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Thread: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

  1. #21

    Re: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

    It is interesting that other have found similar behaviour. I am assuming that you are running 12.10, what motherboard ar you using?

    I have a Gigabyte P75-D3

    Here is the bug I created for this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...x/+bug/1107150


    Quote Originally Posted by Buggin View Post
    I also have this same problem regarding "Reading package lists:" all of the sudden taking a very long time. I also have a SSD but it has nothing to do with the SSD performance. It boots in seconds, sometimes I don't even see the boot screen. It's a dual boot and Win 7 runs through it's boot screen once every time. Exactly once, no longer no shorter (unless it has to do updates). So the SSD is fine. I only have slowness with software center and apt-get update when it comes time to read the package lists. It's 11.9 Mb of data, it can't take very long to read off of anything. Several minutes is crazy. My 11 year old machine did the same thing, like he said, in seconds instead of minutes. It was not like this when I installed. This is new. I do not get any errors. I've tried changing servers. I've removed all but the standard Ubuntu repos. I've cleaned and cleared and deleted lists, ran dpkg commands I found in other posts. I'd say I've done a couple hours worth of different things trying to fix it and nothing has made a bit of difference to apt-get update. I can actually get the Software Center to open now without having to stare at a grey screen for 10 minutes. I have no clue what actually fixed that because it was not my focus. I only noticed it when I opened software center and it actually worked. Before that, when run from command line, it would hang up at "softwarecenter.db.database - INFO - open() database: path=None use_axi=True use_agent=True". I don't know how I fixed one's ability to read the database and not the other's. I have run every command I can find to clear out old caches. As far as I can tell apt-get update package lists are contained in /var/lib/apt/lists only and don't come from anywhere else. I've deleted them and deleted them over and over again followed by different commands. No broken dependencies, no errors of any kind. Just extremely slow performing a relatively simple task.
    Thoughts?

  2. #22
    Join Date
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    68

    Re: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

    Umm... not sure what motherboard really. It is a Dell Optiplex 7010. So I guess it's a V8WGR according to my googlefoo. I'm running a new install of 12.10. I installed it probably around 12.10 and did not have the problem. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure when exactly it started. I do recall now that Software Center took forever to open a while back but I ignored it. I haven't really needed to install many packages since I installed. I've been using Ubuntu for a long time so I pretty much already knew what I needed. But occasionally I do still hit the CLI every so often and recently I noticed it, and I got an update for software center so I thought maybe it was a bug and it's fixed, but it didn't go away. Then I found this.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
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    68

    Re: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

    Just checked and my motherboard has a intel Q77 Express chipset.

    I didn't have the install issues you did but then I think I probably installed sooner and wasn't having any issues at all then.

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
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    68

    Re: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

    jhite@optiplex:~$ time sudo apt-get update
    [sudo] password for jhite:
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal InRelease
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates InRelease
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports InRelease
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security InRelease
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal Release.gpg
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates Release.gpg
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports Release.gpg
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security Release.gpg
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal Release
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates Release
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports Release
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security Release
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/main i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/restricted i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/universe i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/multiverse i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/main Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/multiverse Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/restricted Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/universe Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/main i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/restricted i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/universe i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/multiverse i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/main Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/multiverse Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/restricted Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/universe Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/main i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/restricted i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/universe i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/multiverse i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/main Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/multiverse Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/restricted Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/universe Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/main i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/restricted i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/universe i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/multiverse i386 Packages
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/main Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/multiverse Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/restricted Translation-en
    Hit http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/universe Translation-en
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/main Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/multiverse Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/restricted Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal/universe Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/main Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-updates/universe Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/main Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/multiverse Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/restricted Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-backports/universe Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/main Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/multiverse Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/restricted Translation-en_US
    Ign http://mirror.umd.edu quantal-security/universe Translation-en_US
    Reading package lists... Done

    real 6m16.221s
    user 0m3.856s
    sys 0m1.284s

    It took over 6 minutes to run apt-get update. Over 99% of that time was spent reading package lists.

  5. #25
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    Sep 2006
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    68

    Re: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

    This is my formal application for the annual "Derp!" awards.
    My problem is solved. I have /tmp mounted in ram. A while back I was messing with something and commented that out in fstab. I forgot I had done that. I noticed when Firefox started getting VERY slow after quite a bit of uptime and use. Then I remembered I had Firefox set to use /tmp and thought maybe I've got RAM going bad. Then I looked and saw that it was commented out so I removed the comment and rebooted and viola. EVERYTHING was fixed. apt-get update, firefox, software center. All working fine now. Probably some other programs that will be screaming along now too.
    So I don't know how many entries we have for the "Derp!" awards this year but throw my name in the hat cause I'm a dummy.

    EDIT: Even still I don't understand why commenting out the tmpfs /tmp made a difference. The majority of people don't mount /tmp in RAM anyway. It's certainly not the default setting. So I don't understand why it made a difference if it was a folder under / on the SSD instead of in RAM. Well, I understand there would be a difference, but not a 6 minute difference. My /home is a HDD if that makes a difference. Which it shouldn't.
    Last edited by Buggin; February 15th, 2013 at 06:17 PM. Reason: after thoughts

  6. #26
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    Kubuntu

    Re: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

    Thanks for update.

    I have seen a lot of suggestions of mounting /tmp and other temp files in RAM with an SSD. I only have 4GB have have never done that as I do not want RAM to be used for temp files.
    I have seen temp get used a lot when creating a DVD for example and that would be 4GB. So then I think it would use swap and be slow again?
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  7. #27
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    Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr

    Re: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

    I am doing installations of ubuntu now only from USB, for me it is much faster, and I do not have the risk of damage CD. Maybe it can be something with the cd.
    Good luck

  8. #28
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    Re: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

    Quote Originally Posted by oldfred View Post
    Thanks for update.

    I have seen a lot of suggestions of mounting /tmp and other temp files in RAM with an SSD. I only have 4GB have have never done that as I do not want RAM to be used for temp files.
    I have seen temp get used a lot when creating a DVD for example and that would be 4GB. So then I think it would use swap and be slow again?
    Well I have enough RAM to cover a DVD... double layer even. But yes, if you filled your RAM then it would have to go to swap and it would be slower. I've got 14GB and haven't used more than half of it at a time yet and if I ever did I'd probably order more. Actually, I've been trying to find more things to put in RAM. I rarely reboot (uptime *****) so the more stuff I can keep in RAM the better. Obviously, nothing volitile should go in there. Anything you wouldn't blindly delete without a second thought should not be there.

  9. #29
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    Re: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

    You will never use swap.

    Ubuntu leaves recent activity in RAM as you may go back and reuse it. And only when all the RAM is full will it release the RAM it is caching that is not used.

    So you may see RAM filling up, but only active use matters. And with the amount of RAM you have, you may need to load every program and edit videos to fill it.

    To see use:
    free -m
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  10. #30
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    Sep 2006
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    Re: New Install - Very slow at "Reading package lists..." in apt-get

    Actually I do use this machine for editing videos, and on the fly transcoding as a DLNA server, and for daily use, all at the same time sometimes. Maybe if I burned a DVD at the same time I could use it all. The one time I did see it get to half useage 3.5 GB was locked up for a virtualbox VM.
    As you can see, the machine is no slouch, which is why I got so worried when it took over 6 minutes to read 12Mb worth of files. Still makes no sense to me really. Most people don't have /tmp mounted in RAM so why when I comment out the mount did it slow down so much performing that task. It's got me quite curious.I guess once /tmp goes RAM it never wants to go back.

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