Bug#402400: apt: packages regularly MD5Sum mismatch

[Richard Thrippleton <ret28@cam.ac.uk>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.6.45
Severity: normal


For a long time now, apt has been failing to install packages due to an md5sum
mistmatch. There is no particular pattern to the packages that fail, it seems
random. An example;

Failed to fetch http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/pool/main/p/pingus/pingus-data_0.6.0-8.4_all.deb  MD5Sum mismatch
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?

Immediately running an apt-get update and repeating the install attempt causes
the same error. I am reluctant to use fix-missing on principle; md5sum
correctness checking exists for good reasons.

-- Package-specific info:

-- apt-config dump --

APT "";
APT::Architecture "i386";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
Dir "/";
Dir::State "var/lib/apt/";
Dir::State::lists "lists/";
Dir::State::cdroms "cdroms.list";
Dir::State::userstatus "status.user";
Dir::State::status "/var/lib/dpkg/status";
Dir::Cache "var/cache/apt/";
Dir::Cache::archives "archives/";
Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin";
Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin";
Dir::Etc "etc/apt/";
Dir::Etc::sourcelist "sources.list";
Dir::Etc::sourceparts "sources.list.d";
Dir::Etc::vendorlist "vendors.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorparts "vendors.list.d";
Dir::Etc::main "apt.conf";
Dir::Etc::parts "apt.conf.d";
Dir::Etc::preferences "preferences";
Dir::Bin "";
Dir::Bin::methods "/usr/lib/apt/methods";
Dir::Bin::dpkg "/usr/bin/dpkg";
DPkg "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";

-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --


-- /etc/apt/sources.list --

#deb file:///cdrom/ sarge main

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib

deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17.7rt
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6                        2.3.6.ds1-6 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libgcc1                      1:4.1.1-16  GCC support library
ii  libstdc++6                   4.1.1-16    The GNU Standard C++ Library v3

Versions of packages apt recommends:
pn  debian-archive-keyring        <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information