Bug#1109667: fwupd: Unable to refresh firmware database: host unreachable
Package: fwupd
Version: 2.0.12-1
Severity: important
Dear Maintainer,
After installing fwupd on Debian 13 both the "fwupdmgr refresh" command
and the hourly timer result in a "host unreachable" error message.
The system does not appear to have any general networking issues and I
was able to request the metadata URI from the configuration using other
tools.
$ sudo apt install fwupd
$ sudo fwupdmgr refresh
Failed to download metadata for lvfs: network is unreachable: Host unreachable
$ HEAD https://cdn.fwupd.org/downloads/firmware.xml.zst
200 OK
Cache-Control: public, max-age=14400
Connection: close
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2025 13:01:39 GMT
Via: 1.1 varnish
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Age: 4125
Server: gunicorn
Content-Length: 1627469
Content-Type: application/zstd
Client-Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2025 13:01:39 GMT
Client-Peer: 151.101.62.49:443
Client-Response-Num: 1
Client-SSL-Cert-Issuer: /C=BE/O=GlobalSign nv-sa/CN=GlobalSign Atlas R3 DV TLS CA 2025 Q1
Client-SSL-Cert-Subject: /CN=cdn.fwupd.org
Client-SSL-Cipher: ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305
Client-SSL-Socket-Class: IO::Socket::SSL
Client-SSL-Version: TLSv1_2
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=firmware.xml.zst
X-Cache: HIT
X-Cache-Hits: 0
X-Served-By: cache-lcy-egml8630096-LCY
There is nothing out of the ordinary in the logs:
2025-07-19T12:49:25.033904+00:00 pisang dbus-daemon[752]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.fwupd' unit='fwupd.service' requested by ':1.1537' (uid=0 pid=1475723 comm="fwupdmgr refresh")
2025-07-19T12:49:25.041785+00:00 pisang systemd[1]: Starting modprobe@sd_mod.service - Load Kernel Module sd_mod...
2025-07-19T12:49:25.067776+00:00 pisang systemd[1]: modprobe@sd_mod.service: Deactivated successfully.
2025-07-19T12:49:25.068281+00:00 pisang systemd[1]: Finished modprobe@sd_mod.service - Load Kernel Module sd_mod.
2025-07-19T12:49:25.080713+00:00 pisang systemd[1]: Starting fwupd.service - Firmware update daemon...
2025-07-19T12:49:25.278265+00:00 pisang fwupd[1475735]: 12:49:25.278 FuPluginUefiCapsule skipping device that failed coldplug: ESRT GUID '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' was not valid
2025-07-19T12:49:25.347381+00:00 pisang fwupd[1475735]: 12:49:25.347 FuEngine failed to add device /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-8/1-8.3/1-8.3:1.0/host8/target8:0:0/8:0:0:0/block/sr0: failed to subclass open: failed to open /dev/sr0: Operation not permitted
2025-07-19T12:49:25.349405+00:00 pisang fwupd[1475735]: 12:49:25.349 FuEngine failed to add device /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-8/1-8.3/1-8.3:1.0/host8/target8:0:0/8:0:0:0/block/sr0: failed to subclass open: failed to open /dev/sr0: Operation not permitted
2025-07-19T12:49:25.353111+00:00 pisang fwupd[1475735]: 12:49:25.353 FuEngine failed to add device /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-8/1-8.3/1-8.3:1.0/host8/target8:0:0/8:0:0:0/block/sr0: failed to subclass open: failed to open /dev/sr0: Operation not permitted
2025-07-19T12:49:25.492070+00:00 pisang fwupd[1475735]: 12:49:25.490 FuMain fwupd 2.0.8 ready for requests (locale en_GB.UTF-8)
2025-07-19T12:49:25.495938+00:00 pisang dbus-daemon[752]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.fwupd'
2025-07-19T12:49:25.495977+00:00 pisang systemd[1]: Started fwupd.service - Firmware update daemon.
2025-07-19T12:49:26.225653+00:00 pisang polkitd[1471658]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:1475723:65858054 (system bus name :1.1536, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/AuthenticationAgent, locale en_GB.UTF-8) (disconnected from bus)
I reported this problem upstream and they said:
We're using the GLib g_network_monitor_can_reach() API to check if
we can get to the URL. Are you configuring your system in an unusual
way, e.g. with a VPN, SOCKS proxy or something like that?
This is a server system without a desktop environment. The networking is
ifupdown configured statically. It does get its default route from the
bird BGP daemon. Upstream then could only suggest a Debian bug be
opened.
At reportbug's suggestion I installed fwupd from experimental but
experience the same issue.
I see from the template below that the contents of /etc/fwupd/fwupd.conf
were not added so I will add them here. I have not altered the config
file from what the apckage installed.
$ sudo cat /etc/fwupd/fwupd.conf
[fwupd]
# use `man 5 fwupd.conf` for documentation
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 13.0
APT prefers testing-security
APT policy: (500, 'testing-security'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.12.35+deb13-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
Versions of packages fwupd depends on:
ii libarchive13t64 3.7.4-3
ii libblkid1 2.41-5
ii libc6 2.41-9
ii libcbor0.10 0.10.2-2
ii libcurl3t64-gnutls 8.14.1-2
ii libdrm-amdgpu1 2.4.124-2
ii libdrm2 2.4.124-2
ii libflashrom1 1.4.0-3
ii libfwupd3 2.0.12-1
ii libglib2.0-0t64 2.84.3-1
ii libgnutls30t64 3.8.9-3
ii libjcat1 0.2.3-1
ii libjson-glib-1.0-0 1.10.6+ds-2
ii liblzma5 5.8.1-1
ii libmbim-glib4 1.32.0-1
ii libmbim-proxy 1.32.0-1
ii libmm-glib0 1.24.0-1
ii libpolkit-gobject-1-0 126-2
ii libprotobuf-c1 1.5.1-1
ii libqmi-glib5 1.36.0-1
ii libqmi-proxy 1.36.0-1
ii libsqlite3-0 3.46.1-6
ii libsystemd0 257.7-1
ii libtss2-esys-3.0.2-0t64 4.1.3-1.2
ii libusb-1.0-0 2:1.0.28-1
ii libxmlb2 0.3.22-1
ii shared-mime-info 2.4-5+b2
ii systemd [systemd-sysusers] 257.7-1
ii zlib1g 1:1.3.dfsg+really1.3.1-1+b1
Versions of packages fwupd recommends:
pn bolt <none>
ii dbus [default-dbus-system-bus] 1.16.2-2
ii fwupd-amd64-signed [fwupd-signed] 1:1.7+1
ii jq 1.7.1-6+deb13u1
ii python3 3.13.5-1
ii udisks2 2.10.1-12.1
Versions of packages fwupd suggests:
pn gir1.2-fwupd-2.0 <none>
-- Configuration Files:
/etc/fwupd/fwupd.conf [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/etc/fwupd/fwupd.conf'
-- no debconf information
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