Updates painfully slow 11.2 and 11.3

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I posted this message on the news servers too but here I go:

First of all - let me say I am a long time SUSE user. I bought SUSE several times years ago (when it was still sold in a box - I think it was version 5.2 and after that 6.4 or something), so this is not a simple rant or bashing or something.

Now for my problem.

Over the years I tried different distro’s and installed and used SUSE from time to time on several locations. Lately I got once interested again and tried to install SUSE 11.2

Installation was a breeze. No problems at all - until…

I tried to update. I used yast and clicked on the update button. Update started and I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited etc, etc.

After 180 minutes (TWO HOURS) only 20% to 30% of the updates where retrieved and installed.

Needless to say I aborted everyhing and checked my settings? Disabled ipv6, disabled firewall, gave my network card a fixed IP adress, checked my router, connected to the internet using DMZ (yes dangerous, but what else could I do?) and combinations of all these settings.

Nothing worked. Updating stays painfully slow.

I tried to look in yast if I could select another (faster) mirror, but there seems not to be any mechanism to do so. Maybe I am stupid and overlooked, but although this mechanism is present in almost all distro’s it does not seem to be in openSUSE (I can’t imagine that, so I MUST have overlooked it - yes?).

Finally I gave up in total frustration and a sad feeling I was not able to use my old favorite again. Not a nice feeling…

By the way - when using Ubuntu, Mandriva, Gentoo, PClinuxOS, Fedora etc. all updates where done in 10~20 minutes, so I am sure there is nothing wrong with my internet connection.

Now 11.3 is out and I was hoping things would have improved, so I tried the install again. I used the GNOME live CD (no particular reason - I am even a KDE fan, but sometimes people can act irrational ;)), and installed from the live desktop.

Install went without any problem, until - yes you guessed it - updating after rebooting. The update was only a few files, so it wont take that long - right?

WRONG!!!

It took 70 minutes (Yes 1 hour and 10 minutes(!)) to only update a few files.

Now I know when a distro just is released mirrors can be very busy, but this is really unacceptable and -even worst- completely unworkable.

I am at the brink to give up to openSUSE once again, but will try to find an answer here as a last resort. By the way - I am located in the Netherlands, so I guess I am automatically connected to a mirror in the “neighborhood”…

Has anyone met the same problems, and… more important - what is the solution to this frustrating problem.

Thanks a lot…

John.

2

Yes, openSUSE’s servers ‘automagically’ redirect each user’s request to the best server available based upon their location and mirror load.

However if you desire you can manually enter a preferred mirror for your OSS, Non-OSS and update repos.
All the mirrors are listed here by country: openSUSE Download Mirrors - 11.3

There are 5 mirrors in the Netherlands.

I will say however, that if the problem persists and selecting a mirror manually solves the problem…please file a bug report so that other users in your area don’t run into the same problem.

3

On 2010-07-16 12:06 GMT JKlosed wrote:

> Now for my problem.
>
> Over the years I tried different distro’s and installed and used SUSE
> from time to time on several locations. Lately I got once interested
> again and tried to install SUSE 11.2
>
> Installation was a breeze. No problems at all - until…
>
> I tried to update. I used yast and clicked on the update button.
> Update started and I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited etc,
> etc.
>
> After 180 minutes (TWO HOURS) only 20% to 30% of the updates where
> retrieved and installed.

As you have just installed 11.2, there are a lot of updates to download.
You could figure out how many megabytes you have to download (in the
summary dialog window of yast), and what speed you are getting (network
applet).

Or you could have hit a very bad mirror.

Or servers are very busy if you hit the 11.3 frenzy -)

> I tried to look in yast if I could select another (faster) mirror, but
> there seems not to be any mechanism to do so. Maybe I am stupid and
> overlooked, but although this mechanism is present in almost all
> distro’s it does not seem to be in openSUSE (I can’t imagine that, so
> I MUST have overlooked it - yes?).

Because it is automatically choosen, the download server is in fact a
redirector.

You could enable “aria2c” as downloader. Let me see, how was it done…

ZYPP_ARIA2C=1 yast2 online_update

and see if it helps.

Otherwise, you can manually choose a mirror, as ReferenceSeete told you.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Minas Tirith))