16.04 - apt-get update 0% [Waiting for headers]

Question

I'm going nuts here. Perhaps I'm just an idiot. I have a remote server colocated in a data center. I initially built the server on a local network and then dispatched it to the facility. I currently have remote access via SSH. This server has been running for over 6 months without any problems that I know of. I feel that I have exhausted my results on Google and SE so now I turn to you for help.

Here is some troubleshooting information I have gathered:

1. Last few lines of strace. I can provide more if needed:

   0% [Waiting for headers]) = 25aders]", 25
   select(6, [5], [], NULL, {0, 500000})   = 0 (Timeout)
   rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [WINCH], [], 8) = 0
   rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], NULL, 8) = 0
   0% [Waiting for headers]) = 25aders]", 25
   select(6, [5], [], NULL, {0, 500000})   = 0 (Timeout)
   rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [WINCH], [], 8) = 0
   rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], NULL, 8) = 0
   0% [Waiting for headers]) = 25aders]", 25
   select(6, [5], [], NULL, {0, 500000})   = 0 (Timeout)
   rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [WINCH], [], 8) = 0
   rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [], NULL, 8) = 0
   0% [Waiting for headers]) = 25aders]", 25
   

2. A thread suggested that MTU or network may be the problem:

   root@ubuntu:~# ping -M do -s 1472 us.archive.ubuntu.com
   PING us.archive.ubuntu.com (91.189.91.26) 1472(1500) bytes of data.
   1480 bytes from hanger.canonical.com (91.189.91.26): icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=63.2 ms
   1480 bytes from hanger.canonical.com (91.189.91.26): icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=62.1 ms
   1480 bytes from hanger.canonical.com (91.189.91.26): icmp_seq=3 ttl=55 time=61.8 ms
   1480 bytes from hanger.canonical.com (91.189.91.26): icmp_seq=4 ttl=55 time=59.5 ms
   ^C
   --- us.archive.ubuntu.com ping statistics ---
   4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3004ms
   rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 59.590/61.701/63.218/1.318 ms
   

3. Perhaps its my sources.list? Well I thought that too... :

   ###### Ubuntu Main Repos
   deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial main restricted universe multiverse
   deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial main
   
   ###### Ubuntu Update Repos
   deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-security main restricted universe multiverse
   deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-updates main restricted universe multiverse
   deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-proposed main restricted universe multiverse
   deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ xenial-backports main restricted universe multiverse
   

4. IPv6 has been disabled on this server as per a suggestion.

5. I have tried rebooting the server multiple times.

6. apt-get clean does not solve the problem.

7. Tried switching to ca.archive.ubuntu.com, no luck.

8. I have requested a different public IP address from a different subnet to assign to the server. No luck.

9. Other Ubuntu servers in this data center update without a problem.

So at this point the only solution I can come up with is to reinstall the operating system. This is a production web server with a small mysql database. Everything is backed up so it wouldn't be a problem to rebuild it. Just time consuming and quite disappointing.

Answer 1

This may be old but i had a same issue and fixed it like this:

$ sudo apt-get clean
$ cd /var/lib/apt
$ sudo mv lists lists.old
$ sudo mkdir -p lists/partial
$ sudo apt-get clean
$ sudo apt-get update