[tex-live] TLDownload error in Debian/Ubuntu repository dependent?

[Axel E. Retif]

On  thread ``TeXLive Perl + latexmk (windows)'', Axel E. Retif wrote:

> I had a similar issue updating from the command line under Ubuntu:
> 
>> tlmgr update --self --all
>> tlmgr: package repository http://tezcatl.fciencias.unam.mx/tex-archive/systems/texlive/tlnet
>> [1/8, ??:??/??:??] update: FAQ-en [4943k] (17742 -> 17760) ... TLDownload::get_file: response error:
>>  404 File 'FAQ-en.tar.xz' not found
>> permanent server connection set up, but downloading did not succeed!Retrying with wget.
>> TLDownload::get_file: response error:
>>  404 File 'FAQ-en.doc.tar.xz' not found
>> permanent server connection set up, but downloading did not succeed!Retrying with wget.
>> done
> 
> and so on for every package to update. But the weird thing is that this just happened under Ubuntu ---with Fedora and Mac OS everything went smoothly, *using the same repository*.
> 
> This happened for a couple of weeks more or less, and now Ubuntu is back to normal, but I don't know what changed.

And Philipp Stephani replied:

> I have exactly the same issue, the only difference being that the error message is still appearing under Ubuntu.

Now --- http://tezcatl.fciencias.unam.mx/tex-archive/systems/texlive/tlnet wasn't updated for several days, so tlmgr picked other repositories; today it got updated..., and the problems got back. It starts with

> TLDownload::get_file: response error:
>   404 File 'texlive.tlpdb.xz' not found

I first updated Ubuntu... and it took about an hour to update 16 packages. Then I tried with Fedora, same mirror (tezcatl.fciencias.unam.mx) and everything was done in one minute and ten seconds!

Then I did a dry-run on Debian ---same thing as on Ubuntu:

> tlmgr update --persistent-downloads --self --all --dry-run
> tlmgr: package repository http://tezcatl.fciencias.unam.mx/tex-archive/systems/texlive/tlnet
> TLDownload::get_file: response error:
>   404 File 'texlive.tlpdb.xz' not found


So I chose another repository:

> tlmgr --repository http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/CTAN/systems/texlive/tlnet update --self --all


It took about 6 minutes, but completed without errors. Lastly, I updated the Mac with the default repository (tezcatl.fciencias.unam.mx), and it completed in one minute six seconds!

So something is happening with Debian/Ubuntu in *some repositories*.

Best,

Axel