Hi Jason,

I have the same scenario - AT&T U-verse and issues with APT.

Issue disappeared when I manually set DNS to google's free DNS service (
8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 , pretty fast).

However, I tried latest Alpha of Ubuntu 10.10 and it DOES NOT have this
issue anymore!

What I have noticed earlier, AT&T's DNS servers are very slow. Typical query
takes somewhere around 100ms. But every once in a while (about every 20th
query in my case) takes about 500ms.
This is very annoying even when surfing the net. average www page initiates
dozens of DNS queries, which means I hit the issue with slow response pretty
much every time I open a web page.

I think APT doesn't handle well slow DNS responses and times out internally.

Speaking of 2WIRE gateway, have you found a way how to manually change DNS
directly on the box? I'd like to prefer this option over setting every
laptop manually.


Mike


On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 12:37 PM, Jason DePriest
<email address hidden>wrote:

> First, let me say that using the suggestion in #18 about hard coding the
> DNS fixed the problem for me.
>
> I have a laptop with a 32-bit AMD Sempron processor that I wiped and did
> a full, fresh install of Ubuntu Lucid Lynx.
>
> I have added some 3rd party repositories in my /etc/apt/sources.d/
> directory.
>
> I am on a home wireless network 802.11g with WPA2 + PSK.  My router is a
> 2Wire Residential Gateway device that acts as DSL modem, wireless
> router, firewall, and is also where our AT&T U-Verse television comes in
> the house.
>
> I do not have a proxy server.
>
> By default, Ubuntu was using the RG itself as the DNS server which is
> supposed to work just fine.  It does work in almost all cases.  It
> doesn't work for apt-get for some reason.  I was able to log on to my
> RG's web interface and get the DNS servers that it was using.  I then
> setup my network connection to use those instead.
>
> That fixed it.
>
> But, why is this necessary?
>
> Also, LTS?  I think you've found a new scenario to add to your QA
> testing.
>
> --
> Apt has strange network errors when updating indexes.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/574886
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “apt” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: apt
>
> If I update the apt indices either in Synaptic Package Manager, Update
> Manager or from the command line, it fails to download a random selection of
> indexes (from 0 to 3, usually). The errors look like this:
>
> W: Failed to fetch
> http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/lucid-security/Release.gpg Something wicked happened resolving 'security.ubuntu.com:http'
> (-5 - No address associated with hostname)
>
> W: Failed to fetch http://archive.canonical.com/dists/lucid/Release.gpg Something wicked happened resolving 'archive.canonical.com:http'
> (-5 - No address associated with hostname)
>
> E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones
> used instead.
>
> It is usually about two that fail, though sometimes more, and sometimes
> none. I just have a wireless router attached to a cable modem, standard home
> broadband. If I run 'update' a couple times, it will get everything. Apt has
> no problem downloading or installing packages. I can run 'ping' against
> these servers with zero packet loss.
>
> If I do a single update with errors and then try to install packages,
> sometimes it warns me that packages are unsigned.
>
> Originally, I had upgraded from Ubuntu 9.10, so to make sure it wasn't an
> upgrade problem, I backed up my personal files, and installed 10.04 from
> scratch. The problem persisted with the default Ubuntu 10.04 install.
>
> My laptop is a Compaq CQ60 215dx.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
> Package: apt 0.7.25.3ubuntu7
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
> Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic x86_64
> Architecture: amd64
> Date: Mon May  3 19:33:15 2010
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
> ProcEnviron:
>  LANG=en_US.utf8
>  SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: apt
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/574886/+subscribe
>