Pacman troubles- slow and unclear.

offshoreip · 2008-05-19 10:10:32

New to Arch. Trying to finish installing Gnome.
Having trouble with Pacman because it's too slow here in China. Can anyone help me? Also confused a little about /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist. I cleared it out down to 2 Aussie repositories and they were all very slow, so in frustration I emptied it after trying many others also. pacman -U does not seem to restore mirrorlist -though it claims to regenerate something. Spent all day fighting this.

pressh · 2008-05-19 10:34:16

the mirrorlist is part of the pacman package. Reinstalling pacman should bring it back (well you have to manually download it from the ftp server as you don't have any mirrors left).
Alternatively, the mirror list is here: http://repos.archlinux.org/viewvc.cgi/p … iew=markup

After that, if you search for a fast mirror for you, you could use the rankmirrors script, which is also in the pacman package.

deathadder · 2008-05-19 10:38:22

Don't use ftp.archlinux.org as it's throttled, so downloads will be slow. How slow is slow? Also try and choose mirrors which are near to you, however I have always found that German mirrors are nice and fast.

When you say you cleared it out, did you delete it's contents? If so I can post my mirrorlist for you.

Do you have a proxy server you need to use?

Sorry, I can't think of anything else at the moment...

Demind · 2008-05-19 11:30:10

pressh wrote:

After that, if you search for a fast mirror for you, you could use the rankmirrors script, which is also in the pacman package.

I recommend this too.
After having "regenerated" or reinstalled the pacman mirrorlist as root give:

rankmirrors etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

This will tell pacman to use the fastest mirror.

offshoreip · 2008-05-19 13:42:34

Thanks everybody this is encouraging. I will try the German repositories . My mirrorlist is empty. My downloads are at only about 5ks average. This is too slow! Unbearable. If you have a helpful mirrorlist you can post it thanks. No proxy server.
Anyway also getting an error message when I try that rankmirrors script. 'bad interpreter /usr/bin/python- no such file of directory. So looks like python is not installed.'

Last edited by offshoreip (2008-05-19 13:46:34)

offshoreip · 2008-05-19 14:38:24

So many problems.. Pacman has me dead in the water really. I have sat through 2 failed Gnome downloads today (they just stopped for no reason). Tried switching repo's many time inc German repositories and got all kinds of error messages about can't download something. Reinstalled Pacman twice but mirrorlist is STILL empty. Repository for ASIA in (Isreal?) is stumbling now. Hey I really wanted to use this distro-BUT I CAN'T CONTINUE TO BLAME MY LACK OF EXPERIENCE WITH ARCH FOR ALL THIS. FRUSTRATING. My internet is fine Ubuntu and Fedora liked it.

pressh · 2008-05-19 16:10:38

offshoreip wrote:

Reinstalled Pacman twice but mirrorlist is STILL empty.

pacman does not overwrite /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist, but creates a new /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.pacnew as should appear on your screen when you install pacman.
You should then copy the mirrorlist.pacnew to mirrorlist. But really it is the same as the list I linked in my first reply.

Yes, rankmirros is a python script. You should install python first.

offshoreip · 2008-05-19 22:54:39

Using (Arch) Gnome desktop now. Internet is cruising!
Good information ok. Python is in now. I had success downloading Gnome last night. Overnight downloads only for me in future. Had to use startx to get going (though I made ~/.xinitrc?). So I have a more tidbits to learn. Anyway my recently improved Vi skills are paying off.

pressh · 2008-05-19 23:03:28

offshoreip wrote:

Had to use startx to get going (though I made ~/.xinitrc?).

startx looks in ~/.xinitrc which 'window manager'/'desktop environment' to start. If you prefer a graphical login manager (most likely gdm if you use gnome), please consult the wiki: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GDM

offshoreip wrote:

So I have a more tidbits to learn. Anyway my recently improved Vi skills are paying off.

The wiki has a lot of information on the way of getting things done in Arch. It's usually a great place to start.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-19 10:10:32

Pacman troubles- slow and unclear.

#2 2008-05-19 10:34:16

Re: Pacman troubles- slow and unclear.

#3 2008-05-19 10:38:22

Re: Pacman troubles- slow and unclear.

#4 2008-05-19 11:30:10

Re: Pacman troubles- slow and unclear.

#5 2008-05-19 13:42:34

Re: Pacman troubles- slow and unclear.

#6 2008-05-19 14:38:24

Re: Pacman troubles- slow and unclear.

#7 2008-05-19 16:10:38

Re: Pacman troubles- slow and unclear.

#8 2008-05-19 22:54:39

Re: Pacman troubles- slow and unclear.

#9 2008-05-19 23:03:28

Re: Pacman troubles- slow and unclear.

Board footer