Apt-get update fails on Whonix Gateway - Should I be worried?

user7985495 · December 10, 2014, 4:25pm

I’m using whonix 9, I always run whonixcheck once a day and today I got this error:

W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dist/wheezy/contrib/binary-i386/Packages 404 Not Found

W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dist/wheezy/non-free/binary-i386/Packages 404 Not Found

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

Now, i’m not an expert about linux, should I be worried? Do you suggest to wait until it’s fixed this problem or can I use Whonix Gateway anyway?

Thank You!

JasonJAyalaP · December 10, 2014, 8:12pm

@user7985495
The error is not suggestive of any particular security problem, but should be cleared up soon (you normally want updates!).

@Patrick
Er. Shouldn’t it be “/dists/” and not /dist/ ? Did debian just change that?

Patrick · December 10, 2014, 10:03pm

@JasonJAyalaP
Dunno about dist vs dists.

@user7985495:
Just now documentation on how to handle such cases has been updated:

Please check and tell us if that solved your issue.

user7985495 · December 11, 2014, 4:20pm

[quote=“Patrick, post:3, topic:745”]@user7985495:
Just now documentation on how to handle such cases has been updated:

Please check and tell us if that solved your issue.[/quote]

I’ve tried whonixcheck, of course same problem.

I’ve tried sudo service tor restart too. Same problem.

I’ve tried also this:

[code]tor-ctrl -a /var/run/tor/control.authcookie -P 9051 -c “signal newnym”

[/code]

Now I get this error:

W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dist/wheezy/contrib/binary-i386/Packages Bad header line

W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dist/wheezy/non-free/binary-i386/Packages Bad header line

W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dist/wheezy/contrib/i18n/Translation-en Bad header line

W: Failed to fetch http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dist/wheezy/non-free/i18n/Translation-en Bad header line

JasonJAyalaP · December 11, 2014, 6:02pm

@Patrick
I’m wondering why whonixcheck would be looking at /dist/ if debian has it named /dists/. Try it. Copy and paste it in your browser.

Patrick · December 11, 2014, 6:22pm

[quote=“JasonJAyalaP, post:5, topic:745”]@Patrick
I’m wondering why whonixcheck would be looking at /dist/ if debian has it named /dists/. Try it. Copy and paste it in your browser.[/quote]
whonixcheck doesn’t do anything related to /dist /dists/. It just runs apt-get and parses its output. Code:

github.com

Whonix/whonixcheck/blob/Whonix9/usr/lib/whonixcheck/check_operating_system

#!/bin/bash

## This file is part of Whonix.
## Copyright (C) 2012 - 2014 Patrick Schleizer <adrelanos@riseup.net>
## See the file COPYING for copying conditions.

check_operating_system() {
   trap "error_handler" ERR

   ## Running apt-get update as user (non-root).
   ## Depends on exception set in /etc/sudoers.d/.
   ## Minimal custom script.
   local MSG="Debian Package Update Check: Checking for software updates via apt-get..."
   $output ${output_opts[@]} --messagecli --typecli "info" --titlecli "$TITLE" --message "$MSG"
   local apt_get_exit_code
   apt_get_exit_code="0"
   sudo "/usr/lib/apt-get-update" >/dev/null &
   apt_get_update_pid="$!"
   wait "$apt_get_update_pid" || { apt_get_exit_code="$?" ; true; };
   unset apt_get_update_pid

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user7985495 · December 13, 2014, 5:34pm

still same problems here, anyway with apt-get upgrade I managed to keep updated some packages anyway.

Do you think that completely destroy/erase this gateway and installing a new one can solve this?

Anyone have the same problem here? I’m running the gateway with virtualbox installed on a linux distro, debian based… maybe this can help you to understand the reason of this error

Patrick · December 13, 2014, 5:40pm

I am not recalling anyone having posted this until here.

If it’s a gateway, getting a new one would be simplest. (No need to eventually backup data from a workstation in comparison.)

Otherwise you might be able to fix this by going through the usual apt troubleshooting instructions. (As per https://www.whonix.org/wiki/About#Based_on_Debian.)