More zsync magic for LTS updates

I wrote before about how to update superceeded ISOs using zsync, and it's time to do that again, now that 16.04 LTS has the latest point release, to .4.

So the new command needed, after cd /path/to/iso is

cp kubuntu-16.04{.3,.4}-desktop-i386.iso && zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/16.04.4/release/kubuntu-16.04.4-desktop-i386.iso.zsync

The magic I didn't fully understand was the {.3,.4} part. Now I get that it is saying copy the files ending in .3 and replace them with files ending in .4.

I wanted also to point out that zsync is also invaluable for testing, because Ubuntu spins daily ISOs. For instance, on the qatracker such as the most recent for testing the above point releases, http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/386/builds there are a number of small CD icons. When you click on one, you are led to a small page with for instance, the following links to get xenial-desktop-amd64.iso:

HTTP http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/xenial/daily-live/20180228/xenial-desktop-amd64.iso 

RSYNC rsync -tzhhP rsync://cdimage.ubuntu.com/cdimage/kubuntu/xenial/daily-live/20180228/xenial-desktop-amd64.iso 

ZSYNC zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/xenial/daily-live/20180228/xenial-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync 

GPG signature http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/xenial/daily-live/20180228/MD5SUMS.gpg 

MD5 checksum http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/xenial/daily-live/20180228/MD5SUMS

The http link will download via your browser to your ~/.Downloads folder unless you have set that otherwise. Fine if you want your testing ISO to be there. If instead you do zsync by

cd ~/Downloads && zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/xenial/daily-live/20180228/xenial-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync

in the commandline, you will see a remarkable difference in how long it takes to download the second and subsequent times. Rsync does roughly the same thing. For these you do not need the "copy" cp step.

Get familiar with zysnc and use it more. It will save you time and make you more productive.

(originally posted a couple of weeks ago, but to my genealogy blog by mistake)

Seeding new ISOs the easy zsync way

Kubuntu recently had to pull our 17.10 ISOs because of the so-called lenovo bug. Now that this bug is fixed, the ISOs have been respun, and so now it's time to begin to reseed the torrents.

To speed up the process, I wanted to zsync to the original ISOs before getting the new torrent files. Simon kindly told me the easy way to do this - cd to the directory where the ISOs live, which in my case is 

cd /media/valorie/Data/ISOs/

Next: 

cp kubuntu-17.10{,.1}-desktop-amd64.iso && zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/17.10.1/release/kubuntu-17.10.1-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync

Where did I get the link to zsync? At http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/17.10.1/release/. All ISOs are found at cdimage, just as all torrents are found at http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/.

The final step is to download those torrent files (pro-tip: use control F) and tell Ktorrent to seed them all! I seed all the supported Ubuntu releases. The more people do this, the faster torrents are for everyone. If you have the bandwidth, go for it!

PS: you don't have to copy all the cdimage URLs. Just up-arrow and then back-arrow through your previous command once the sync has finished, edit it, hit return and you are back in business.

Kubuntu Artful beta 1 milestone released today

I'm happy to announce that Kubuntu Artful beta 1 milestone released today, having passed all the mandatory testing, thanks to lots of testers! Thanks so much to each of you.

If possible, we'll also be participating in Beta 2 with the next round of KDE bug-fix releases for the last testing milestone before release of Kubuntu 17.10 on 19 October 2017.

Release notes: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArtfulAardvark/Beta1/Kubuntu

If you would like to help us seed the torrents, go to http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/. To quickly find all the betas: control f and type beta.

Join us in freenode IRC: #kubuntu-devel with praise, help, or bug reports.

Metalinks, an excellent fast way to download KDE files

My G+ repost of Harald's announcement of the Plasma Next ISOs got some complaints about slow downloads. When I checked the with KDE sysadmins, I got some great information.

First, torrents aren't available, since 1. that requires dedicated tracker software, which isn't needed since 2. KDE doesn't distribute many large files.

However, files available at http://files.kde.org/snapshots/ and http://download.kde.org have a Details tab, where metalinks and mirrors are listed. I knew nothing about metalinks, but we could all benefit from them when downloading large files.

PovAddict (Nicolas Alvarez) told me that he uses the commandline for them: `aria2c http://files.kde.org/snapshots/neon5-201406200837.iso.metalink` for instance. I had to install aria2c for this to work; and the file took less than 15 minutes to download.

I read man wget and it seems not to support metalinks; at least I didn't find a reference.

Bshah (Bushan Shah) tried with kget and says it works very well. He said, New Download > Paste metalink > it will ask which files to download.

He also found the nice Wikipedia page for me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalink

Thanks to bcooksley, PovAddict and bshaw for their help.

PS: Bcooksley adds, the .mirrorlist url is generally what we recommend for people to use anyway. So even if you don't point to the metalink, please use the .mirrorlist URL when posting a file hosted at download.kde.org or files.kde.org. If people forget to do that, click that Details link to get there for the hashes, lists of mirrors, and metalink files.