# Why do FreeBSD packages fail to fetch files?



## shaunsingh14 (Jun 1, 2012)

I noticed this going on a lot with some packages that I tried adding with pkg_add. 

Whilst in the middle of a *# portupgrade -aRP*, I noticed that a lot of the packages failed to download, and thus had to compile from source. This turned what would've been a two or three hour upgrade into an almost eight hour process. 


```
pkg_delete: package 'sound-juicer-2.32.0' doesn't have a prefix
** Listing the failed packages (-:ignored / *:skipped / !:failed)
	! sound-juicer-2.32.0	(pkg_delete failed)
--->  Checking for the latest package of 'multimedia/webcamd'
--->  Fetching the package(s) for 'webcamd-3.5.0.2_1' (multimedia/webcamd)
--->  Fetching webcamd-3.5.0.2_1
fetch: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-9-stable/All/webcamd-3.5.0.2_1.tbz:
 File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no access)
** The command returned a non-zero exit status: 1
** Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-9-stable/All/webcamd-3.5.0.2_1.tbz
```

Shown above is one of the weird output results. Can someone please tell me what's going on, and if there is a possible fix? I sifted through the handbook chapter on maintenance, but I couldn't find anything that might help me, just general configuration and nothing specific.

Pardon my noobish behavior. I recently migrated from Arch Linux to FreeBSD.


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## phoenix (Jun 1, 2012)

Search the forums for "packages" and "ports".  There are several threads that detail the fact that FreeBSD packages are not built on a continuous basis, and how the version in the ports tree is usually newer than the version of the binary package.


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