Brief error message: killed

This error appears sometimes without warning, often in the middle of installation tasks.

A common reason is that some temporary files are located on a ram drive, and if the ram drive fills up then the process that filled it is terminated. Here's an example:

root@zebidee:~# ipkg install swat
Installing swat (3.0.23c-r0) to root...
Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/
slugos-bag/cross/3.10-beta/swat_3.0.23c-r0_armeb.ipk
Killed
root@zebidee:~#

We could try rebooting...sometimes a clean reboot leaves enough space in the ramdrive

Or we could try retrieving the file manually and installing from the local copy, avoiding the need for the temporary copy:

root@zebidee:~# wget http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/
feeds/slugos-bag/cross/
3.10-beta/swat_3.0.23c-r0_armeb.ipk
Connecting to ipkg.nslu2-linux.org[140.211.166.82]:80
swat_3.0.23c-r0_arme 100% |*******************|
 7167 KB 00:00 ETA
root@zebidee:~# ipkg install swat_3.0.23c-r0_armeb.ipk
Installing swat (3.0.23c-r0) to root...
Configuring swat
root@zebidee:~# rm swat_3.0.23c-r0_armeb.ipk
root@zebidee:~#

Or we could try forcing ipkg to put the temporary files somewhere else using the -t option

root@zebidee:~# mkdir temp
root@zebidee:~# ipkg install swat -t temp
Installing swat (3.0.23c-r0) to root...
Downloading http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/
slugos-bag/cross/3.10-beta/swat_3.0.23c-r0_armeb.ipk
Configuring swat
root@zebidee:~#
root@zebidee:~# rmdir temp
root@zebidee:~#

A similar problem will also prevent the CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) installer "CPAN.pm" from running correctly.