Select download mirror during installation...

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lumberjack709

Select download mirror during installation...

Post by lumberjack709 »

I am in eastern Canada, with low internet connectivity and it took me 12 hours to download the updates after installing Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon 32-Bit on my computer. I was unable to select a faster download mirror until the updates were complete. Is there a possibility that the Linux Mint developers could implement the selection of a faster download mirror upon initial installation of the operating system, as opposed to waiting after the updates are complete?

I tried multiple times to select a download mirror prior to updating, on multiple computers running Linux Mint 17.2 (32 & 64 Bit). Every time I would go to select a new download mirror, the screen would come up and after the first few servers display on the screen, the mint sources screen completely closes and I have to restart mintsources again. It never allowed me to open the screen long enough to select a download mirror. I had to run the updates using the default mirror and reboot my computer before being able to select a faster download mirror.

If, there is any way the developers can implement the selection of a download mirror that is fastest based on their individual internet connection and location while performing the initial installation, it would make updating much easier and more seamless for those on slower internet connections, like myself. I enjoy the many features with Linux Mint, but this small fix would make a lot of people very happy and allow for faster aquisition times when getting software from the package manager, or installing it from the terminal.

Thanks for your time and keep up the good work!

Regards,
Lawrence N. Peterson
Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland Canada
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xenopeek
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Re: Select download mirror during installation...

Post by xenopeek »

I can't reproduce the problem of Software Sources crashing while testing mirror speed on Linux Mint 17.2 Cinnamon installation medium. Wondering though, would a mirror have helped? If you have low internet connectivity the problem might not be with the mirror. A closer mirror should make a difference, but with hundreds of megabytes of updates it won't be 15 minutes unless you have good internet speed.

One workaround for folks looking for solutions now if Software Sources also crashes for them is to manually edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list before installation and change the servers for the Linux Mint and Ubuntu repositories (there are no mirrors for extra.linuxmint.com, security.ubuntu.com, or archive.canonical.com).

BTW, did you update Software Sources (mintsources)? Trying the Update Manager from the installation medium I find there has since the release of the ISO been an update for it.
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lumberjack709

Re: Select download mirror during installation...

Post by lumberjack709 »

Hello there, and thank you for your reply. I am not sure if I understand what you are asking about a mirror. I am running an ADSL connection with 256kbps down and 128kbps up, courtesy of Bell Alliant. After finally being able to open the mintsources screen, I noticed that it had defaulted to a mirror in the British Isles for the Ubuntu base and a server down in the United States of America for the Linux Mint sources. The Linux Mint mirror that was showing wasn't the problem. My connection with that shows roughly 350ms latency when I ping it from here. The Ubuntu sources (i.e. your operating system's base) came up with a 2250ms latency from here, and that was unstable, which lead to my taking almost 12 hours to get the updates.

In regards to mintsources crashing, it would crash when you select to open it and change your mirror strictly via the GUI, however by my typing mintsources in the command prompt it would load and allow for me to change the location of the mirror for a faster connection. That was also before and after running the system updates. I am not familiar with changing the apt sources list you mentioned as my experience with this operating system is severely limited. I would hope, however that in the initial installation of this operating system in the future, your developers would add an option to allow for users to select the fastest download mirror for your base and Linux Mint itself, to streamline and speed up the update process.

In regards to updating mintsources, that was the first thing updated after installing the operating system on all of my computers. No issues with updating that, however I still had problems with the GUI crashing when I would go to select to change mirrors/servers in the software sources.

Regards,
Lawrence N. Peterson
Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland Canada
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