armhf && debian.net …

Oh well. There seems to be a new mirror system available for Debian — http.debian.net — and it sucks the second time I used it :-(

I was able to boot Debian Wheezy on my MK802+ (courtesy of the nice work Roman did), but installing “vim” failed miserably:

root@debian:~# apt-get install vim
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libgpm2 vim-common vim-runtime
Suggested packages:
  gpm ctags vim-doc vim-scripts
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libgpm2 vim vim-common vim-runtime
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 5,501 kB of archives.
After this operation, 24.5 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://http.debian.net/debian/ wheezy/main libgpm2 armhf 1.20.4-6 [34.0 kB]
Get:2 http://http.debian.net/debian/ wheezy/main vim-runtime all 2:7.3.547-7 [4,607 kB]
Get:3 http://http.debian.net/debian/ wheezy/main vim-common armhf 2:7.3.547-7 [162 kB]
Err http://http.debian.net/debian/ wheezy/main vim armhf 2:7.3.547-7
  404  Not Found
Fetched 4,803 kB in 3s (1,473 kB/s)
Failed to fetch http://http.debian.net/debian/pool/main/v/vim/vim_7.3.547-7_armhf.deb  404  Not Found
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?

Yeah, sure. Well, armhf is now a supported architecture, and like the Raspberry Pi, the MK802-series of USB stick size Android devices uses this architecture. They seem to be really lovely tiny little powerhorses, even though speed is not everything — well, price matters, too, and as of this writing, you can get one of these thingies at 39,90 EUR including P&P via amazon.de. Add a micro SD card, and you get a full blown Linux system:

root@debian:~# uname -a
Linux debian 3.4.29-20130407.1341-rm1+ #34 Sun Apr 7 19:56:56 YEKT 2013 armv7l GNU/Linux
root@debian:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
Processor       : ARMv7 Processor rev 2 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 1006.38
Features        : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp thumbee neon vfpv3 tls
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x3
CPU part        : 0xc08
CPU revision    : 2

Hardware        : sun4i
Revision        : 0000
Serial          : 0000000000000000

Compared to one of my Raspberry Pis, the MK802+ above looks more powerful:

root@igor:~# uname -a
Linux igor 3.2.27+ #250 PREEMPT Thu Oct 18 19:03:02 BST 2012 armv6l GNU/Linux
root@igor:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo 
Processor       : ARMv6-compatible processor rev 7 (v6l)
BogoMIPS        : 697.95
Features        : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp java tls 
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xb76
CPU revision    : 7

Hardware        : BCM2708
Revision        : 000e
Serial          : 000000001dxxxxxx

Anyway. I have a special use case for mine in mind, so I needed the apt stuff working. To cut a long story short:

root@debian:~# cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://http.debian.net/debian wheezy main
root@debian:~# sed -i -e 's%http://http.debian.net%http://ftp.de.debian.org%g' /etc/apt/sources.list
root@debian:~# apt-get update
Get:1 http://ftp.de.debian.org wheezy Release.gpg [836 B]
Get:2 http://ftp.de.debian.org wheezy Release [240 kB]
Get:3 http://ftp.de.debian.org wheezy/main armhf Packages [5,693 kB]
Get:4 http://ftp.de.debian.org wheezy/main Translation-en [3,854 kB]
Fetched 9,788 kB in 37s (258 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
root@debian:~# apt-get install vim
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libgpm2 vim-common vim-runtime
Suggested packages:
  gpm ctags vim-doc vim-scripts
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libgpm2 vim vim-common vim-runtime
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Need to get 697 kB/5,501 kB of archives.
After this operation, 24.5 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ wheezy/main vim armhf 2:7.3.547-7 [697 kB]
Fetched 697 kB in 1s (675 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package libgpm2:armhf.
(Reading database ... 17567 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libgpm2:armhf (from .../libgpm2_1.20.4-6_armhf.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package vim-common.
Unpacking vim-common (from .../vim-common_2%3a7.3.547-7_armhf.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package vim-runtime.
Unpacking vim-runtime (from .../vim-runtime_2%3a7.3.547-7_all.deb) ...
Adding 'diversion of /usr/share/vim/vim73/doc/help.txt to /usr/share/vim/vim73/doc/help.txt.vim-tiny by vim-runtime'
Adding 'diversion of /usr/share/vim/vim73/doc/tags to /usr/share/vim/vim73/doc/tags.vim-tiny by vim-runtime'
Selecting previously unselected package vim.
Unpacking vim (from .../vim_2%3a7.3.547-7_armhf.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up libgpm2:armhf (1.20.4-6) ...
Setting up vim-common (2:7.3.547-7) ...
Setting up vim-runtime (2:7.3.547-7) ...
Processing /usr/share/vim/addons/doc
Setting up vim (2:7.3.547-7) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vim.basic to provide /usr/bin/vim (vim) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vim.basic to provide /usr/bin/vimdiff (vimdiff) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vim.basic to provide /usr/bin/rvim (rvim) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vim.basic to provide /usr/bin/rview (rview) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vim.basic to provide /usr/bin/vi (vi) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vim.basic to provide /usr/bin/view (view) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vim.basic to provide /usr/bin/ex (ex) in auto mode

tl;dr: Just stay away from debian.net mirroring system, it’s not yet working …

2 Replies to “armhf && debian.net …”

  1. If you can still reproduce the problem, could you please check what mirror you are being redirected to for the failed request?
    Millions of requests are handled every week without a problem. I’d like to identify and find a solution to those that do cause problems.
    Thanks in advance.

    1. I *think* it was an UK mirror, but I’m now 300 km away from the box where I checked the link (and got no armhf binaries), so, sorry, no. On the first error nowadays I’ll do a “sed -i -e ‘s%http://http.debian.net%http://ftp.de.debian.org%g’ /etc/apt/sources.list” as this ‘just works’ for me for now. I do appreciate the idea behind http.debian.net — but as soon as it’s bugging me, I’ll just opt out.

Comments are closed.