yum/dnf error: Failed to download metadata for repo [closed]

16
votes

On my CentOS 8 server, many dnf and yum commands fail with this error:

Failed to download metadata for repo

This seems to apply only to repositories involving https connections, e.g.:

/etc/yum.repos.d $ cat epel-modular.repo
[epel-modular]
name=Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular $releasever - $basearch/pub/epel/$releasever/Modular/$basearch
metalink=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=epel-modular-$releasever&arch=$basearch&infra=$infra&content=$contentdir
...

I have used wget to test connectivity to these sites and it is successful, e.g. wget https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org succeeds.

However, various dnf or yum commands fail:

$ dnf provides /bin/ls
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64     0.0  B/s |   0  B     00:00
Failed to download metadata for repo 'epel-modular'
Error: Failed to download metadata for repo 'epel-modular'

# dnf update --refresh
CentOS-8 - AppStream                                        20 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00
CentOS-8 - Base                                             19 kB/s | 3.8 kB     00:00
CentOS-8 - Extras                                          7.4 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00
CentOS-8 - PowerTools                                       20 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00
Remi's Modular repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64  4.1 kB/s | 3.5 kB     00:00
Safe Remi's RPM repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 3.6 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00
Wazuh repository                                           0.0  B/s |   0  B     00:00
Failed to download metadata for repo 'wazuh_repo'
Error: Failed to download metadata for repo 'wazuh_repo'

How do I resolve this problem?

10
centosrepositoryyumdnf
You can have problems connecting to a repo for all kinds of reasons, so it is always good to use the dnf update -v (v for verbose) to get as much information as possible. – ElToro1966
While I agree this is an off-topic question because it is the first hit in search engines, here is a possible solution: (I am aware I shouldn't answer this, but editing would be the bigger evil): Check /etc/yum/vars/releasever if it contains a minor version edit: sed -i 's/$releasever/8/g' /etc/yum.repos.d/epel*.repo to reflect only the major version. Taken from access.redhat.com/discussions/5473561 – Johannes Maria Frank

10 Answers

16
votes

In my case 

sudo rm -r /var/cache/dnf

solved my problem.

Source: https://access.redhat.com/discussions/4222851

7
votes

I was getting the same error with the Centos8 build inside of a docker container. Fixed by running the below:

# Do on build
RUN dnf clean all && rm -r /var/cache/dnf  && dnf upgrade -y && dnf update -y

Error before (i was running yum update and not dnf):

Step 4/5 : RUN yum clean all && yum update -y && echo hostname -a
 ---> Running in 10d319da361d
0 files removed
CentOS-8 - AppStream                            0.0  B/s |   0  B     00:05    
Failed to download metadata for repo 'AppStream'
Error: Failed to download metadata for repo 'AppStream'

Success after:

 ---> 0b96049ee5eb
Step 4/5 : RUN dnf clean all && rm -r /var/cache/dnf  && dnf upgrade -y && dnf update -y & echo hostname
 ---> Running in f928c6da6cb0
hostname
Removing intermediate
5
votes

I just faced this problem so I thought I'd add what fixed it for me since the resolution was pretty simple. For me, I was overlooking the fact that whenever I changed my hostname, it was wiping out everything in /etc/resolv.conf so I:

  1. nano -w /etc/resolv.conf **

  2. added the following lines:

    nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
  3. Test it (e.g. yum update -y)

**note: I used nano in example, simply swap the nano portion for your own text editor of choice

3
votes

If it does not work, check your Internet connection. This error appeared on my CentOS 8 installation, and the problem was that the Internet connection wasn't correctly configured.

2
votes

Just add the following (DNS server) to /etc/resolv.conf file:

nameserver 9.9.9.9

Will fix the issue :)

1
votes

You may not realize it, but yum and dnf require SSL certificates when communicating via secure HTTP (aka HTTPS). Have you checked the certificates under /etc/pki/tls/certs? There should be at least two, for example:

/etc/pki/tls/certs# ls -l
total 4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   49 Jan 30 12:48 ca-bundle.crt -> /etc/pki/ca-trust/extracted/pem/tls-ca-bundle.pem
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   55 Dec 11 13:19 ca-bundle.trust.crt -> /etc/pki/ca-trust/extracted/openssl/ca-bundle.trust.crt

If these links are missing you may be able to simply restore them. Otherwise, the files are part of the ca-certificates package. You can obtain them from another server running your operating system via yumdownloader then restore your certificates from the resulting RPM file using yum --nogpgcheck localinstall <RPM file>.

0
votes

I was facing this issue when I tried to run 

yum update -y

from a docker container. I changed the version from centos:8 to centos:7 and it solved the issue for me.

0
votes

I had the same error after I was messing around with SD adapter to microSD card. Edit /etc/fstab to remove SD line solved the issue for me.

0
votes

I will confirm I recently had this issue and what fixed it for me was a change in the DNS servers. I had a static IP set but DNS was automatic, I had to reconfigure DNS to use my gateway and dc. This is working now.

0
votes

My issue was that the interface wasn't up after a fresh vm install. Ran ifconfig to find my interface name and then ifup eXXX to get a dhcp ip address.

Also don't forget to change ONBOOT=no to ONBOOT=yes in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eXXX so it comes up during next boot.