I decided to let debian automatically find a mirror for me by using netselect-apt: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/ap...ml#s-netselect

When it creates a sources.list file it doesn't have any sources in it. The sources.list file created by netselect-apt:

# the main Debian packages. Uncomment the deb-src line if you
# want 'apt-get source' to work with most packages.
deb testing main contrib non-free
# deb-src testing main contrib non-free

# the non-US Debian packages. Uncomment the deb-src line if you
# want 'apt-get source' to work with non-US packages.
deb testing/non-US main contrib non-free
# deb-src testing/non-US main contrib non-free


Here is the output when I run the netselect-apt script:

Retrieving the list of mirrors from www.debian.org...

--07:14:36-- http://www.debian.org/mirror/mirrors_full
=> `mirrors_full'
Resolving www.debian.org... done.
Connecting to www.debian.org[192.25.206.10]:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 165,206 [text/html]

100%[====================================>] 165,206 186.30K/s ETA 00:00

07:14:42 (186.30 KB/s) - `mirrors_full' saved [165206/165206]

Choosing a main Debian mirror using netselect.
netselect: unknown host debian.kida.net
netselect: unknown host debian.serveftp.net
netselect: unknown host mirror.devolus.org
netselect: unknown host debian.mps.krakow.pl
netselect: unknown host debian.netnitco.net
netselect: unknown host debian.psu.ru
Running netselect to choose 1 out of 286 addresses.

The fastest server seems to be:


Choosing a non-US Debian mirror using netselect.
netselect: unknown host debian.serveftp.net
netselect: unknown host mirror.devolus.org
netselect: unknown host debian.mps.krakow.pl
netselect: unknown host debian.psu.ru
Running netselect to choose 1 out of 225 addresses.

The fastest non-US server seems to be:


Writing the sources.list in the current directory.
Done.


What is going wrong?

If I run "host debian.kida.net" I get "Host debian.kida.net not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)", so netselect's error messages seem to just reflect this.

How does the sources.list produced by netselect look like? Did it find any valid hosts? If it did, you can use those with apt-get and ignore the error messages about hosts that no longer exists (or are badly configured).

I already answered that. It's at the top of my post.

No, this is the problem.

Fwiw I had the same results running netselect-apt testing after changing my sources.list file from stable to testing and then doing a apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade. I read the documentation in the Apt How-To but as usual, there are details which are left out, or the version of netselect we are using has a bug. Perhaps someone who really understands this will view the post and respond.

No one knows what is wrong? Grr... Does this work for anyone?

Please explain this to me. I am subscribed to this thread, and I received the following email notification:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hello Chinaman,

teacup has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - netselect
doesn't work? - in the Debian forum of LinuxQuestions.org.

--
No one knows what is wrong? I did some searching and this isn't a new problem [...
--

To view the rest of the thread visit:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...5&goto=newpost

There may be other replies also, but you will not receive any more notifications
until you visit the board again.

Yours,
LinuxQuestions.org

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



However, when I clicked the link to visit the board, I get this:


Teacup, did you edit your thread in less than one minute of posting, so that the thread information is now different from what is in the email notification? Or is there some other type of problem going on here. Whatever is the case, I don't see in the thread what I see in the email notice.

Fast editing. I now think that netselect is broken instead of netselect-apt. Here is what happened when I ran netselect exactly like it is in the howto:

pcurry@lisacomp:~$ netselect ftp.debian.org http.us.debian.org ftp.at.debian.org download.unesp.br ftp.debian.org.br
pcurry@lisacomp:~$

Nothing... Hmmm. I tried picking random hosts off of the list at http://www.debian.org/mirror/mirrors_full#US and here is what I got from that:

pcurry@lisacomp:~$ netselect ftp.us.debian.org distro.ibiblio.org ftp.cerias.purdue.edu ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu
pcurry@lisacomp:~$

# The servers I am currently using!
pcurry@lisacomp:~$ netselect http.us.debian.org non-us.debian.org security.debian.org
pcurry@lisacomp:~$

Netselect is supposed to give me the fastest server out of the bunch. It gives nothing. It doesn't even have a man/info page. ARGH!

More confusion. I have a working internet connection on this computer.

pcurry@lisacomp:~$ netselect -vv http.us.debian.org non-us.debian.org security.debian.org
Running netselect to choose 1 out of 8 addresses.

non-us.debian.org 9999 ms 30 hops 0% ok
security.debian.org 9999 ms 30 hops 0% ok
216.37.55.114 9999 ms 30 hops 0% ok
35.9.37.225 9999 ms 30 hops 0% ok
128.101.80.131 9999 ms 30 hops 0% ok
192.25.206.16 9999 ms 30 hops 0% ok
204.152.189.120 9999 ms 30 hops 0% ok
208.185.25.38 9999 ms 30 hops 0% ok


???

Teacup,

I'll add to the output of the netselect package. I've got a fresh install of Debian Woody dist-upgraded to Sarge, and here's the output from the exact commands per the document at Debian.org. Maybe we need to figure out how to file a bug report. I tried once when I was trying DeadRat 9.0 but that was more esoteric than the manuals!

I ran it again with my mirrors, an incorrect one, and another correct one that I don't use:

paul:/home/mingdao# netselect debian.linux.org.tw non-US.debian.org ftp.at.org debian.goldweb.com.au
netselect: unknown host ftp.at.org
paul:/home/mingdao#

It still returned nothing. Then I did this again:

paul:/home/mingdao# netselect-apt testing
Retrieving the list of mirrors from www.debian.org...

--14:20:25-- http://www.debian.org/mirror/mirrors_full
=> `mirrors_full'
Resolving www.debian.org... done.
Connecting to www.debian.org[192.25.206.10]:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 165,206 [text/html]

25% [============================> ] 42,725 50.39K/s ETA 00:02

14:20:30 (50.39 KB/s) - Read error at byte 42725/165206 (Connection reset by peer). Retrying.

--14:20:31-- http://www.debian.org/mirror/mirrors_full
(try: 2) => `mirrors_full'
Connecting to www.debian.org[192.25.206.10]:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 206 Partial Content
Length: 165,206 (122,481 to go) [text/html]

100%[==================================================================================================== ===============>] 165,206 62.30K/s ETA 00:00

14:20:34 (62.30 KB/s) - `mirrors_full' saved [165206/165206]

Choosing a main Debian mirror using netselect.
netselect: unknown host debian.kida.net
netselect: unknown host mirror.devolus.org
netselect: unknown host debian.mps.krakow.pl
netselect: unknown host debian.psu.ru
netselect: unknown host debian.netnitco.net
Running netselect to choose 1 out of 285 addresses.

The fastest server seems to be:


Choosing a non-US Debian mirror using netselect.
netselect: unknown host mirror.devolus.org
netselect: unknown host debian.mps.krakow.pl
netselect: unknown host debian.psu.ru
Running netselect to choose 1 out of 224 addresses.

The fastest non-US server seems to be:


Writing the sources.list in the current directory.
Done.
paul:/home/mingdao#

And the sources.list is the same as in your first post.

You folks may want to check out apt-spy insead of netselect. I have had better luck with it!

Yes... for the record. apt-spy works and netselect is broken. Gotta love the out of date/broken documentation.

I found too much stuff broken in Debian, such as KDE, so I moved to Slackware!