sudo apt-get update is not updating repositories in Debian Wheezy

Question

I am trying to update repositories using following command but it is failing:

sudo apt-get update

Here is the output of above command:

Hit http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg
Hit http://deb.opera.com stable Release.gpg                                                                                        
Hit http://liveusb.info all Release.gpg                                                                                            
Hit http://dl.google.com stable Release                                                                                            
Hit http://deb.opera.com stable Release                                                                                            
Hit http://liveusb.info all Release                                                                                                
Hit http://dl.google.com stable/main i386 Packages                                                                                 
Hit http://repo.mysql.com wheezy Release.gpg                                                                                       
Hit http://linux.dropbox.com wheezy Release.gpg                                                                                    
Hit http://deb.opera.com stable/non-free i386 Packages                                                                             
Hit http://liveusb.info all/main i386 Packages                                                                                     
Hit http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates Release.gpg                                                                          
Get:1 http://http.debian.net wheezy Release.gpg [1,655 B]                                                                          
Hit http://linux.dropbox.com wheezy Release                                                                                        
Hit http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates Release                                                                              
Hit http://repo.mysql.com wheezy Release                                                                                           
Hit http://linux.dropbox.com wheezy/main i386 Packages                                                                             
Hit http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main i386 Packages                                                                   
Get:2 http://http.debian.net wheezy Release [168 kB]                                                                               
Hit http://repo.mysql.com wheezy/mysql-apt-config i386 Packages                                                                    
Hit http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main Translation-en                                                                  
Ign http://dl.google.com stable/main Translation-en_US                                                                             
Ign http://deb.opera.com stable/non-free Translation-en_US                                                                         
Ign http://dl.google.com stable/main Translation-en                                                                                
Ign http://liveusb.info all/main Translation-en_US                                                                                 
Ign http://deb.opera.com stable/non-free Translation-en                                                                            
Ign http://liveusb.info all/main Translation-en                                                                                    
Get:3 http://http.debian.net wheezy/main i386 Packages [5,858 kB]                                                                  
Ign http://linux.dropbox.com wheezy/main Translation-en_US                                                                         
Ign http://linux.dropbox.com wheezy/main Translation-en                                                                            
Get:4 http://http.debian.net wheezy/main Translation-en [3,846 kB]                                                                 
Ign http://repo.mysql.com wheezy/mysql-apt-config Translation-en_US                                                                
Ign http://repo.mysql.com wheezy/mysql-apt-config Translation-en                                                                   
Err http://http.debian.net wheezy-updates Release.gpg                         
Cannot initiate the connection to ftp.tr.debian.org:80 (2001:a98:11::100). - connect (101: Network is unreachable) [IP: 2001:a98:11::100 80]
Get:5 http://http.debian.net wheezy-updates Release [124 kB]
Err http://http.debian.net wheezy-updates/main Translation-en

Err http://http.debian.net wheezy-updates/main Translation-en

Get:6 http://http.debian.net wheezy-updates/main i386 Packages [3,397 B]
Err http://http.debian.net wheezy-updates/main Translation-en

Err http://http.debian.net wheezy-updates/main Translation-en

Err http://http.debian.net wheezy-updates/main Translation-en
Cannot initiate the connection to ftp.tr.debian.org:80 (2001:a98:11::100). - connect (101: Network is unreachable) [IP: 2001:a98:11::100 80]
Fetched 10.0 MB in 1min 5s (152 kB/s)
W: Failed to fetch http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/wheezy-updates/Release.gpg  Cannot initiate the connection to ftp.tr.debian.org:80 (2001:a98:11::100). - connect (101: Network is unreachable) [IP: 2001:a98:11::100 80]

W: Failed to fetch http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/wheezy-updates/main/i18n/Translation-en  Cannot initiate the connection to ftp.tr.debian.org:80 (2001:a98:11::100). - connect (101: Network is unreachable) [IP: 2001:a98:11::100 80]

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been     Ignored, or old ones used instead.

Following is my /etc/apt/sources.list

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 7 _Wheezy_ - Official Snapshot i386 LIVE/INSTALL Binary 20140716-13:13]/ wheezy contrib main contrib non-free non-free

deb http://http.debian.net/debian wheezy main contrib non-free
deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian wheezy main contrib non-free

deb http://http.debian.net/debian wheezy-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian wheezy-updates main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src ftp://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free

## Depôt MultiSystem
deb http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot all main
# deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy contrib non-free main

Did you try to manually browsing one of the repo urls? Also it is trying to reach the ipv6 addresses, which may be blocked by iptables or ipv6 may just not be setup correctly. — LXK, Jan 03 '15 at 09:01

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:37

Looks like it's trying to connect over IPv6 for some reason:

Cannot initiate the connection to ftp.tr.debian.org:80 (2001:a98:11::100). - connect (101: Network is unreachable) [IP: 2001:a98:11::100 80] Fetched 10.0 MB in 1min 5s (152 kB/s)

Unless you have this box connected to a network that supports IPv6, then it's not going to be able to connect to that IPv6 address. To force IPv4 for apt-get, pass in option:-o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true.

For example:

sudo apt-get -o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true update sudo apt-get -o Acquire::ForceIPv4=true install procps

Source: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/100887/7688

Disclaimer: I am not a Debian person (much more familiar with Ubuntu / RHEL / CentOS), so I'm not sure why Debian is defaulting to IPv6, but until most ISPs support this then it's most assuredly not going to work. You might want to figure out how to set the system to prefer IPv4 for the time being. I tried setting this on a Debian Wheezy VM, but with limited success. It appears the way to override IPv4 / IPv6 precedence is with /etc/gai.conf:

Uncomment the line precedence ::ffff:0:0/96 100 in /etc/gai.conf:

sed -i -e 's|^#precedence ::ffff:0:0/96 100|precedence ::ffff:0:0/96 100|' /etc/gai.conf

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 03 '15 at 19:33

http://http.debian.net doesn't serve directly, it just redirects you to a mirror. It tries to be smart about it and send you to a "close" one. See the actual web page at http://http.debian.net/ for details, and http://rgeissert.blogspot.co.nz/p/httpdebiannet-faq.html for some additional details.

Either way, the problem is that you don't have IPv6 connectivity to ftp.tr.debian.org at the time you tried; it could be that the mirror is (was) down, or that there's a problem with your IPv6 networking connectivity.

Either wait a bit and try again (hopefully getting a different mirror, or finding that the transient issue has gone away) or specify an explicit specific mirror in your apt sources instead of the redirector.

sudo apt-get update is not updating repositories in Debian Wheezy

2 Answers2