Zypper repository error message

wdc · February 12, 2023, 4:34pm

Is this expected on the soon-to-be-deprecated release 4.1.0 on Leap 15.3?

rockstor:~ # zypper refresh
Repository 'Leap_15_3' is up to date.
Repository 'Leap_15_3_Updates' is up to date.
Repository 'Rockstor-Stable' is up to date.
Repository 'home_rockstor' is up to date.
Repository 'home_rockstor_branches_Base_System' is up to date.
Retrieving repository 'Update repository of openSUSE Backports' metadata ---------------------------------------------------------[\]Retrieving repository 'Update repository of openSUSE Backports' metadata .....................................................[error]
**Repository 'Update repository of openSUSE Backports' is invalid.**

** [repo-backports-update|http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.3/backports/] Valid metadata not found at specified URL**
** History:**
** - File ‘./repodata/a0751b3a37e3da2bcfdbc887745b117b1bdb1ab88b272483ce4a5ff87659f8fa-deltainfo.xml.gz’ not found on medium ‘http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.3/backports/’**
** - Can’t provide ./repodata/a0751b3a37e3da2bcfdbc887745b117b1bdb1ab88b272483ce4a5ff87659f8fa-deltainfo.xml.gz**

** Please check if the URIs defined for this repository are pointing to a valid repository.**
** Skipping repository ‘Update repository of openSUSE Backports’ because of the above error.**
Repository ‘Update repository with updates from SUSE Linux Enterprise 15’ is up to date.
Some of the repositories have not been refreshed because of an error.
rockstor:~ #

phillxnet · February 12, 2023, 6:15pm

@wdc Hello again.
Re the error mesage, the base OS is now actually classed as End Of Life (EOL) but I’ve seen this message happen just when they are mid repository changes. Try doing a:

zypper refresh

as the root user. This will update (refresh) the metadata. This can sort such messages and if not then the update will just ignore that repository anyway. All other valid repositories will still used for any updates.

I did see this message myself more recently but after a while it went away as I tried a few times. So I assumed on that occasion it was just another upstream repo issue that then to come and go as they perform updates/maintenance on them

Our new base OS version, which is what our downloadable installers now use, is “Built on openSUSE” Leap 15.4.

Hope that helps.

wdc · February 12, 2023, 8:21pm

Thanks, Philip.
zypper refresh generated the error and piqued my curiosity. My other machine, running the latest & greatest, continues to run normally.

Edit: this machine continues to run normally as well (I didn’t mean to imply otherwise).

phillxnet · February 13, 2023, 4:52pm

@wdc
Re:

Yes, it can simply be that the repository itself is in need of maintenance or in an in-between state. I.e. if you execute this same refresh again later you may find it will work as expected.
I.e. fro me just now on a remaining 15.3 development system I get the following:

rleap15-3:~ # zypper refresh
Repository 'Buildbot-Testing' is up to date.                                                                                                              
Repository 'Leap_15_3' is up to date.                                                                                                                     
Repository 'Leap_15_3_Updates' is up to date.                                                                                                             
Repository 'Local-Repository' is up to date.                                                                                                              
Repository 'home_rockstor' is up to date.                                                                                                                 
Repository 'home_rockstor_branches_Base_System' is up to date.                                                                                            
Retrieving repository 'Update repository of openSUSE Backports' metadata .....................................................................................[done]
Building repository 'Update repository of openSUSE Backports' cache ..........................................................................................[done]
Repository 'Update repository with updates from SUSE Linux Enterprise 15' is up to date.                                                                            
All repositories have been refreshed.

with the associated url for the backports repo thus:

rleap15-3:~ # zypper lr -U | grep backports
 8 | repo-backports-update              | Update repository of openSUSE Backports                                                     | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.3/backports/
 7 | repo-backports-debug-update        | Update repository with updates for openSUSE Leap debuginfo packages from openSUSE Backports | No      | ----      | ----    | http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.3/backports_debug/

So we have the exact same url here as reported by your instance yet it refreshes as expected.

It does puzzle me how these repos seem to often return such errors. It may be their automated systems routinely wipe and re-create metadata. Yet the time honoured repo update tools traditionally create metadata in a temporary directoy before wiping the existing medadata and replacing it with the pre-generated variant. But these are sometimes pretty large repos and very heavily used so there is very likely concerns here that I’m just not aware of.

Hope that helps, but yes, we will have to keep an eye on these EOL os repos to look out for their eventual demise.