Fast Debian downloads
Command Line – Debian Scripts

© Lead Image © Kjetil Kolbjornrud, 123RF.com
By combining a few Debian scripts, you can increase your download speed by more than 50 percent. Bruce shows you how.
Over the years, a rich ecosystem of applications has grown around Debian package management. In fact, the available choices are so numerous that some are easy to overlook, especially since some scripts are not in the official repositories of any distribution. Finding compatible scripts can require a lot of searching, often resulting in frustration.
Setting out to maximize download speed, I found several layers of scripts or tools: netselect [1] to find the quickest mirrors for my location, aria2 [2] or Axel [3] to serve as download managers, and apt-fast [4] to make the other scripts' modifications easy to use by placing them in a single command. The procedure can take some time, but, considering that it can increase download speeds by more than 50 percent, the effort seems worthwhile.
Step One: Determine the Fastest Mirrors
In earlier versions of Ubuntu, you could have the fastest mirror selected for you by choosing Settings | Repositories | Download | Other | Best Server. However, this feature has been dropped in the past few years.
Netselect offers a better solution for finding the fastest repositories. Not only does it give you multiple mirrors, which you will want when using download managers, netselect also allows you to consider the factors involved, such as how close a repository is to you, its bandwidth, and its traffic at various times of day. Perhaps no one repository will always be the fastest, but you can check at different times and get an average reading of its speed.
When you research how to find the fastest server, you will find frequent references to netselect-apt. This script is still available and has the advantage of selecting the fastest mirrors for you. However, installing it on a modern Debian-like system results in dependency problems you may not want to deal with. Instead, you should use the newer netselect script. If you are interested in particular mirrors, you can check their address in Debian's list of mirrors [5] or in your distribution's list and enter them in a space-separated list (Figure 1). The output will show the speed of each mirror address in parentheses at the end of its line, and the fastest in the final line, with the lowest score being the fastest. You can also use options to limit the listings and the number of fast mirrors returned. Alternatively, you can get a list of the 10 fastest links (Figure 2) for your circumstances with the code from Listing 1.
Listing 1
Your Top 10 Fastest Links
sudo netselect -v -s10 -t20 `wget -q -O- https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archivemirrors | grep -P -B8 "statusUP|statusSIX" | grep -o -P "(f|ht)tp://[^\"]*"`
Be warned though, that almost 600 mirrors will be checked using the Debian list alone, and the results will take a few minutes to process. Either way, you will want at least five mirrors for the next steps in this procedure. An alternative method for finding the fastest mirrors is apt-smart [6], which can also manage package sources.
Step 2: Set Up a Download Manager
Adding the fastest mirrors to /etc/apt/sources.list
accelerates downloads without any other modification. However, you can increase the download speed even more by adding a download manager such as Axel or aria2. Both are replacements for Wget and available for non-Debian systems, but what is relevant here is that both will attempt to use multiple mirrors to accelerate downloads.
Axel can be configured with options, or, more conveniently, with the fields in /etc/axelrc
(Table 1).
Table 1
Fields in an /etc/axelrc File
Field | Description |
---|---|
reconnect_delay |
Sets the number of seconds Axel waits before trying to reconnect. |
max_speed |
Value is given in bytes per second and dependent on the physical bandwidth. |
num_connections |
Sets the maximum number of connections that Axel will attempt to use. Some servers may not permit multiple connections. |
http_proxy |
Sets a proxy server if no system-wide environmental variable is set. |
no_proxy |
Provides an optional comma-separated list of local domains that Axel should not try to reach through a proxy. |
buffer_size |
Represents the maximum bytes to read from all connections at the same time. |
verbose |
Set to 0 to disable screen messages and 1 to see messages. |
interfaces |
Lists network interfaces with Internet access. If not specified, the first interface found will be used. |
Figure 3 shows a sample minimal axelrc
file. You may want to add additional fields, depending on your hardware. Running Axel verbosely, the output shows the percentage of the download completed and ends with the connections closing and a download summary (Figure 4).
As an alternative to Axel, you may want to use aria2. In aria2, multiple mirrors are added at the command line or, as shown in Figure 5, in a file specified using the option:
--input-file=FILE (-i=FILE)
Naturally, you will want to use the fastest mirrors as determined by netselect (see above). However, unlike Axel, aria2 does not show how each mirror was used. See Table 2 for other useful aria2 options.
Table 2
aria2 Options
Option | Description |
---|---|
--max-overall-upload-limit=SPEED |
Sets the maximum overall speed in bytes, kilobytes, or megabytes. |
--connect-timeout=SECONDS |
Sets the connect timeout in seconds. Default is 60; 0 means no timeout |
--max-file-not-found=NUMBER |
Sets the maximum number of files not found before download fails. |
--max-tries=NUMBER |
Sets number of tries before download fails. 0 means unlimited tries. |
--retry-wait=NUMBER |
Sets the seconds to wait between retries. The default is 5. |
Step 3: Set Up apt-fast
Apt-fast offers the ultimate quick download (Figure 6). This script is not in official Debian or Ubuntu repositories, but you can install it using the script:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -sL https://git.io/vokNn)"
Once apt-fast is installed, edit /etc/apt-fast.conf
in a text editor (Figure 7). Options include whether to use apt-get
/apt
or the Debian/Ubuntu mirrors and to list your fastest mirrors in a space or comma-separated list. For example:
MIRRORS=( 'http://ftp.debian.org/debian, http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian, http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian,ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/debian' )
The same mirrors must also be in your /etc/apt/sources.list
. You can also scroll down the file and check whether other fields, such as the number of connections per command, should be edited. Check, too, that Axel or aria2 is installed.
To use apt-fast, the basic command structure is:
apt-fast install PACKAGE
The command starts by listing all the files that will be installed (Figure 8). When all packages are downloaded, download statistics are displayed (Figure 9). The rest of the output then follows standard apt-get
output as packages are unpacked and installed. Note that the script is only used for package downloads, and that other apt
functions are performed normally.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
Price $2.95
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
KDE Plasma 5.27 Beta is Ready for Testing
The latest beta iteration of the KDE Plasma desktop is now available and includes some important additions and fixes.
-
Netrunner OS 23 Is Now Available
The latest version of this Linux distribution is now based on Debian Bullseye and is ready for installation and finally hits the KDE 5.20 branch of the desktop.
-
New Linux Distribution Built for Gamers
With a Gnome desktop that offers different layouts and a custom kernel, PikaOS is a great option for gamers of all types.
-
System76 Beefs Up Popular Pangolin Laptop
The darling of open-source-powered laptops and desktops will soon drop a new AMD Ryzen 7-powered version of their popular Pangolin laptop.
-
Nobara Project Is a Modified Version of Fedora with User-Friendly Fixes
If you're looking for a version of Fedora that includes third-party and proprietary packages, look no further than the Nobara Project.
-
Gnome 44 Now Has a Release Date
Gnome 44 will be officially released on March 22, 2023.
-
Nitrux 2.6 Available with Kernel 6.1 and a Major Change
The developers of Nitrux have officially released version 2.6 of their Linux distribution with plenty of new features to excite users.
-
Vanilla OS Initial Release Is Now Available
A stock GNOME experience with on-demand immutability finally sees its first production release.
-
Critical Linux Vulnerability Found to Impact SMB Servers
A Linux vulnerability with a CVSS score of 10 has been found to affect SMB servers and can lead to remote code execution.
-
Linux Mint 21.1 Now Available with Plenty of Look and Feel Changes
Vera has arrived and although it is still using kernel 5.15, there are plenty of improvements sure to please everyone.