercise common sense as well as to possess at least an intermediate amount of knowledge.

Having said this I do think the mirror/update system could use some refinements, though nothing is perfect and there are tradeoffs for most things I can think of to help with the various problems.

PS- The comic is hilarious!

Last edited by davidm (2010-02-09 16:19:44)

codestation · 2010-02-09 16:41:26

davidm wrote:

I think a little common sense comes into play though. For example it isn't too bright to start trying to upgrade to KDE 4.4 when it is so new unless you a) know what you are doing b) have checked the usual places for notes and problems c) know that your mirrors are set up correctly and ready for this. Arch definitely is a distro which expects the user to (usually) exercise common sense as well as to possess at least an intermediate amount of knowledge.

I think that the problem here is that why they update the db with the new package list before the mirrors finished the sync? This doesnt only affect the users that are upgraging, what about those who are installing KDE for the first time? They simply cant install it because that almost all the mirrors are out of sync with the pacman db. I expect too that the devs to (usually) exercise common sense and wait at least for the 90% of the mirrors to be in sync before updating the package list in the db.

whacath · 2010-02-09 17:23:16

davidm wrote:

PS- The comic is hilarious!

Yeah! Do more comics! Post them here and to the arch linux magazine!

davidm · 2010-02-09 19:57:13

codestation wrote:

davidm wrote:
I think a little common sense comes into play though. For example it isn't too bright to start trying to upgrade to KDE 4.4 when it is so new unless you a) know what you are doing b) have checked the usual places for notes and problems c) know that your mirrors are set up correctly and ready for this. Arch definitely is a distro which expects the user to (usually) exercise common sense as well as to possess at least an intermediate amount of knowledge.
I think that the problem here is that why they update the db with the new package list before the mirrors finished the sync? This doesnt only affect the users that are upgraging, what about those who are installing KDE for the first time? They simply cant install it because that almost all the mirrors are out of sync with the pacman db. I expect too that the devs to (usually) exercise common sense and wait at least for the 90% of the mirrors to be in sync before updating the package list in the db.

There are likely some technical issues at play here. You are speaking in part of the package list being updated but the individual packages not yet being physically transferred to that mirror yet, right? I suppose that could be handled better but would likely mean some technical changes to the way mirrors work (I don't have a lot of knowledge of the scripts ran on them to say how easy that would be to implement or the time involved, although I see it as possible).

Because of your earlier post I started thinking more of ways to help some with the mirror issues and came up with these ideas: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=90665 This would not solve the window between the database being updated and all packages not being on the mirror though. I think the mirror itself would have to e changed to remove that time window.

Last edited by davidm (2010-02-09 19:59:40)

anonymous_user · 2010-02-09 20:15:52

Awesome and yet very true comic

Staerseus · 2010-02-09 20:28:16

I like this repo, I had some troubles with the Czech one, but this one is really actual:

Server = http://mirror.giantix-server.de/archlin … /os/x86_64

EDIT: The comic is really good .-)

Last edited by Staerseus (2010-02-09 20:28:53)

whacath · 2010-02-11 22:14:01

@intgr i just saw your comic in the ALM *thumbs up*

Are you gonna make somemore for future issues of ALM?

hatten · 2010-02-12 18:36:08

I hope not, cause that would mean that he is angry at something!

intgr · 2010-02-12 22:04:08

whacath wrote:

Are you gonna make somemore for future issues of ALM?

I don't think I've been blessed with a great deal of comic nor artistic talent, so I'm afraid anything I can come up with will be just another version of the same thing which will get old very quickly.

For who's not familiar with the meme, I didn't even draw the thing myself, I just copy-pasted from other rage comics.

Anyway, we'll see, maybe I'll give it another try if I find something rage-worthy.

jmdennis · 2010-02-12 22:37:31

I am glad to see the comic. I have uncommented all my mirrors in the US and get not found. Even when using the slower arch one. I realize that other countries seem to get updated first though. I just wish that it would not show updates if it could not pull them down. Their should be a way to just see updates that are on the mirrors that you have selected. If they do not exist then it shows you nothing is updated and you try again at another day when your mirrors have been updated. I have an i686 and at least in the US it is slow for updates.

Mad Fish · 2010-02-12 22:43:29

I second this. Why the hell mirrors are not updated in transactional way? At first download new packages and only then update the package lists. Is that really that hard? I guess no. Current mirror sync method is defective by design. Period.

ozar · 2010-02-12 22:59:48

jmdennis wrote:

I have uncommented all my mirrors in the US and get not found.

Yup, all the US mirrors have been crap lately so I've started fetching my packages from other countries because their mirrors seem so much faster and they are updated far more often.

tomk · 2010-02-13 08:31:23

Mad Fish - please submit your proposal for improved mirror operations as a feature request in the bug tracker.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-08 22:04:21

Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

#2 2010-02-08 22:06:11

Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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Re: Unsynchronized mirrors: Rage with me!

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