[sf-lug] apt doc question 2

[Asheesh Laroia]

On Sun, 23 Nov 2008, jim wrote:

> * the text at
> http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-basico.en.html
> * section 2.3 suggests using netselect to determine which
> * mirror is best (i.e. access has least latency).

netselect only measures host latency, and doesn't know the full path to 
the files.  Different mirrors put them in different places.

> * i also want to know which mirror is being used when i use
> apt-get.

"apt-get update" shows you as it gets things.

> * here's how to get the netselect package, and a little more
> * than halfway down it shows the URI for the mirror used.
>
> # apt-get install netselect
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> Suggested packages:
>  netselect-apt
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>  netselect
> 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
> Need to get 21.5kB of archives.
> After unpacking 98.3kB of additional disk space will be used.
> Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/universe netselect 0.3.ds1-10
> [21.5kB]
> Fetched 21.5kB in 1s (18.3kB/s)
> Preconfiguring packages ...
> Selecting previously deselected package netselect.
> (Reading database ... 111018 files and directories currently installed.)
> Unpacking netselect (from .../netselect_0.3.ds1-10_i386.deb) ...
> Setting up netselect (0.3.ds1-10) ...
>
> # netselect http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu
>   59 http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu
> * wow, good, but how to use it with apt-get?

Try to s/us.archive.ubuntu.com/linux.csua.berkeley.edu/ in sources.list.

> * no matter what variant i use in the /etc/apt/sources.list file
> * (the following are commented lines in the file:)
> # added by jim 20081123
> # deb http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu
> * i get an error (above line without comment delimiter),
> * e.g. (the following is at the command line:)

> * how to force, at the command line, the use of a specific mirror?

Because they have different paths, it can't know for sure.

> * --fix-missing doesn't work either; still got a Size mismatch

Yeah, your (connection to your) mirror is still broken.  No amount of 
local trickery can fix that.

-- Asheesh.

-- 
Your boyfriend takes chocolate from strangers.