Why is apt-get downloads so slow

I am new to Ubuntu and using 14.04.2. I am finding apt-get downloads extremely slow. Most are coming from security.ubuntu.com or us.archive.ubuntu.com. I am only getting download speeds from 5 to 12 kB/s which is only 2% of my network speed. And for pkgs with dependent pkgs, the reconnect for each new package often takes several minutes. Just doing apt-get upgrade took around 10 hours. Is this normal? Are the servers slow or so busy? I found yum with RedHat much faster.

Terry L Anderson

Posted 2015-07-24T21:58:05.810

Reputation: 221

1I used Debian, and have not seen these problems. If it is the servers, then changing to a more local mirror may help: find out how to edit /etc/apt/sources.list or change it using a graphical package manager (synaptic has a tool to do this, in settings/repositories menu). – ctrl-alt-delor – 2015-07-24T22:04:05.863

Answers

It seems to be a problem with the sources. Go to

System Settings -> Software & Updates -> Download from -> Select best server

For more additional details, refer this thread.

Sachith Muhandiram

Posted 2015-07-24T21:58:05.810

Reputation: 516

The apt-fast package can be installed in all currently supported versions of Ubuntu by adding the apt-fast/stable PPA to your software sources and installing it using these commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apt-fast/stable 
sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install apt-fast

During the apt-fast installation process, you will be prompted to perform some package configuration. After successfully installing apt-fast, simply use it the same way you run apt or apt-get.

Niel

Posted 2015-07-24T21:58:05.810

Reputation: 21

I noticed that your PPA isn't supported past Ubuntu 16.04, so I substituted the more up-to-date ppa:apt-fast/stable. You can rollback my edit if you want to by clicking the rollback link here.

– karel – 2019-03-24T08:47:29.857

Interesting solution, it's a shame that it requires to run apt-get update which is the broken thing that we are attempting to fix. – matteo – 2019-12-15T12:32:10.280

I had set a bandwidth limit in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades:

// Use apt bandwidth limit feature, this example limits the download
// speed to 70kb/sec
Acquire::http::Dl-Limit "70";

(I didn't expect this to affect my "attended upgrades" also!)

As soon as I commented out this line, apt install went much faster.

mwfearnley

Posted 2015-07-24T21:58:05.810

Reputation: 5 885