On Saturday 20 May 2006 18:36, Chris Lale wrote: > John O'Hagan wrote: > > [ ... ] > > > >Unless my logic is askew, this means that the problem is not the file size > > or type, nor the repository, nor any problem with the integrity > >or "downloadability" (TM!) of the files. AFAICT, that only leaves apt-get > >itself as the culprit. Would this be correct? > > > >But what could be wrong with apt-get such that it fails to deal with two > >particular list files only? > > > >Maybe I should purge and reinstall apt, but is this possible? Seems risky! > >(I've already tried apt-get install --reinstall and dpkg-reconfigure.) > >[...] > > Just a thought - have you tried using the 'aptitude' command instead of > 'apt-get'? > > # aptitude update > > Another thought - it might be worth checking that there is enough free > space on the partition.
Thanks Chris; tried your suggestions, but aptitude update produces the same error; and there is plenty of disk space. A bit more information: the apt-get error is: "Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz Data socket timed out" However the actual mirror has two Packages files, a .gz and a .bz2. and the (incomplete) file which appears on my machine is a .bz2. Is it possible that somewhere in the process the file-type is being confused? Another feature of this problem is that both the updates and any hand-assisted upgrades seem to fail within 50kB of completion. The upgrades complete immediately they are restarted; the updates start again and fail again. I'm really stumped. John -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
