Fastly Repository

[clefebvre]

Hi everyone,

We're currently testing the Fastly CDN, which has the potential to really boost the performance of our repositories.

How to test

1. Launch the Software Sources tool.
2. Click on Restore the default settings to ensure you're using the official mirror.
3. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list with:

sudo xed /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list

4. In this file, replace:

http://packages.linuxmint.com

with:

http://fastly.linuxmint.io

5. Update your APT cache with:

apt update

What to expect

• Faster response times. Unlike our repositories which are located in Chicago, this is a global CDN, with servers all over the World.
• Consistent speeds. Packages are cached. When more people download them, the speeds should not go down.
• High availability.

How long is this test

One month, two months maybe? It's hard to predict.

We're testing load, pricing, updates..

HTTPS

You can also test the Fastly repositories via HTTPs.

Instead of:

http://fastly.linuxmint.io

Use:

https://fastly.linuxmint.io

How to give us Feedback

We expect the Fastly CDN to be fast, consistent and highly available.

If you're testing it and you're happy with it, simply react to this issue with the rocket emoji 🚀.

If you are experiencing problems, let us know with a comment.

Long term

We're hoping to be able to move to Fastly.

We need to see how the CDN copes with large amounts of users before switching to it.

Please be aware that http://fastly.linuxmint.io is a temporary domain name, set up for this test.

If/when we eventually switch to Fastly we'll make http://packages.linuxmint.com point to Fastly CDN directly.

Many thanks to all of you in advance.

[GAJansen]

Hi @clefebvre,
I am in to try and test this repo. But as this is a temporary set up, how will testers be notified when the test is over and switch back to the original repo's?

[olegStreejak]

hello. Just changed as it stated in post. Cert error:

$ apt update
Сущ:2 http://pub.freerdp.com/repositories/deb/jammy freerdp-nightly InRelease                                                                
Сущ:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/phoerious/keepassxc/ubuntu jammy InRelease                                                                    
Игн:1 https://fastly.linuxmint.com virginia InRelease                                                                                        
Сущ:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/unit193/inxi/ubuntu jammy InRelease                                                                           
Сущ:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease                                                                                       
Сущ:6 https://repo.skype.com/deb stable InRelease                                                                                            
Сущ:7 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease                                                                             
Сущ:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease                                                                               
Сущ:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease                                           
Сущ:10 https://download.sublimetext.com apt/stable/ InRelease                     
Игн:1 https://fastly.linuxmint.com virginia InRelease
Игн:1 https://fastly.linuxmint.com virginia InRelease
Ошб:1 https://fastly.linuxmint.com virginia InRelease
  Certificate verification failed: The certificate is NOT trusted. The name in the certificate does not match the expected.  Could not handshake: Error in the certificate verification. [IP: 192.124.249.53 443]
Чтение списков пакетов… Готово
Построение дерева зависимостей… Готово
Чтение информации о состоянии… Готово         
Может быть обновлено 5 пакетов. Запустите «apt list --upgradable» для их показа.
W: Не удалось получить http://fastly.linuxmint.com/dists/virginia/InRelease  Certificate verification failed: The certificate is NOT trusted. The name in the certificate does not match the expected.  Could not handshake: Error in the certificate verification. [IP: 192.124.249.53 443]
W: Некоторые индексные файлы скачать не удалось. Они были проигнорированы, или вместо них были использованы старые версии.

no difference whether romeo enabled or not

[EnlightenedBacon]

hello. Just changed as it stated in post. Cert error:

fastly.linuxmint.io not .com

[karhima]

The https site is giving me this error, http://fastly.linuxmint.io is working fine.

[olegStreejak]

hello. Just changed as it stated in post. Cert error:

fastly.linuxmint.io not .com

thank you for correction - my fault by neglection. Now it works perfect

[sat-hub]

I started testing https://fastly.linuxmint.io.

🚀

[clefebvre]

The https site is giving me this error, http://fastly.linuxmint.io is working fine.

Does apt update work? Do you get any warning/error?

[Cautious-C]

🚀

[clefebvre]

Hi @clefebvre, I am in to try and test this repo. But as this is a temporary set up, how will testers be notified when the test is over and switch back to the original repo's?

When the test is over we'll close this issue and/or make announcements.

[karhima]

apt update did not give me any errors or warnings

[rcork]

🚀

[sardine-antics]

🚀

[ReyVago]

I made the change of repositories, and everything seems to work fine.

[juglanshub]

🚀 https://fastly.linuxmint.io

[ajay6915]

Worked with https://fastly.linuxmint.io. No issues.

[dream-eddie]

Switched over to https://fastly.linuxmint.io/ and works fine and is fast.

[myself42]

http://fastly.linuxmint.io @ Una is working OK (I didn't notice a difference compared to the local server) so 🚀

[rebelxt]

Made the change in a Mint Cinnamon 21.3 test bed under VirtualBox. Worked without error. It wasn't slow. But, I never change the Main mirror anyway, only the Base. So I don't have any idea if it is helping.

[HeidiKabel]

I also get an error message with the https - it says the mirror is unavailable:

[HeidiKabel]

And the http site gives me the same error:

[anaximeno]

@HeidiKabel what is the version of mint you are currently on? Also, the issue persists after clicking to reload?

[bhilmers]

🚀 I am in Chicago and think the CDN was maybe slightly faster, but that's just a feeling.

[Condobloke]

Arrived prior to being available on default settings (2nd PC)
All of the updates downloaded, installed and finished in under 10 seconds
Location: Australia, Eastern Coast.

[clefebvre]

@karhima @HeidiKabel two questions...

• Does the issue persist and always happen when you click Refresh in Mintupdate?
• Can you paste the output of curl -i https://fastly.linuxmint.io/db/version?

[JerryF1257]

🚀

[andrewille]

Works fine for me. First, I downloaded spotify-client which was pretty slow (~1MB/s). The second time, right after, it was very fast. The caching seems to work really well.

[bencastan]

🚀

All good from Sydney Australia

[haggen88]

h2gn@h2gn:~$ apt update
Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease [110 kB]
Ign:3 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia InRelease
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease [119 kB]
Get:5 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia Release [24,1 kB]
Get:6 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia Release.gpg [833 B]
Hit:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease
Get:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main i386 Packages [609 kB]
Get:9 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia/main i386 Packages [17,9 kB]
Get:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages [1.558 kB]
Get:11 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia/main amd64 Packages [18,5 kB]
Get:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/universe i386 Packages [698 kB]
Get:13 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/universe amd64 Packages [1.060 kB]
Get:14 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia/upstream i386 Packages [14,6 kB]
Get:15 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia/upstream amd64 Packages [48,8 kB]
Get:16 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia/import amd64 Packages [8.338 B]
Get:17 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia/import i386 Packages [3.678 B]
Get:18 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia/backport amd64 Packages [54,9 kB]
Get:19 http://fastly.linuxmint.io virginia/backport i386 Packages [8.307 B]
Fetched 4.355 kB in 5s (899 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.

🚀 no problems at the moment

[biicwlim]

http working fine here, https did not. Also, I had to disconnect from my VPN, but that has often been true on the default mirror; others I've tried have usually let me connect over VPN with no problem.

[junsircoding]

🚀

All good from Beijing China.

[LinuxOnTheDesktop]

Fastly has been working for me but, just now, this:

W: Failed to fetch http://fastly.linuxmint.io/dists/virginia/InRelease  Temporary failure resolving ‘fastly.linuxmint.io’
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Moreover: https://fastly.linuxmint.io/ is giving 'Server not found' and so, but only for a minute, did https://forums.linuxmint.com/.

[kubcomputing]

Latest updates Firefox and Chromium with a possible 5 MB/s (LMDE6, Germany)
https://fastly.linuxmint.io/: Firefox: 5 MB/s 🚀
https://fastly.linuxmint.io/: Chromium: 3.8 MB/s
http://packages.linuxmint.com/: Firefox: 130 kB/s
http://packages.linuxmint.com/: Chromium: 70 kB/s
https://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/linuxmint: no update available

[Oldbwl]

🚀

Much faster for Firefox

[SquidHM3]

I just stumbled onto this blog. So far, http://fastly.linuxmint.io is working without issue via the command line. No errors at all.
I don't know how to make a rocket emoji, so I'll just mention it here. :)

[ineuw]

I am using it on ~6 installations, without any issues in LMC 21.3 and Edge, since 2024-04-30.

[towaso]

🚀
Still testing...

[treysis]

Still no IPv6 :( I know fastly supports IPv6 very well. Can you please just enable it?

[Condobloke]

June 15, 2024.
Whatever changes/alterations etc etc have been done over the past few weeks, is working

Downloads do not appear to be affected by changing weather patterns as they were previously (that is Not a joke)
They have become very reliable.

I am impressed.

East coast, Australia...approx 600km north of Sydney (slightly west of the coast...approx 180km)

Good one, Clem.

[midigark]

Any solid news on how this is going...AND...if the news is good, any idea when this might be a done deal?

[CryptoSiD]

🚀

[midigark]

June 15, 2024. Whatever changes/alterations etc etc have been done over the past few weeks, is working

Downloads do not appear to be affected by changing weather patterns as they were previously (that is Not a joke) They have become very reliable.

I am impressed.

East coast, Australia...approx 600km north of Sydney (slightly west of the coast...approx 180km)

Good one, Clem.

---

I date back from a time when it rained, you could hear other phone conversations on your private line. (not a "party" line). You could even hear the cable lash in high winds. This was due - in part - from the very old switching system that used open frame rotary switches mounted on plywood panels. These "switching substations" were a nightmare before electronic switching ended it all. I have to laugh at the fact that people were even able to connect to Yahoo, Delphi, Comcast, Genie, and other networks of the day. The resistance of a single switch contact might have been a reason to connect or fail. My first modem was 300 baud.

Just a thought...
After just doing some quick research on how Australia is connected to the world, I'm beginning to think your internet provider may not use various hard connected deep sea cable systems and may rely on satellite. Maybe doing a routing test might give you an idea of what path your data stream is taking.

traceroute for linux users
tracert for Windows users

There are online Traceroute sites, but normally they do not allow you to specify any options.

With a command line tool, you will (should) have dozens of options, but the most important one here is to be able to see the DNS names in plain language.
lol
If it goes to a satellite, you may actually see the name of the service connection.

Of course, there is the possibility that they were temporarily using alternative (old) lines or satellite while doing extensive upgrades or repairs. My service (XFinity) loves to do system updates at 2:00 am in the morning, right in the middle of my gaming time. (grrrrr)

G'day!
Mark

[GeorgeChalkitis]

🚀

[Condobloke]

The service provider in question is TPG (Vodaphone) which is the third biggest in Australia
I would really scratch my head when this happened....looking for other reasons thta may cause this......I could not find any, and the occurrences were too consistent to ignore.
They stopped as if a switch had been thrown. (maybe it had !)....the timing seemingly coinciding with LM starting to use the Fastly repository...

G'day back at you.

[midigark]

When I moved from an apartment to a house, it was sort of out in the boondocks (technology wise). My wired modem connection was at the very edge of connecting to my provider and it was all local wiring. One day on the way home from work, I started seeing large (very large) spools of what could only be new phone lines. It was all wired, no fiber yet. Then a new set of spools, smaller "cable" and a free standing metal enclosure where the other heavy cables connected. THIS was the fiber station that was feeding all the new connectivity.

Wouldn't you know it, they ran down the east side of the road to a town several miles north and then back down the west side of the road to the houses that were now closest to the fiber station, but farthest away in therms of connection. I couldn't believe it, my house was 30 feet under the "theoretical" connection limit. The guy who really got screwed lived across the access road form the fiber station and could easily toss a rock at it underhand from the edge of his yard, but in order to get full speed DSL, he had to get a "bifurcated" dual line converter (ISP provided free) that combined 2 DSL connections into 1.

All this because it was easier to run the cable across the road overhead up-north than to run and connect two separate lines and add a new utility pole. It also meant that they didn't have to dig under the access road.

cretins

[BassHunger]

https://fastly.linuxmint.io

on LinuxMint 21.2 got the full speed at 5 MB/s
very quick response here in Greece other servers are way slower!

welcome their service

[Xenophobe-01]

Upstate NY, FIOS fiber 100/100 Mbps, just got the 127.0.2 firefox update, it was so quick the download speed line didn't have time to populate.

[dimaqq]

Works, but just as slow for "apt update" (tested in a fresh container).

Maybe it's expected, but only some resources are fetched from fastly:

root@087a29d9c99a:/host# cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linuxmint.list
deb http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie main upstream import backport

root@087a29d9c99a:/host# time apt update
Hit:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye InRelease
Get:2 http://deb.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security InRelease [48.4 kB]
Get:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates InRelease [44.1 kB]
Ign:4 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie InRelease
Get:5 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie Release [22.2 kB]
Get:6 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie Release.gpg [833 B]
Get:7 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main all Contents (deb) [31.1 MB]
Get:8 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 Contents (deb) [10.3 MB]
Get:9 http://deb.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security/main amd64 Packages [275 kB]
Get:10 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates/main all Contents (deb) [27.3 kB]
Get:11 http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates/main amd64 Contents (deb) [88.3 kB]
Get:12 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie/main amd64 Packages [14.8 kB]
Get:13 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie/main amd64 Contents (deb) [913 kB]
Get:14 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie/upstream amd64 Packages [38.3 kB]
Get:15 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie/upstream amd64 Contents (deb) [25.3 kB]
Get:16 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie/import amd64 Packages [6446 B]
Get:17 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie/import amd64 Contents (deb) [48.0 kB]
Get:18 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie/backport amd64 Packages [34.1 kB]
Get:19 http://fastly.linuxmint.io elsie/backport amd64 Contents (deb) [51.6 kB]
Fetched 43.0 MB in 8s (5337 kB/s)

[BassHunger]

@dimaqq

To answer your concern in short - that's as it should be, cause not all packets come from LinuxMint servers.

You are using the Debian OS as the underlying system and only the other packages come ontop from LM aka Fastly now.

[treysis]

Can't reach the server:

$ ping fastly.linuxmint.io
ping: connect: Network is unreachable

But traditional mirror:

$ ping ftp.fau.de
PING ftp.fau.de(ftp.rrze.uni-erlangen.de (2001:638:a000:1021:21::1)) 56 data bytes
64 bytes from ftp.rrze.uni-erlangen.de (2001:638:a000:1021:21::1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=29.1 ms
64 bytes from ftp.rrze.uni-erlangen.de (2001:638:a000:1021:21::1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=29.7 ms
^C
--- ftp.fau.de ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1026ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 29.120/29.395/29.671/0.275 ms

[Jeremy7701]

I can.

jeremy@hal:~$ ping fastly.linuxmint.io
PING t.sni.global.fastly.net (151.101.191.52) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 151.101.191.52 (151.101.191.52): icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=9.56 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.191.52 (151.101.191.52): icmp_seq=2 ttl=58 time=9.44 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.191.52 (151.101.191.52): icmp_seq=3 ttl=58 time=9.75 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.191.52 (151.101.191.52): icmp_seq=4 ttl=58 time=9.51 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.191.52 (151.101.191.52): icmp_seq=5 ttl=58 time=9.85 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.191.52 (151.101.191.52): icmp_seq=6 ttl=58 time=9.53 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.191.52 (151.101.191.52): icmp_seq=7 ttl=58 time=9.70 ms
^C
--- t.sni.global.fastly.net ping statistics ---
7 packets transmitted, 7 received, 0% packet loss, time 6009ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 9.435/9.618/9.853/0.139 ms

But it might be a different server than your routing.

[melroy89]

I can even confirm it works on Linux Mint 21.3 still.

[Condobloke]

I can confirm that fastly was not available on Australia's eastern coast (Sydney side) on August 18th approx 3PM.
Updates failed.

On the 19th August it appears available but is very slow.

This on LM21.3

On LM22, fastly does not appear in the list, despite being used since 22 was released

[ineuw]

Can I implement Fastly for LMC 22.0? If available, can you post an update please?

[carlosmintfan]

@ineuw You should be able to do that just by following the same instruct posted by Clem on the top of this issue.

[ineuw]

@carlosmintfan Thanks for the example.

[clefebvre]

Note: We'll have a bit of downtime on fastly this week (hopefully just a few hours) while we're upgrading a network card on the server.

[clefebvre]

The fastly configuration was changed today to load balance between multiple origin servers. We're also set to serve stale content. Fingers crossed.. this is a good test. If everything goes according to plan, we should actually not see any downtime while one of the servers is down.

[treysis]

@clefebvre Will you add IPv6 afterwards?