mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

bvbellomo · 2010-06-04 17:15:55

Dealing with mirrors is the one thing I hate about Arch. I am constantly changing my mirrors and wondering if I have the latest version of things. This is supposed to be a rolling release distro, but it is almost turned my system into an Ubuntu release cycle, as every few weeks I realize my mirrors are out of date, I fix the problem and I do a major update. At least with a release cycle, I am getting the version someone intentionally wanted on my system for a long time. With Arch, I get an arbitrary version that was meant to be replaced in a few days.

I realize I can just leave my machine pointed to the official repository. That is slow, and if that is what we tell everyone to do, it defeats the point of having mirrors.

Can we configure the mirror servers to go off line if they haven't synchronized in 24 hours? A completely dead mirror is much easier to deal with than one that is out of date.

Could pacman be changed to go to the official repository to decide what to update, and then go through the list of mirrors to find a place to download the latest version? If a mirror doesn't have the version pacman wants, it could go to the next mirror in the list.

sHyLoCk · 2010-06-04 17:26:09

Configure once with reflector and rankmirrors

bvbellomo · 2010-06-04 17:35:39

I don't understand how anyone can "configure once" (using reflector, rankmirrors or any other tool). Mirrors that are reliably up to date suddenly stopping synchronization for a few months. If this happens to a mirror you are using (and you have no way of knowing when it does), you must configure again.

I suppose I could write a script that updates my mirror list automatically and have it run on some sort of timer, or just run it before I do updates. That seems like a kludge.

Last edited by bvbellomo (2010-06-04 17:36:31)

wonder · 2010-06-04 17:39:31

there is no such thing as official mirror. ftp.archlinux.org is a mirror like any other.
here is a page that can help you http://www.archlinux.de/?page=MirrorStatus

Misfit138 · 2010-06-04 17:42:44

bvbellomo wrote:

This is supposed to be a rolling release distro, but it is almost turned my system into an Ubuntu release cycle, as every few weeks I realize my mirrors are out of date, I fix the problem and I do a major update. At least with a release cycle, I am getting the version someone intentionally wanted on my system for a long time. With Arch, I get an arbitrary version that was meant to be replaced in a few days..

Based on this paragraph, it seems that you do not understand the concept of rolling-release. You are not describing a mirror going out-of-date, but rather seem to be implying that you are simply not keeping your system package db up-to-date.

BTW, In the U.S., there are a plethora of fast, up-to-date and reliable mirrors which have never let me down. Where are you located?

Ramses de Norre · 2010-06-04 17:42:52

I switch mirrors a bit in the beginning and got like 4 stable and fast mirrors I almost never have problems with. I don't know why yours are always having trouble. Besides, I don't really care about a mirror being two days out of sync a couple of times a year and I'll probably notice the lack of updates if it takes longer (did not happen to me the last couple of years).

tomk · 2010-06-04 17:53:34

Similar to other posts above - I have a handful of mirrors that work very well for me at the top of mirrorpist, and then every other mirror after that. I have few problems, and no serious ones.

As already requested, your location would be useful.

bvbellomo · 2010-06-04 18:00:41

I am in Ohio, but it doesn't really matter. I really don't care much about the speed of my mirrors so much as they are up to date. I suggested 24 hours arbitrarily, I don't care if I am 2 days out of sync, but anything more than a week is a problem. Maybe I've just had bad luck, but I'll get everything configured and working reliably, and then I notice I haven't had an update in a few weeks, change my mirrors, and do a major upgrade. I've lost updates 3 times so far because of actual problems with the mirrors, but I find myself reconfiguring even though I don't need to whenever a few days go by without updates because of this.

Inxsible · 2010-06-04 18:07:30

The said mirrors hardly fall under the purview of Arch. If the mirrors are not updates, its the mirror admins fault. That being said, not all mirrors are as bad in keeping their files up to date.

What I have found over the years is that the edu mirrors - especially of reputed universities are (almost) always the fastest and updated. -- I guess the student web-admins of those mirrors have a lot of time on their hands --jk ;-)

Being in NY, i have my mirrors set to rit.edu and vt.edu as the topmost. The rest are still there, but I mostly find all the updates from my top two.

Last edited by Inxsible (2010-06-04 18:07:51)

bvbellomo · 2010-06-04 18:11:18

For example, anyone with http://archlinux.umflint.edu/ as their #1 mirror is 1 month out of date. I think think this was the one I had last night, and even if not, I think I remember it working reliably (Flint is geographically close to me, and it sounds familiar).

wonder · 2010-06-04 18:13:38

bvbellomo wrote:

For example, anyone with http://archlinux.umflint.edu/ as their #1 mirror is 1 month out of date. I think think this was the one I had last night, and even if not, I think I remember it working reliably (Flint is geographically close to me, and it sounds familiar).

i don't like this mirror. it doesn't follow the standard schema. it only have core/extra/community without additional and needed repos.

hyness · 2010-06-04 20:01:16

You can use this link to see which are the most up to date mirrors...
https://www.archlinux.de/?page=MirrorSt … ync;sort=1

HTH

Dieter@be · 2010-06-04 20:26:03

wonder wrote:

there is no such thing as official mirror.

Wut? all mirrors in the package list file are official mirros.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mir … al_mirrors

Inxsible · 2010-06-04 22:33:10

hyness wrote:

You can use this link to see which are the most up to date mirrors...
https://www.archlinux.de/?page=MirrorSt … ync;sort=1
HTH

That website gives a SSL security warning ! Maybe their Verisign or Thawte..or whatever certificate expired or they never had one in the first place.

Last edited by Inxsible (2010-06-04 22:33:58)

forkboy · 2010-06-05 12:25:38

What about trying the kernel.org mirror?

Surgat_ · 2010-06-05 14:17:42

I have the following line in my crontab, which updates my mirrorlist to the latest and fastest 6 mirrors every week:

0 0 * * 4    /usr/bin/reflector --latest 6 -r > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.rank

Change the first characters to fit some time when you are sure that your computer will be on and you're done.

hyness · 2010-06-05 14:35:21

Inxsible wrote:

hyness wrote:
You can use this link to see which are the most up to date mirrors...
https://www.archlinux.de/?page=MirrorSt … ync;sort=1
HTH
That website gives a SSL security warning ! Maybe their Verisign or Thawte..or whatever certificate expired or they never had one in the first place.

Yes, you caught me in the infamous german arch linux phishing scam where a site poses as the official german site for arch linux where they require you give your credit card information before telling you which are the most up to date mirrors

Whatever SSL warning you got yesterday is not there now, and why it would be important when you are just reading it baffles me.

Inxsible · 2010-06-05 14:41:26

hyness wrote:

Inxsible wrote:
hyness wrote:
You can use this link to see which are the most up to date mirrors...
https://www.archlinux.de/?page=MirrorSt … ync;sort=1
HTH
That website gives a SSL security warning ! Maybe their Verisign or Thawte..or whatever certificate expired or they never had one in the first place.
Yes, you caught me in the infamous german arch linux phishing scam where a site poses as the official german site for arch linux where they require you give your credit card information before telling you which are the most up to date mirrors
Whatever SSL warning you got yesterday is not there now, and why it would be important when you are just reading it baffles me.

Funny because I am still getting the SSL warning. Yeah I know it doesn't matter much since you are only reading the website. So no, don't get baffled.

skottish · 2010-06-05 16:55:55

I have six American mirrors in my mirrorlist and I use powerpill with the rebase option to pull from all of them. This is from my 64 bit box:

Server = http://archlinux.unixheads.org/$repo/os/x86_64
Server = http://mirrors.kernel.org/archlinux/$repo/os/x86_64
Server = http://schlunix.org/archlinux/$repo/os/x86_64
Server = http://mirrors.easynews.com/linux/archlinux/$repo/os/x86_64
Server = http://mirror.cs.vt.edu/pub/ArchLinux/$repo/os/x86_64
Server = http://archlinux.umflint.edu/$repo/os/x86_64

pyther · 2010-06-05 18:10:59

I live within ohio and the RIT mirror is usually pretty good (http://mirror.rit.edu/)

ryooichi · 2011-01-10 20:55:06

I am wondering why "official" mirrors can be so out-of-date? Today I switched from vt.edu to rit.edu and discovered that my system was very out-of-date! WTF, Virginia Tech?

EDIT: For example, I installed last night via net from vt.edu. I should've noticed then, but the "current" kernel was 2.6.34! Today updating through rit.edu, I realized that the kernel should've been at 2.6.36. How is this not a vulnerability? Again, WTF VT?

So why isn't there a requirement to be updated within a certain amount of time? Else they should lose the "official" status! I definitely think that VT should be kicked off the list!

Last edited by ryooichi (2011-01-10 21:08:36)

Inxsible · 2011-01-10 20:59:02

Umm all those mirrors are doing Arch and its users a service by hosting all the packages for free. If they are not keeping it up to date, use a different mirror, but Arch cannot impose third parties to keep their personal servers updated or not.

Most mirrors started becoming outdated when Arch switched to a 3-tier system. Maybe the mirror maintainers didn't get the notifications or didn't want to pay any heed to it because of a lack of interest or whatever the reason.

ngoonee · 2011-01-11 00:42:24

And in the case of uni-based mirrors, most likely the person who set it up in the first place has already moved on and noone is checking that particular inbox. You have this lonely cron job doing syncs to a mirror which no longer recognizes it. And knowing most universities, unless the CS department gets burnt to the ground, the poor cron job will forever repeat itself uselessly, never understanding why it cannot seem to fulfil its purpose in life!

Misfit138 · 2011-01-11 02:45:43

Stupid crond.

P.S. just use rit.edu.

jasonwryan · 2011-01-11 03:03:09

ngoonee wrote:

And in the case of uni-based mirrors, most likely the person who set it up in the first place has already moved on and noone is checking that particular inbox. You have this lonely cron job doing syncs to a mirror which no longer recognizes it. And knowing most universities, unless the CS department gets burnt to the ground, the poor cron job will forever repeat itself uselessly, never understanding why it cannot seem to fulfil its purpose in life!

That makes me so sad. Like the end of Silent Running...

Back on topic: I have one reliable mirror to choose from. And every night I ritually sacrifice a Hayes modem to propitiate the admin that looks after it...

Arch Linux

#1 2010-06-04 17:15:55

mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#2 2010-06-04 17:26:09

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#3 2010-06-04 17:35:39

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#4 2010-06-04 17:39:31

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#5 2010-06-04 17:42:44

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#6 2010-06-04 17:42:52

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#7 2010-06-04 17:53:34

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#8 2010-06-04 18:00:41

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#9 2010-06-04 18:07:30

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#10 2010-06-04 18:11:18

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#11 2010-06-04 18:13:38

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#12 2010-06-04 20:01:16

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#13 2010-06-04 20:26:03

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#14 2010-06-04 22:33:10

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#15 2010-06-05 12:25:38

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#16 2010-06-05 14:17:42

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#17 2010-06-05 14:35:21

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#18 2010-06-05 14:41:26

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#19 2010-06-05 16:55:55

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#20 2010-06-05 18:10:59

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#21 2011-01-10 20:55:06

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#22 2011-01-10 20:59:02

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#23 2011-01-11 00:42:24

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#24 2011-01-11 02:45:43

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

#25 2011-01-11 03:03:09

Re: mirrors - suggestions and frustrations

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