apt-get problem

[Ryeker]

Just installed a full installation of StormLinux. Pretty nice. Trying to get apt-get to work now. I found Craig's master list, and I'm using it. I ran 'apt-get update' and it runs for a while, then it says:

W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these missing files
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead

Well, I keep running apt-get update and I keep getting this error message. Above this message, it says:

W: Couldn't stat source package list '<url>' (<url> ) - stat (2 No such file or directory).

It does this to quite a few servers. And it seems to effect my apt-get'ing because I can't seem to install anything.

Any ideas? Thanks!

[H. M. Murdock]

i get the same problem when i try to use craig's list as well, what i usually do is check his to see if he has come up with any new radical sites i might want, and then add those. I suggest just commenting the sites that dont work out of the sources.list file. that worked for me.

Murdock

[Ryeker]

There are so many sites though. But, I'll try that. I was hoping the '--fix-missing' option would fix that though.

Thanks.

[snowgod]

did you guys comment out the storm sites? those have been down and I think thats what you may be getting hung up on. For Craigs list, I just picked out the umich ones and have had no probs. Try that out and see if it works

[Strike]

Yeah, basically, you have to find the servers it craps out on and just comment those out. You'll still end up with a TON of servers that work. I need to write a script/program that will run apt-get update and comment the non-working ones out automatically, and then to retry them like 10 tries later or something like that.

[Ryeker]

There are so many that don't work though. It fills up my gnome-terminal buffer...

Oh well, if that will fix the problem. Cause I think these errors are messing up my install...

[ColdPack]

Uh, no, apt-get update can never mess up your install. All you are doing is updating the package information.
Honestly, just use the umich and/or debian sites and you can get most of what you want/need for your computer.
Just remember, unstable really means that so if you apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade to unstable, that's when you might mess up your install.
Just a warning.
Keep the sources.list pointing to stable and potato and you should have a most up-to-date yet stable system on your hands.
If you want other stuff from, say, woody, testing, sid, unstable... then uncomment those and run apt-get update and apt-get install packagename.
Again, apt-get update can not mess up your system as you are not downloading anything but information, not programs or packages.

[Ryeker]

Originally posted by ColdPack:
Again, apt-get update can not mess up your system as you are not downloading anything but information, not programs or packages.


I must have really done something wrong to piss off the apt-get gods. I swear, it broke my X. I did a apt-get dist-upgrade and it went through some stuff and then died (don't have error messages with me). Something about xlib, or lubXmu, something like that. Anyways, some people were saying that apt-get was killing itself with PERL. I dunno.

[ColdPack]

Okay, perhaps I misunderstood your post.
You said you were having problems running apt-get update and that you were worried it was messing up your install.
Okay. apt-get update will not do this... but apt-get dist-upgrade can mess things up especially if you do it after a messed up apt-get update.
First of all, what are you apt-get dist-upgrade(ing) to? Woody? Stable? Unstable?
If I were you, I would go through that monster list, comment out every single line but the ones from the umich site, and of those comment out all of them but those pointing to stable or potato. If you haven't played with apt much, play with it within the stable tree. As a matter of fact, storm 2.06 is based on the most recent debian 2.2rev2 so you may not even be upgrading a whole lot when you do it.
But start with stable only! Play around with it, then when you get a feel for it, try uncommenting the woody tree if you like. Install some stuff from there and see what's different.
Yeah, it's very possible you messed up X and a whole bunch of other stuff if you don't even know where some of it's coming from.
You should never run apt-get install packagename or apt-get upgrade or apt-get dist-upgrade unless apt-get update ran cleanly for you. If you had errors with just the update, you'll have one goofed up system if you then dist-upgrade afterward.
Fix the update first. Then continue on to the next step.

[ 05 February 2001: Message edited by: ColdPack ]

[Ryeker]

Originally posted by ColdPack:
You should never run apt-get install packagename or apt-get upgrade or apt-get dist-upgrade unless apt-get update ran cleanly for you. If you had errors with just the update, you'll have one goofed up system if you then dist-upgrade afterward.
Fix the update first. Then continue on to the next step.

Ok, I'm pretty sure I got unstable stuff. I did a dist-upgrade without uncommenting out the unstable stuff. Is it possible to revert back by commenting the unstable out?

Sorry about the confusing post.

I just wanted to update my distro to the latest thing. I wanted to test out apt-get. I come from a Slackware background where package management isn't like this :).

I think I goofed up my system. Is there an easy way to fix it or shall I resort to a reinstall?

Thank you so much for the help!

[snowgod]

if you are updating unstable stuff, you better upgrade to perl 5.6 first, thats what happened to me, I was getting a whole bunch of errors and after I installed perl 5.6, you can do an apt-get upgrade and it will install the packages fine

[Ryeker]

Do a regular (source) install of Perl? I will. THANK YOU! Will post if it works!

[Ryeker]

Did a normal source install of Perl using defaults. It didn't help. Not sure if it said it before, but it says that perl isn't configured properly. Oh well... :(

[rod]

I would suggest a reinstall, with a small sources list to start, pointed at stable. After playing with apt for a while you can expand.

An examlpe of what you might want for your /etc/apt/sources.list. This is all you really need to start:

#Umich.edu
deb ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/debian/ stable main contrib non-free

Comment out all other entries and run:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install <whatever package>


After getting the feel of things, maybe try an upgrade to the testing branch.

Have Fun

Regards,
Rod

[ 05 February 2001: Message edited by: rod ]