Debian mirror size page<\/a>. Even if you choose one or two architectures – you probably don’t have that much disk space sitting there unused. So figure that out before you start.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe minimum today for the Linux Mint mirror is just over 100GB. But Who knows what it will be by the time you read this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 2 – Install debmirror<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you’re running an apt-based distro on your server – you use apt to install debmirror. For everyone else – you’ll have to download the source package, get the script out of there, and put it into \/usr\/local\/bin. For me the steps looked like this (I did everything as root):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
cd \/root\nwget http:\/\/deb.debian.org\/debian\/pool\/main\/d\/debmirror\/debmirror_2.32.tar.xz\ntar xvf debmirror_2.32.tar.xz\ncd debmirror\ncp debmirror \/usr\/local\/bin<\/pre>\n\n\n\nFinding the URL to download the latest debmirror package was a pain, but I don’t think the version matters that much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At this point on my server when I ran it, I got an error like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# debmirror\nCan't locate LockFile\/Simple.pm in @INC (you may need to install the LockFile::Simple module) (@INC contains: \/usr\/local\/lib64\/perl5 \/usr\/local\/share\/perl5 \/usr\/lib64\/perl5\/vendor_perl \/usr\/share\/perl5\/vendor_perl \/usr\/lib64\/perl5 \/usr\/share\/perl5 .) at .\/debmirror line 592.\nBEGIN failed--compilation aborted at .\/debmirror line 592.<\/pre>\n\n\n\nI already used CPAN before, so the fix was easy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
cpan install LockFile::Simple<\/pre>\n\n\n\nThen it runs, but doesn’t do anything yet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# debmirror\nmirrordir not specified\nUsage: .\/debmirror [options]<\/pre>\n\n\n\nLater I found that the version of gpgv On Slackware 14 doesn’t understand the –output argument which the debmirror script uses, so I had to edit debmirror and remove the “–output –<\/strong>” from this line:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\"my @gpgv = qw(gpgv --output - --status-fd);\"<\/pre>\n\n\n\nI don’t know what that was intended to do, but it worked fine for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 3: Signatures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Ubuntu guide didn’t explain what this does, and I didn’t bother figuring it out. Probably debmirror will verify the integrity of the mirrored packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I needed both the Ubuntu and Mint keys, and since the server wasn’t running either – I had to scp them from one of my workstations (10.0.0.150):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mkdir \/root\/mirrorkeyring
cd \/root\/mirrorkeyring
scp andrew@10.0.0.150<\/strong>:\/usr\/share\/keyrings\/ubuntu-archive-keyring.gpg .
gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring \/root\/mirrorkeyring\/trustedkeys.gpg --import ubuntu-archive-keyring.gpg
scp andrew@10.0.0.150<\/strong>:\/usr\/share\/keyrings\/linuxmint-keyring.gpg .
gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring \/root\/mirrorkeyring\/trustedkeys.gpg --import linuxmint-keyring.gpg<\/pre>\n\n\n\nYou’ll use this \/root\/mirrorkeyring directory in your scripts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 4: Create mirror scripts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Linux Mint is mostly Ubuntu. But it has a couple of gigabytes of its own packages. So you’ll need to make a script to mirror the Ubuntu repositories and another (almost identical) script to mirror the Mint repository.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The comments in the script in the Ubuntu help page are quite useful, but I removed them here for brevity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# cat \/root\/mirror-ubuntu.sh<\/strong>
#!\/bin\/bash
export GNUPGHOME=\/root\/mirrorkeyring
arch=i386,amd64
section=main,restricted,universe,multiverse
release=noble,noble-updates,noble-backports,noble-security
server=mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca
inPath=\/ubuntu
proto=http
outPath=\/srv\/httpd2\/htdocs\/mirror\/ubuntu
debmirror -a $arch \\
--no-source \\
-s $section \\
-h $server \\
-d $release \\
-r $inPath \\
--progress \\
--method=$proto \\
$outPath<\/pre>\n\n\n\nHere are my notes for these variables:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- arch<\/strong> needs both i386 and amd64. I don’t know why. My workstations are amd64 but apt complained that the server was missing the i386 Packages files.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- section<\/strong> and release<\/strong> I figured out by looking at the \/etc\/apt\/sources.list.d\/official-package-repositories.list file on a Linux Mint box of the correct version (Linux Mint 20 in this case). I expect that in the future only the “focal” part will ever need to be changed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- server<\/strong> and inPath<\/strong> were also from that original sources list file, I always used the mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca in the past (thnks guys!).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- outPath<\/strong> is where the mirrored files will be stored on your server. In my case that’s just a symlink to where I mounted my extra hard drive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Then I made a copy of that script to handle mirroring Mint instead. I didn’t see any immediately obvious way to do both from one script:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# cat ~\/mirror-mint.sh<\/strong>
#!\/bin\/bash
export GNUPGHOME=\/root\/mirrorkeyring
arch=amd64,i386
section=main,upstream,import,backport
# Mint versions:
# 20\tulyana
# 20.1\tulyssa
# 20.2\tuma
# 20.3\tuna
# 21\tvanessa
# 21.1\tvera
# 21.2\tvictoria
# 21.3\tvirginia
# 22 wilma
# 22.1 xia
# 22.2 zara
# 22.3 zena
release=xia,zara,zena
server=mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca
inPath=\/linuxmint-packages
proto=http
outPath=\/srv\/httpd2\/htdocs\/mirror\/linuxmint-packages\/
debmirror -a $arch \\
--no-source \\
-s $section \\
-h $server \\
-d $release \\
-r $inPath \\
--progress \\
--method=$proto \\
$outPath
<\/pre>\n\n\n\nIt’s almost identical. The only that differ are the section, release, and the two paths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 5: First sync<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The first time you run the mirror-ubuntu.sh script it’s going to take a very long time. For me on a 25Mbps connection it took about 24-36 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thankfully because you’re doing it properly – this can be interrupted at any time and it will resume from where you left off with very little overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it’s almost done you should be able to see something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# cd \/srv\/httpd2\/htdocs\/mirror<\/strong>\n# ls<\/strong>\nlinuxmint-packages\/ lost+found\/ ubuntu\/\n# ls linuxmint-packages\/<\/strong>\ndists\/ pool\/ project\/\n# ls ubuntu\/<\/strong>\nArchive-Update-in-Progress-littlesvr.ca dists\/ pool\/ project\/\n# ls ubuntu\/pool\/<\/strong>\nmain\/ multiverse\/ restricted\/ universe\/\n# ls ubuntu\/pool\/main\/<\/strong>\na\/ d\/ g\/ j\/ liba\/ libd\/ libg\/ libj\/ libm\/ libp\/ libs\/ libv\/ liby\/ n\/ q\/ t\/ w\/ z\/\nb\/ e\/ h\/ k\/ libb\/ libe\/ libh\/ libk\/ libn\/ libq\/ libt\/ libw\/ libz\/ o\/ r\/ u\/ x\/\nc\/ f\/ i\/ l\/ libc\/ libf\/ libi\/ libl\/ libo\/ libr\/ libu\/ libx\/ m\/ p\/ s\/ v\/ y\/\n# ls ubuntu\/pool\/main\/a\/aalib\/<\/strong>\nlibaa1-dbg_1.4p5-46_amd64.deb libaa1-dev_1.4p5-46_amd64.deb libaa1_1.4p5-46_amd64.deb\nlibaa1-dbg_1.4p5-46_i386.deb libaa1-dev_1.4p5-46_i386.deb libaa1_1.4p5-46_i386.deb\n# du -hs ubuntu\/<\/strong>\n100G ubuntu\/\n# du -hs linuxmint-packages\/<\/strong>\n1.7G linuxmint-packages\/<\/pre>\n\n\n\nStep 6: Web server setup<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I didn’t need to do anything here, \/srv\/httpd2\/htdocs\/mirror was already served automatically by my Apache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 7: Client setup<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
For some reason there doesn’t seem to be a user-friendly way to add a custom mirror to a Debian-based distribution. You have to edit text files. Oh well, on my workstations I edited \/etc\/apt\/sources.list.d\/official-package-repositories.list like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
deb http:\/\/10.0.0.2\/mirror\/linuxmint-packages zena main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
deb http:\/\/10.0.0.2\/mirror\/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
deb http:\/\/10.0.0.2\/mirror\/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http:\/\/10.0.0.2\/mirror\/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http:\/\/10.0.0.2\/mirror\/ubuntu\/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
# deb http:\/\/packages.linuxmint.com zena main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
# deb http:\/\/archive.ubuntu.com\/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
# deb http:\/\/archive.ubuntu.com\/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
# deb http:\/\/archive.ubuntu.com\/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb http:\/\/security.ubuntu.com\/ubuntu\/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse<\/pre>\n\n\n\nMy entries are at the top, the original ones commented out at the bottom. Basically I just changed the server URL, leaving everything else as it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Note that I only have one server, that hosts everything I need from packages.linuxmint.com, archive.ubuntu.com, and security.ubuntu.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Step 8: Try it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Run and apt-get update and apt-get upgrade on the client, and be amazed at how all the donwloading from the servers takes no time whatsoever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If only I knew I was going to use Linux Mint for so long – I would have set this up years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ll probably do the same eventually for CentOS which I use for work, and the waiting for downloads is equally frustrating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For a very long time I’ve been a Slackware user. I still happily run Slackware on my servers, but I moved to Linux Mint for all my workstations. One of the things that always pissed me off about non-Slackware distributions is the amount of time it takes to install new software. Sure in Slackware I … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-andrew","4":"post-1314","6":"format-standard","7":"category-opensource"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/littlesvr.ca\/grumble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/littlesvr.ca\/grumble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/littlesvr.ca\/grumble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/littlesvr.ca\/grumble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/littlesvr.ca\/grumble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"http:\/\/littlesvr.ca\/grumble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1459,"href":"http:\/\/littlesvr.ca\/grumble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions\/1459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/littlesvr.ca\/grumble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/littlesvr.ca\/grumble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/littlesvr.ca\/grumble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}