Zypper timeout (minor issue)

wdc · January 21, 2026, 5:06pm

I noticed this error in the log

[13/Jan/2026 09:01:36] ERROR [system.pkg_mgmt:575] Consider applying updates to reduce backlog: Command '['zypper', '--xmlout', 'list-updates']' timed out after 15 seconds

Zypper takes 28 seconds on my machine. Can I update the timeout to 30 or 45 seconds? I grep’d zypper in the python but got lost.

rockstor:~ # date; zypper refresh; date
Wed Jan 21 10:44:32 CST 2026
Repository ‘Leap_15_6_Updates’ is up to date.
Repository ‘Update repository of openSUSE Backports’ is up to date.
Looking for gpg keys in repository Update repository with updates from SUSE Linux Enterprise 15.
gpgkey=http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.6/sle/repodata/repomd.xml.key
Retrieving repository ‘Update repository with updates from SUSE Linux Enterprise 15’ metadata …[done]
Building repository ‘Update repository with updates from SUSE Linux Enterprise 15’ cache …[done]
Repository ‘Leap_15_6’ is up to date.
Looking for gpg keys in repository aeneas_jaissle’s Home Project (15.6).
gpgkey=https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/aeneas_jaissle/15.6/repodata/repomd.xml.key
Retrieving repository ‘aeneas_jaissle’s Home Project (15.6)’ metadata …[done]
Building repository ‘aeneas_jaissle’s Home Project (15.6)’ cache …[done]
Repository ‘home_rockstor’ is up to date.
Repository ‘home_rockstor_branches_Base_System’ is up to date.
Repository ‘repo-openh264’ is up to date.
All repositories have been refreshed.
Wed Jan 21 10:45:00 CST 2026

Hooverdan · January 21, 2026, 5:24pm

Yes, we actually had an issue with a partial resolution attached to it. Take a look at:

github.com/rockstor/rockstor-core

Insufficient timeout on zypper list-updates call

opened 04:33PM - 25 Sep 25 UTC

closed 02:04PM - 01 Jan 26 UTC

Hooverdan96

On version 5.0.15-0 I frequently observe the below timeout error message in the …`rockstor.log`: ``` ERROR [system.pkg_mgmt:575] Consider applying updates to reduce backlog: Command '['zypper', '--xmlout', 'list-updates']' timed out after 15 seconds ``` The default timeout for `zypper` itself is 180 seconds. from `/etc/zypp/zypp.conf` ``` ## ## Maximum time in seconds that you allow a transfer operation to take. ## ## This is useful for preventing your batch jobs from hanging for hours due ## to slow networks or links going down. Limiting operations to less than a ## few minutes risk aborting perfectly normal operations. ## ## Valid values: [0,3600] ## Default value: 180 ## # download.transfer_timeout = 180 ``` This also seems to happen when there are not really that many updates to process. Roughly timing within an interactive session, zypper spends most of the time in refreshing and preparing the repositories vs pulling the actual updates, which is probably highly dependent on internet connection/package server performance. While this is not a critical error (should this really be a warning rather than an error) the suggestion is to increase the timeout. Now, should it be 180 seconds, I don't know. If it's meant to highlight a possible bottleneck in package management (especially due to a large backlog of unapplied updates), maybe moving it up to half the default timeout (i.e. 90 seconds) might be a better choice. Open to suggestions or other opinions, especially if I misunderstood the intent behind the 15 second timeout.

that will give you the point to change if you don’t want to wait for the next stable test release.

Hooverdan · January 21, 2026, 5:28pm

To be more concise, you can change the value here:

github.com/rockstor/rockstor-core

src/rockstor/system/pkg_mgmt.py

5fbf1dd10


      
                      atfo.write("{} addlock rockstor\n".format(ZYPPER))
                      atfo.write(pkg_update_all)
                      atfo.write("{} removelock rockstor\n".format(ZYPPER))
                  atfo.write("/bin/rm -f {}\n".format(npath))
              # out, err, rc = run_command([AT, '-f', npath, 'now + 1 minutes'])
              out, err, rc = run_command([AT, "-f", npath, "now"])
              time.sleep(120)
              return out, err, rc
          
          
          def pkg_updates_info(max_wait: int = 15) -> typing.List[dict[str:str]]:
              """
              Fetch info on installable updates across all repos via zypper xml output call.
              Resolves as per 'zypper up' excluding packages with dependency problems.
              Adding `--all` includes packages with dependency problems.
              For "No updates found." [] is returned.
              Drop-in replacement for legacy pkg_update_check(), and its dependency of:
              pkg_changelog() (yum based), and its unique dependency of:
              pkg_infos()
              We don't retrieve non 'rockstor' package changelogs.
              Note: This procedure has no re-try capability as it is run, somewhat excessive,

from 15 to 40 which would reflect the value the next release will go with. And then restart Rockstor.

wdc · January 21, 2026, 5:59pm

I’ll change it - mostly because I am too lazy to manually run zypper refresh every week or two.

Thank you.