What download method is best for downloading suse 11.3 from the website?

**wlamor** · 20-Nov-2010, 19:19

I searched the faq, I did a search online for this etc. The reason I ask is that suse on the download page of 11.3 states don't download directly since it is very slow and has no check sum. Therefore the iso may be flawed and you have spent 10 hrs trying to download the iso. My "fast" internet through qwest is at 1.5 mbps download so I assume that is why it is so slow to download the iso of 4.7 Gb.

Now for the question the download page suggets you use bit torrent since it does the checksum but will download the iso no faster than the direct method.

Second is to use check metalink with the addon in Firefox downthemall. I did this and had quite a time getting the iso link for 11.3 to start downloading. I would start downthemall from the Firefox toolbar and I thought wow!!! it downloaded that iso fast, how cool. Well it was not the iso but the website for the download page! At one point I got it to start downloading the iso but came in this morining and it was still going after 17hrs and showed several hours to go. I gave up and deleated it.

This afternoon I just gave in and started the download again using the bit torrent and I am waiting for the download to finish. I did eveything the site indicated but after and hour I noticed under logger it said **** openSuse-11.3-DVD i586 iso: PIECE 2206 FAILED HASH CHECK. It shows this same message from the begining of the download 7hrs ago to the last few minutes on each section. It states it is 75% complete? Is this normal or am I wasting 10 more hours?

Sorry if this is not the place for this question but I never had trouble with downloading 11.2 and burning it to the disk. I think I just used the Directlink method and crossed my fingers. It did download ok!

Thank you for your time.

**jdmcdaniel3** · 20-Nov-2010, 19:56

It does not sound like you are doing anything wrong, but I do suggest you use bit-torrent (KTorrent if you had KDE already loaded). But, why not just download the KDE Live CD at 686 MB? I would do that in a heartbeat if I had the same situation you are having. You can then use if for an install and try to get the other things you want later.

Thank You,

**robin_listas** · 21-Nov-2010, 07:48

On 2010-11-21 03:36, wlamor wrote:
>
> I searched the faq, I did a search online for this etc. The reason I
> ask is that suse on the download page of 11.3 states don't download
> directly since it is very slow and has no check sum.

The best method is a good metalink downloader, like aria2c. It uses the
full bandwidth you have, and all methods it can: direct http, torrent,
whatever. And it verifies and corrects errors in the downloaded image.

--
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 "Emerald" at Telcontar)

**glistwan** · 21-Nov-2010, 09:40

I like to stick just with torrent (any client should be fine You could even use the opera's bulit in client but I personally don't like it). As far as I know it guarantees proper download and is very fast for me.

Best regards,
Greg

**gropiuskalle** · 21-Nov-2010, 10:18

Torrents do not guarantee a clean download, one should always check the md5. However, I think it's the most friendly way, since you share the download with others and unburden the http/ftp-servers of openSUSE. Torrents are usually quite fast as well, since they are shared by hundreds or even thousands of seeders.

If you do not want to use a torrent, check →this mirror-list for a server close to your destination. You could simply download the .isos with wget, it uses the full bandwidth as well. The md5 of the i586 / 32bit-version is

Code:

1a1da28c84e3cdad750d5cfa21c4fd17

**Bloggs_J** · 21-Nov-2010, 11:27

And in addition to the above, don't make the mistake of trying to download modern openSUSE isos to Fat32 drives or partitions. Modern isos are bigger than the file size limit for Fat32 (4GB) so an attempted download will simply abort when you exceed this limit (been there, done that, got the t-shirt).

**robin_listas** · 21-Nov-2010, 14:10

On 2010-11-21 18:06, glistwan wrote:
>
> I like to stick just with torrent (any client should be fine You could
> even use the opera's bulit in client but I personally don't like it). As
> far as I know it guarantees proper download and is very fast for me.

aria2c uses also torrent. It uses everything.

--
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 "Emerald" at Telcontar)

**robin_listas** · 21-Nov-2010, 16:59

On 2010-11-21 18:36, gropiuskalle wrote:
>
> Torrents do not guarantee a clean download, one should always check the

Yes, they do, if the client is good enough. It actually can repair a bad
iso file downloaded via http that has a bad checksum.

The torrent protocol has partial file checksums, that serve to know if a
part of a file is bad, and re-download that part only. It is a p2p
protocol, and it has to handle that some of the peers, accidentally or
intentionally, provide bad data. It can, I think, black list those peers, too.

--
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 "Emerald" at Telcontar)

**oldcpu** · 21-Nov-2010, 17:10

Another application is to use the download accelerator 'prozgui' (thats what I use). I do not find it to accelerate the download more than a nominal download, but I do find the checksums that the download accelerator does ensures the downloaded file has no errors. Hence it is SIGNFICANTLY more reliable than a nominal download, and its also a lot faster than bittorent, ...

BUT it is more selfish than bittorent and does not share the file when downloading.

Hence in addition to using prozgui, I also recommend users share with a bittorent application

**gropiuskalle** · 21-Nov-2010, 18:23

@robin_listas: I only use KTorrent and can not speak for other clients - it indeed has a feature to check downloaded files or the blocks downloaded so far, but this has to be set manually. Either way, it's still a good idea to compare the checksums, whatever way is used. Doesn't take too much time anyway.