How to speed up downloading and updating packages using apt-fast in Debian 10
In one of our previous articles, we explained how to use the apt package manager to perform various operations, such as searching for available packages, installing or updating packages, removing packages, etc. But today we will discuss another utility that can improve the speed of downloading packages apt, known as apt-fast.
Apt-fast is a shell scripting shell for “apt-get” and “aptitude”, using the capabilities of axel or aria 2 boot managers to speed up the boot process. This improves download performance by downloading packages simultaneously and with multiple packages per connection.
In this article, we’ll show you how to install apt-fast to speed up the update and download process. We ran the commands and procedures mentioned in this article on a Debian10 system.
Step 1: Setting Prerequisites
To use apt-fast, you must first install axel or aria2 boot accelerators from the command line. Both are great tools that help increase download speed with multiple connections in a package.
Launch the terminal application on your system by going to activity Tab in the upper left corner of the desktop. Then in the search bar enter Terminal, When the terminal icon appears, click on it to launch it. Then run the following command in Terminal to install axel or aria2:
$ sudo apt-get install axel
Or
$ sudo apt-get install aria2
Step 2: Install and configure apt-fast
To install apt-fast, you first need to add the storage key for apt-fast. This will allow the system to trust packages added from the repository. Run the following command in Terminal to add the key:
$ apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 1EE2FF37CA8DA16B
After adding the key, add the apt-fast PPA repository to your system by running the following command in the terminal:
$ add-apt-repository ppa:apt-fast/stable
Now update the local apt repository by running the following command in the terminal:
$ apt-get update
Finally, run the following command in Terminal to install apt-fast:
$ apt-get -y install apt-fast
During the installation of apt-fast, a window for configuring apt-fast will appear.
When the following screen appears, select sq-arrive as a package manager and hit To come in go to the next step.
Now select the maximum number of connections. Leave this at default. Press Enter to go to the next step.
Remember that you can also set the maximum number of connections later by using the _MAXNUM variable in the configuration files.
You can disable the apt-fast confirmation dialog every time you want to install the package. Leave the default value for this.
After the installation is complete, we will need to perform basic configuration. The default apt-fast configuration file is located at / Etc. / sq-fast,
Run the following command in Terminal to edit the configuration file in the editor:
$ sudo nano /etc/apt-fast.conf
In the configuration file, add comma-separated mirrors in the following syntax:
MIRRORS = (http://ftp.debian.org/debian, http://ftp2.de.debian.org ’)
Use the following official Debian mirror page and add nearby mirrors depending on your geographic location.
https://www.debian.org/mirror/list
Also add mirrors that are present in /etc/apt/sources.list or in apt-fast configuration file /etc/apt-fast.conf.
Step 3: Using Apt-fast
When you finish installing and configuring apt-fast, use it the same way you use apt-get. Just replace fast instead of get in the apt-get command. Below are some useful commands for using apt-fast:
Use the following command to install the package using apt-fast:
$ sudo apt-fast install package_name
Use the following command to remove the package using apt-fast:
$ sudo apt-fast remove package_name
Use the following command to update the package using apt-fast:
$ sudo apt-fast update
Use the following command to update the package using apt-fast:
$ sudo apt-fast upgrade
Let’s see how apt-fast works by installing Apache2. To do this, run the following command in Terminal:
$ sudo apt-fast install apache2
He will ask for confirmation, enter Y to confirm.
From the above results, it can be seen that it downloads the Apache2 package using multiple connections.
In this article, we saw how apt-fast utility can be used not only to install software packages on your system, but also to increase download speed. Now enjoy the fast download!
How to speed up downloading and updating packages using apt-fast in Debian 10