Problems accessing repository

[Don Johnston]

I am using Linux Mint 13 LTS.

I am encountering problems accessing the repository from one of my
computers.

don@c9 ~ $ sudo apt-get install synergy
[sudo] password for don:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
synergy
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 88 not upgraded.
Need to get 551 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,391 kB of additional disk space will be used.
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
synergy
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
Err http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe synergy i386
1.3.8-1ubuntu1
Something wicked happened resolving 'archive.ubuntu.com:http' (-5 -
No address associated with hostname)
Failed to fetch
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/s/synergy/synergy_1.3.8-1ubuntu1_i386.deb
Something wicked happened resolving 'archive.ubuntu.com:http' (-5 - No
address associated with hostname)
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with
--fix-missing?
don@c9 ~ $

Earlier, when I had tried to do an update, I encountered similar problems.

Don Johnston

[Shiv Manas]

Looks like a DNS issue to me. Try a different DNS provider like
openDNS or Google DNS.

openDNS:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Google:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

To change your DNS you can edit your /etc/resolv.conf or do it using
Network Manager; or you could change in your router.

More info here:
https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using#setup

[Don Johnston]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I reinstalled Mint and the problem disappeared.

Don Johnston

[Mark Foster]

It's entirely possible that there was a transient DNS fault that's now
gone away - I say this to make sure that you don't presume the
reinstallation fixed anything. I've rarely gotten to the stage where
Linux needs to be reinstalled in order to remediate a fault.

[Mark Foster]

On 22/06/12 15:56, Shiv Manas wrote:
>

> Looks like a DNS issue to me. Try a different DNS provider like
> openDNS or Google DNS.
>
> openDNS:
> 208.67.222.222
> 208.67.220.220
>
> Google:
> 8.8.8.8
> 8.8.4.4
>
> To change your DNS you can edit your /etc/resolv.conf or do it using
> Network Manager; or you could change in your router.
>
> More info here:
> https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using#setup
>

Oh and re DNS - I rarely recommend the use of third party resolvers.
Your ISP's DNS are at least going to provide you with reasonably sane
responses that (in the case of DNS based CDNs) will point you at the
content servers that are probably going to perform best for you. If you
regularly experience problems with resolving addresses, you need to
complain to your ISP (and keep the above as interim ace-in-the-hole
options, rather than relying on them entirely).

Mark.

[Tomislav]

Yeah, and they're slow, but Google's DNS IPs are so easy to remember and work no matter which ISP you're on. This makes them incredibly useful for testing purposes.

[Martin D Kealey]

On 22/06/12 15:56, Shiv Manas wrote:

[suggesting OpenDNS & Google public resolvers]

On Jun 23, 2012 9:57 AM, "Mark Foster" <bla...@blakjak.net> wrote:
> Oh and re DNS - I rarely recommend the use of third party resolvers.

On Sat, 23 Jun 2012, Tomislav wrote:
> Yeah, and they're slow, but Google's DNS IPs are so easy to remember and
> work no matter which ISP you're on. This makes them incredibly useful for
> testing purposes.

The key word there is "testing".

If you use a resolver outside New Zealand, then you won't get the benefit of
local transit for distributed content services, e.g. Akamai, YouTube,
Amazon, etc.

If you're with an ISP that differentiates pricing for national vs
international traffic, it could cost you real money to make that switch.

(Actually, if you use Google's resolver, you may well get localized Youtube,
but otherwise you're burning international bandwidth for nearly everthing.)

-Martin

PS: if your ISP is Vodafone (Ihug, Wave, etc) then you have a choice of
resolvers:

203.118.188.1 + .2 (for Northern North Island)
203.118.189.1 + .2 (for Southern North Island)
203.118.190.1 + .2 (for South Island)

203.109.129.67 +.68

203.109.252.4 + .5 (may be rather flakey, but worth a shot)