Switch to Fastly to avoid slow upgrades and connection issues

[clefebvre]

Shortly after the announcements or during high load, the main repositories can get really busy.

This can result in a very slow upgrade, or even in connection issues and failures.

To avoid this, switch to the Fastly repositories. They are specifically designed for high load and high availability.

Open a terminal and type the following command to edit the sources list:

sudo xed /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list

In this file, find the line which contains virginia main upstream import backport and replace it with the line below:

deb https://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia main upstream import backport

Save the file with Ctrl+S and close the text editor.

Update the APT cache with the command below:

apt update

Make sure there are no errors in the output.

That's it, your system is now using the Fastly repositories. You can now perform the upgrade without worrying about high server load.

[ScubaMan1970]

Thank you clefebvre. MintOS continues to breathe new life into my geriatric Deskpro 6200.

[renatogfilhinho]

Thank you!

[iyousif]

Thank you. Doing the upgarde now aws..

[elidoz]

thanks! should I change it back after the update?

[DutchPete]

In this file, find the line which contains virginia main upstream import backport

This does not occur in the equivalent LMDE file. However, is it possible to just add deb https://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia main upstream import backport to my LMDE file?

[Dewillim]

So cool that the Team is testing new solutions! Thanks a lot, @clefebvre !

[atarax42]

I applied the change to the soures list, apt update shows no errors. But when I open mintupdate I get a notification that says, I should switch to another mirror server and https://fastly.linuxmint.io cannot be connected to.
Edit: ping fastly.linuxmint.io shows no errors.

[DutchPete]

@atarax42 I got the exact same thing yesterday. Until then I had the software manager set up for Fastly and it worked well.

So now I wonder if LMDE'ers can use the Linux Mint Fastly site @clefebvre mentions in the OP.

[Twixtfanatic]

I inadvertently deleted line 2 when I deleted the old line 1. Line 2 began with a # symbol. Can anyone tell me what it should be? BTW if I had used emacs instead of xed it would have saved the old file for me. Thank you.

[TheLinuxITGuy]

I inadvertently deleted line 2 when I deleted the old line 1. Line 2 began with a # symbol. Can anyone tell me what it should be? BTW if I had used emacs instead of xed it would have saved the old file for me. Thank you.

Here's what mine looks like on LM 21.3:

# Do not edit this file manually, use Software Sources instead.

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com virginia main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse

[Twixtfanatic]

Thank you. Fortunately I took a snapshot with Timeshift before I started. FYI here is the line I am supposed to replace:

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com virginia main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main

Note the #id:linuxmint main at the end, which I believe I need to preserve when I edit.

[commander-keen]

I applied the change to the soures list, apt update shows no errors. But when I open mintupdate I get a notification that says, I should switch to another mirror server and https://fastly.linuxmint.io cannot be connected to. Edit: ping fastly.linuxmint.io shows no errors.

Same here on Linux Mint 21.3:

@clefebvre Is there an additional step required maybe?

apt update looks fine to me (Issue is the same with http and https):

OK:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/cdemu/ppa/ubuntu jammy InRelease
OK:2 https://repo.steampowered.com/steam stable InRelease
OK:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/mkusb/ppa/ubuntu jammy InRelease
OK:4 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu focal InRelease
Holen:5 http://ftp.hosteurope.de/mirror/archive.ubuntu.com jammy InRelease [270 kB]
OK:6 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/avidemux/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Holen:7 https://mega.nz/linux/repo/xUbuntu_22.04 ./ InRelease [2.961 B]
OK:8 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease
OK:9 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/ms-teams stable InRelease
Holen:10 https://download.mono-project.com/repo/ubuntu vs-bionic InRelease [5.144 B]
OK:11 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/cappelikan/ppa/ubuntu jammy InRelease
OK:12 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/dupeguru/ppa/ubuntu jammy InRelease
OK:13 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/misery/ppa/ubuntu jammy InRelease
OK:14 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/strukturag/libde265/ubuntu jammy InRelease
OK:15 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/tomtomtom/yt-dlp/ubuntu jammy InRelease
OK:16 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/xtradeb/apps/ubuntu jammy InRelease
OK:17 https://packages.teejeetech.com/battery-monitor/free/ubuntu/focal/amd64 stable InRelease
OK:18 http://ftp.hosteurope.de/mirror/archive.ubuntu.com jammy-updates InRelease
OK:19 http://ftp.hosteurope.de/mirror/archive.ubuntu.com jammy-backports InRelease
Ign:20 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia InRelease
OK:21 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia Release
Ign:22 https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable InRelease
OK:23 https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb stable Release
Es wurden 278 kB in 6 s geholt (50,3 kB/s).
Paketlisten werden gelesen… Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut… Fertig
Statusinformationen werden eingelesen… Fertig
Aktualisierung für 2 Pakete verfügbar. Führen Sie »apt list --upgradable« aus, um sie anzuzeigen.

The two packages being held back are python3-update-manager and update-manager-core (but that should not affect the reachablility of the server anyway...)

launching mintUpdate 6.0.9 from command line:

mintupdate
/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/mintUpdate.py:1379: DeprecationWarning: Gdk.threads_init is deprecated
Gdk.threads_init()
/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/mintUpdate.py:1764: DeprecationWarning: Gdk.threads_enter is deprecated
Gdk.threads_enter()
/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/mintUpdate.py:803: DeprecationWarning: Gdk.threads_leave is deprecated
Gdk.threads_leave()
Flatpak: done generating updates
(28, 'Resolving timed out after 5000 milliseconds')

...results in a timeout.

I now found linuxmint/linuxmint#658 (comment):

python3 test.py
http://packages.linuxmint.com
--> 1722155345
http://fastly.linuxmint.io
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/martin/Downloads/test.py", line 13, in
c.perform()
pycurl.error: (28, 'Resolving timed out after 5000 milliseconds')

I don't get it, because "ping fastly.linuxmint.io" shows no errors:

ping fastly.linuxmint.io
PING t.sni.global.fastly.net (146.75.119.52) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 146.75.119.52 (146.75.119.52): icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=30.3 ms
64 bytes from 146.75.119.52 (146.75.119.52): icmp_seq=2 ttl=59 time=30.3 ms
64 bytes from 146.75.119.52 (146.75.119.52): icmp_seq=3 ttl=59 time=33.3 ms
64 bytes from 146.75.119.52 (146.75.119.52): icmp_seq=4 ttl=59 time=31.0 ms
64 bytes from 146.75.119.52 (146.75.119.52): icmp_seq=5 ttl=59 time=29.8 ms
64 bytes from 146.75.119.52 (146.75.119.52): icmp_seq=6 ttl=59 time=23.4 ms

Altough the first start/ping takes roughly 4s or so, pretty close to 5000ms timeout maybe...?

[ssusbauer]

This does not occur in the equivalent LMDE file. However, is it possible to just add deb https://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia main upstream import backport to my LMDE file?

@DutchPete: The LMDE release is Faye, not Virginia. Using the wrong one could potentially break things. deb https://fastly.linuxmint.io faye main upstream import backport works fine for LMDE. Cinnamon has some big updates available.

LMDE is separate from Mint and does its own separate releases though. You are still going to be on LMDE 6, not Linux Mint 22. Wanted to make sure that's clear, a new Linux Mint version usually just means some package updates on LMDE.

[DutchPete]

@ssusbauer: Many thanks for your reply. So, this is what my official-package-repositories.list looks like:

deb https://fastly.linuxmint.io faye main upstream import backport 

deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://security.debian.org/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

deb https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware

with the one for Faye at the top. May I assume the list is now OK as it is?

BTW, yes, I am aware LMDE is separate from Linux Mint and that I will still be on LMDE 6.

I also got this output in the terminal:

user1@lenovo:~$ sudo xed /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
[sudo] password for user1:             

** (xed:76941): WARNING **: 18:11:58.136: Set document metadata failed: Setting attribute metadata::xed-spell-language not supported

Is that something I need to worry about? It does not seem so to me.

[ssusbauer]

@DutchPete yes that one looks reasonable.

[DutchPete]

@ssusbauer Thank you. And the terminal output is nothing to worry about?

[ssusbauer]

@DutchPete no, it is truly a just a warning that the file type does not support that spelling metadata. Nothing to worry about.

[DutchPete]

@ssusbauer thanks for your help and patience!
Have a good day.

[ErikDB87]

Should we change this line again after upgrading? Or leave it at fastly.linuxmint.io?

[NeatNit]

Thank you! I did this based on the blog instructions and the upgrade went smoothly.

I second the question: is it safe to leave it at fastly.linuxmint.io?

I also would like to know, would Fastly be added to the official mirrors list in Software Sources? Currently it's not in the list.

(In the screenshot: sorted alphabetically, there's no Fastly under F)

[johnsageeek]

thanks! should I change it back after the update?

No. Watch for updates to the Fastly trial and Mint will give you the updated verdict.

[melroy89]

Should we change this line again after upgrading? Or leave it at fastly.linuxmint.io?

It's safe to leave it at fastly, however just know you are part of a beta-test. Since Fastly is officially in beta according to Clem (since April this year): https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=417369

Related GitHub ticket: linuxmint/linuxmint#658

The test is still on-going. Since the ticket above isn't closed yet, I believe the Mint team is still collecting data and looking at the pricing.