Using Ubuntu Archive Mirrors, for potentially faster Updates

Apr 28

Using Ubuntu Archive Mirrors, for potentially faster Updates

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Like most other Ubuntu users, I recently upgraded to 8.04 (Hardy Heron), but numerous power cuts, and a sketchy internet connection screwed up the upgrade process, resulting in a horribly drawn out process of reinstalling a fresh copy of 7.10, downloading and installing the updates, and finally the alternate CD for 8.04… but that’s another story for another time…

During this process, I found that the Ubuntu archive repository, http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ was somewhat slower than usual. Thankfully, there are many mirrors available to download from - most are up to date with the latest packages. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archivemirrors has an extensive list, so I looked for one with an “Up to Date” status, and edited my sources.list:

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

commented out the current archive site:

#deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main universe multiverse restricted #deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main universe multiverse restricted

and added the mirror:

deb http://ubuntu.positive-internet.com/ubuntu/ hardy main universe multiverse restricted deb http://ubuntu.positive-internet.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main universe multiverse restricted

After saving the file, and starting the Update Manager, I simply had to click “Check” to retrieve the update information from the mirror. Alternatively, this can be done with the “Reload” button in the Synaptic Package Manager.

Simple, but effective, leading to much faster downloads, and you can always revert back to using archive.ubuntu.com by uncommenting the entries in sources.list, and commenting out/deleting the mirror entries.

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