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When I try to connect to any HTTPS server with git, it gives the following error:

error: gnutls_handshake() failed: A TLS packet with unexpected length was received. while accessing ...
fatal: HTTP request failed

I think that maybe some packages that are related to gnutls_handshake have been broken. So, I want to reinstall those.

Which packages can be related to these errors? Or how do I fix this kind of error?

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  • 2
    This other question might help. Sep 12, 2012 at 12:53
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    In my case it was a simple authentication server, to which we have to login before using the internet, which was coming in the way. I had to login there first, and then the error vanished. Jul 24, 2016 at 15:00

3 Answers 3

99

Got reason of the problem, it was gnutls package. It's working weird behind a proxy. But openssl is working fine even in weak network. So workaround is that we should compile git with openssl. To do this, run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot dpkg-dev
sudo apt-get build-dep git
mkdir ~/git-openssl
cd ~/git-openssl
apt-get source git
dpkg-source -x git_1.7.9.5-1.dsc
cd git-1.7.9.5

(Remember to replace 1.7.9.5 with the actual version of git in your system.)

Then, edit debian/control file (run the command: gksu gedit debian/control) and replace all instances of libcurl4-gnutls-dev with libcurl4-openssl-dev.

Then build the package (if it's failing on test, you can remove the line TEST=test from the file debian/rules):

sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev
sudo dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b

Install new package:

i386: sudo dpkg -i ../git_1.7.9.5-1_i386.deb

x86_64: sudo dpkg -i ../git_1.7.9.5-1_amd64.deb


Inspired from here: https://github.com/xmendez/wfuzz/wiki/PyCurlSSLBug

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    Had this same issue after upgrading to Ubuntu 14.04. This solution worked great!
    – vertti
    Apr 23, 2014 at 10:34
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    Worked with Linux Mint 16, you have to go to "Software Sources" and enable sources on official repositories. You must also uninstall libcurl4-gnutls-dev and replace by libcurl4-openssl-dev prior to compiling. Jun 12, 2014 at 9:05
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    Might help the wondering minds. If you're using 'repo' to download a repository (say android source code) and come across the gnutls-handshake problem, @Nyambaa's answer works. Repo is a script which depends on Git, so you should be good. Worked like magic on my Ubuntu 14.04 lts
    – KhoPhi
    Nov 16, 2014 at 3:11
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    Shellscript for people's (mainly my own) sanity. github.com/SonOfLysander/git-openssl-shellscript/blob/master/…
    – Niko
    Aug 10, 2015 at 23:38
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    the tests in the build step take a really long time. if you trust the git maintainers, I highly suggest following the instructions above to skip them by removing the TEST=test line from debian/rules. Sep 30, 2015 at 16:01
9

For me, it ended up being that SSL certificate was self-signed. Give this a try

git config --global http.sslVerify false

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    That's a terrible idea; it disables all authentication for every TLS (SSL) connection made by git, removing your protection from man-in-the-middle attacks.
    – cjs
    Aug 7, 2018 at 9:36
1

This is mentioned in one of the comments to another answer but I feel it needs to be more visible https://askubuntu.com/users/177551/paul-nelson-baker has written a shell script which, for me, resolved this issue.

The script is available in his repository https://github.com/paul-nelson-baker/git-openssl-shellscript and re-compiles git with openssl instead of gnutls. Read the README for the whole story but it worked for me so thank you Paul.

3
  • the link is dead and thus this answer is not useful at all
    – eis
    Oct 18, 2021 at 21:11
  • @eis For me each of the three links in the answer are working as I type. Perhaps you could explain which link you're referring to when you "the link" ? Thanks.
    – glaucon
    Oct 19, 2021 at 1:09
  • the shellscript link, which this answer is about. Seems to work for me now as well, didn't work yesterday for some reason. However, this answer is a link-only answer regardless, so it would be good to have some contents in the answer for the case that link would stop working.
    – eis
    Oct 19, 2021 at 19:47

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