Arch Linux

Lockheed

Member

Registered: 2010-03-16

Posts: 1,542

[solved] Strange connection problems with repositories

I have a headless server and it is showing some strange issues since about 1-2 years. Basically, it is extremely difficult to do system update, because the process constantly times out either on probing repositories:

:: Synchronising package databases...
 archzfs is up to date
 zfs-linux is up to date
 zfs-linux-lts is up to date
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community is up to date
error: failed retrieving file 'archzfs.db' from archzfs.com : Resolving timed out after 10001 milliseconds
error: failed retrieving file 'archzfs.db' from mirror.sum7.eu : Failed to connect to mirror.sum7.eu port 80 after 10000 ms: Timeout was reached

:: error: GET https://www.archlinux.org/feeds/news/
:: error: urllib: [Errno 101] Network is unreachable

and while downloading packages.

Total Download Size:   442.84 MiB
Total Installed Size:  763.27 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:      -21.89 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] Y
:: Retrieving packages...
 linux-firmware-20240409.1addd7dc-1-any            222.9 MiB  51.3 MiB/s 00:04 [#############################################] 100%
 linux-lts-6.6.27-1-x86_64                         128.8 MiB  1122 KiB/s 01:57 [#############################################] 100%
 linux-lts-headers-6.6.27-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst failed to download
 Total ( 3/41)                                     442.8 MiB  3.35 MiB/s 02:12 [#############################################] 100%
error: failed retrieving file 'linux-lts-headers-6.6.27-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst' from kernels.archzfs.com : Operation too slow. Less than 1 bytes/sec transferred the last 10 seconds

The transfer will be fine for several seconds, and then suddenly start slowing down to zero. Then I restart the process, it times out again. And again. And again. And then it works for another 1-20 packages, and times out again. You get the picture.

It takes 10-30 attempts to restart the process to complete the update. What's strange is that a laptop on the same connection (also with Arch) does not have such issues.

This is not the matter of choosing appropriate mirrors.

I have no idea what can be causing this.

Last edited by Lockheed (2024-04-16 22:06:34)

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 60,780

Re: [solved] Strange connection problems with repositories

This is not the matter of choosing appropriate mirrors.

Yet the errors you show are only w/ kernels.archzfs.com ?

mirror.sum7.eu is 404, archzfs.com 302 to github, kernels.archzfs.com/archzfs is 404…

mirror.biocrafting.net seems up, does that provide better results?

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Lockheed

Member

Registered: 2010-03-16

Posts: 1,542

Re: [solved] Strange connection problems with repositories

I assure you kernels.archzfs.com is just an example. The issue happens randomly for every repo.
And since I started running OpenWRT in LXD on the same host, I think can see the same problem when I try to update its packages. Strangely, my SSH or http connection to this remote host does not experience any slowdowns during those timeouts/lack of connectivity.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 60,780

Re: [solved] Strange connection problems with repositories

 linux-firmware-20240409.1addd7dc-1-any            222.9 MiB  51.3 MiB/s 00:04 [#############################################] 100%
 linux-lts-6.6.27-1-x86_64                         128.8 MiB  1122 KiB/s 01:57 [#############################################] 100%
 linux-lts-headers-6.6.27-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst failed to download
 Total ( 3/41)                                     442.8 MiB  3.35 MiB/s 02:12 [#############################################] 100%

You're starting > 50MB/s, then break down to 1MB/s before the connection collapses after 442.8MB throughput - that's enough for a veeeeeeery long ssh session (if the pattern is somewhat reflective of the general condition) but it would probably be nice to run a speedtest from that host to see whether that's pacman/mirror specific or a general network issue
Get ABBS abstracts some linode downloads and also check the system journal whether the connection loss is somehow locally reflected (carrier loss, driver crash etcetc.)

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Lockheed

Member

Registered: 2010-03-16

Posts: 1,542

Re: [solved] Strange connection problems with repositories

The speed goes down to zero for minutes and the SSH session and graphical remote desktop connection remains unbroken.

Anyway, I just discovered that at some point the ISP changed the internal IP of my upstream router to the same IP as the internal IP of my downstream home router and I suspect it might be causing the issue. The laptop client connects to the WiFi of the upstream router so would not be affected. I will report back after resolving the conflict.

Lockheed

Member

Registered: 2010-03-16

Posts: 1,542

Re: [solved] Strange connection problems with repositories

Well, resolving the IP conflict seems to have resolved the issue. Thanks for the attention.