Saturday, May 19, 2012

ubuntu upgrade to 12.04 precise pangolin, 10x faster

Before leaping to the Ubuntu site to download the freshest bytes and bits, you may want to wait for a bit. Canonical tells me that the site is currently getting overwhelmed and some people are not being able to get into it. For me, the site and download links worked, but at speeds of about 100Kbps, they certainly aren’t fast.


You should use whichever region is closest to you, you can either manually add these to
/etc/apt/sources.list/
file or paste them into the custom URL field of the software sources application.

East Coast US:
deb http://us-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse

West Coast US (California):
deb http://us-west-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse

West Coast US (Oregon)
deb http://us-west-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse

South America (São Paulo, Brazil)
deb http://sa-east-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse

Western Europe (Dublin, Ireland)
deb http://eu-west-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse

SouthEast Asia (Singapore)
deb http://ap-southeast-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse

NorthEast Asia (Tokyo)
deb http://ap-northeast-1.ec2.archive.ubuntu.com.s3.amazonaws.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse

 
 I've always gone with the 'select best server' GUI tool: from , go to Edit -> Software Sources in the menu. (You can also do this from the Preferences for Synaptic or the Update Manager.)
Under the Ubuntu Software tab there's a drop-down next to "Download from:" If you select "Other..." you'll get a button that says "Select Best Server"; clicking on it gets Ubuntu to run some tests to see what mirror will give the best download speed.
I can't comment on whether this is better or worse than the method you found for yourself. Perhaps someone with some expertise on the issue can comment!
Here are some screenshots for the graphical method:

First, open Ubuntu Software Center, click on Edit in the global menu, and go to Software Sources:
  
Click on the drop-down menu next to 'Download From' and select 'Other...'

Click on 'Select Best Server'

The best server is highlighted.  Click 'Choose Server' and you're done!

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