Slow download speed of Firefox browser updates

[wpshooter]

I have noticed lately that the download speed of updates for the Firefox browser are downloading at about 1/10 the speed of other (including kernel updates) for Linux Mint - 20.3 in this case.

Are the updates for Firefox coming from a different source/server(s) ?

Thanks.

[bjmh46]

I noticed the same thing, actually less than 1/10th the speed. I have only been downloading major version updates until yesterday when I decided to update to 96.0.1--big mistake--less than 40 kb/s! I will go back to major versions only, because firefox has only been there as a backup browser since v. 89. Brave is my everyday browser now, and I haven't used firefox in months. I would un-install it, but it's nice to have a backup browser.

Bob

[Pjotr]

It's because Firefox comes from the Linux Mint servers. Try a local mirror server.

[wpshooter]

It's because Firefox comes from the Linux Mint servers. Try a local mirror server.

Don't all of the other (non-Firefox) updates come from Mint servers ? If so, why would Firefox download at different speed than other updates ?

Thanks.

[Pjotr]

Don't all of the other (non-Firefox) updates come from Mint servers ?

No, most of them (some 90 %) come from Ubuntu servers.

[wpshooter]

Just downloaded & applied another update to Firefox (and this was AFTER changing sources in update manager to the fastest available servers) and the download of the Firefox update was still at about 1/10 (50 kbps) of my normal speed 600 to 700 kbps.

Ran Internet speed test just after doing the Firefox update and result of Internet speed test was over 600 kbps.

[Beckfield]

I set my mirror to the closest (Univ. of Washington) location to me, which reports a 1.2 MB/s speed, and Update Manager is taking 30+ minutes to download Firefox 96.0.2. Same happened for 96.0.1 (which is when I found this thread, and switched to Univ. of Washington). Nothing else is so slow. I was on Mint 20.2 the first time, and 20.3 now. The upgrade to Mint 20.3 took less time.

[AZgl1800]

I set my mirror to the closest (Univ. of Washington) location to me, which reports a 1.2 MB/s speed, and Update Manager is taking 30+ minutes to download Firefox 96.0.2. Same happened for 96.0.1 (which is when I found this thread, and switched to Univ. of Washington). Nothing else is so slow. I was on Mint 20.2 the first time, and 20.3 now. The upgrade to Mint 20.3 took less time.

36 minutes for me just now

[JezekiljMonk]

Same problem with Firefox updates for my PCs.

[Kester]

Hi,
My systems are both desktops running Linux Mint 20.3 XFCE - one is just Mint and the other a dual boot arrangement with Windows 7.

Today the updater had a Firefox update which I ran on both systems. The download speed in both cases was exceptionally slow (less than 40 kbs). the internet speed is not great where I live (no fibre broadband here yet) but download speeds from most sites I visit are considerably higher - the download of Firefox took over 20 minutes. My Firefox is always updated when updates become available so it wasn't a question of having to get several at once. It may be that Firefox is always slow for update downloads but today I happened to remain in front of the screens during the process so was able to monitor things.

My question is, is this slow downloading normal for Firefox? My version is now 96.02 (64-bit) for Linux Mint-001 - 1.0.

Thanks.

[Maxwell-J]

download the updates outside of the Update Manager and install using the dkpg command in a terminal

I'm English and hence your locale-?? may well be different

Code: Select all

http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/upstream/f/firefox/firefox_96.0.2+linuxmint1+una_amd64.deb

Code: Select all

http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/upstream/f/firefox/firefox-locale-en_96.0.2+linuxmint1+una_amd64.deb

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/'firefox_96.0.2 linuxmint1 una_amd64.deb'

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/'firefox-locale-en_96.0.2 linuxmint1 una_amd64.deb'

it's one of the few things I use the Slimjet Browser for https://i.imgur.com/GNcYkVk.png

[JoeFootball]

My question is, is this slow downloading normal for Firefox?

No, it's unusual. There are recent updates for Firefox and Chromium, both coming from the same source. And there's all the other new 20.3 installs and upgrades as well. So, I suspect the packages.linuxmint.com server is just getting hit fairly hard.

[AZgl1800]

the alternate servers are no better as of 1 PM, 26 January

[sleeper12]

Just updated mine, very fast this time.

[Kester]

Thanks Joe, AZgl1800 and by sleeper12.
Perhaps it was unfortunate timing on my so is very likely to have been the high load on servers that you have suggested Joe.
Anyway, probably nothing wrong at my end to worry about.
Cheers.

[karlchen]

<mod>
Merged 2 threads about the same issue: Slow download speed of Firefox browser updates and Firefox update very, very slow to download today
</mod>

[karlchen]

Hi, folks.

I habe no doubt that you all experience the (extremely) slow download speed, which you reported.

Nonetheless, so far I have not noticed any extreme slowness when downloading Firefox 96.x updates from packages.linuxmint.com.
Only today 8 download packages, having a total download size of 201 MB, were waiting to be downloaded and installed. 1 of the 8 packages was Firefox 96.0.2, size 62 MB, source packages.linuxmint.com. The rest came from Ubuntu and other sources.
The complete download took 4 min 20 sec., which is normal for the available DSL speed here. I never get more than 720 KB/sec DL speed. Got this today as well.

Hm, Cannot offer any satisfying explanation for the reported extremely long Firefox download times.

Regards,
Karl

[AndyMH]

You might want to merge in this one as well:
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=366704
same problems, v slow download speeds. And the first package to download... firefox (and I don't use it)

[wpshooter]

Today's (01-28-2022) Firefox update downloaded a bit faster (approx. 80 kbps) than the recent ones which were at about 50 kbps both of which are still far below the normal speed of approx. 700 to 800 kbps that all other Linux Mint updates download.

Surely the download of these Firefox updates are coming from alternate source than all of the other Linux Mint updates !!!

Thanks.

[Beckfield]

96.0.3 download running at about 69 kb/s. Faster than last time, but still very slow.