Slow Download Speeds from openSUSE Server

I’m trying to download the latest Tumbleweed snapshot since the last one wouldn’t boot in UEFI mode. I’ve had an ongoing problem with horribly slow downloads speeds when updating Tumbleweed with zypper, and now it’s happening as I am attempting to download the new snapshot from 7/27/2015 with Firefox. I have a 50Mb line here, and i’m getting 6-15K/sec from download.opensuse.org. I’ve mentioned this multiple times in the SUSE IRC channel and nothing ever gets done about it. I can’t download the snapshot from mirrors.kernel.org because the current snapshot isn’t being hosted there yet.

If people like me are going to be testing and using Tumbleweed to make openSUSE better, then:

  • ISO images should be checked through an automated system or manually to make sure they’re at least installable
  • Upload speed from main server hosting Tumbleweed needs to be significantly increased
  • More mirrors hosting Tumbleweed are needed
  • At least one working past Tumbleweed snapshot should be hosted somewhere

As for the last bullet point, maybe there is a server hosting prior working snapshots but I haven’t found anything.

I’m currently seeing 2.2MB/sec download speed. I’m using “aria2c” so I’m not sure which mirror it is using. This is for the rescue CD.

I have noticed slow download speeds in the past. I believe (perhaps wrongly) that this is because the mirrors are not yet synchronized, and the download is competing with traffic to mirrors. If I wait a few hours after the snapshot is up, then the download goes a lot faster.

Download completed (of rescue CD).

Looking inside the meta4 file, it lists only the main download site and one mirror (in Brazil). I think “aria2c” tries both, and uses the fastest. If I wait longer before starting, there should be more mirrors listed.

On 2015-07-28 16:06, nrickert wrote:
>
> Download completed (of rescue CD).
>
> Looking inside the meta4 file, it lists only the main download site and
> one mirror (in Brazil). I think “aria2c” tries both, and uses the
> fastest.

Actually, it may use both, simultaneously, if neither fills the pipe
completely. And more servers if they exist, even torrents.

You should not use Firefox to do the download, nor wget. You have to use
a metalink capable downloader. The best is aria2c, in the CLI, but there
is also a plugin for firefox (downloadthemall or similar name).


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

Yes, probably true. In any case, the download was at close to the max speed of my Internet service.

I use “wget” for small files such as the sha256 checksum file.

I’m now using aria2c – I’d never heard of it until now; since my original post the download speed has been hovering around 100-300 KB/sec, sometimes dropping as low as 50 KB/sec. I first tested it with Firefox, and got around the same speed so it looks as though aria2c is not speeding the download up in this case.

fwiw

using -yast --Software Repositories —Refresh ---- Refresh all enabled
50 KB/sec has been the norm for the download of the patterns-openSUSE-XXXXXXXXX
files

but sometimes it is much fasted

that’s on a 100 Mb/sec dsl line

so its assumed there is a bottle-neck on that particular server, but only for those files types

the download of actual packages goes at the normal speed

On 2015-07-28 23:16, keellambert wrote:

> so its assumed there is a bottle-neck on that particular server, but
> only for those files types

I think those come from the master server, not mirrors.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)