Mageia forum

I have been a user of urpmi and rpmdrake for over ten years, but I have never bothered to delve too far into its inner workings because there was little enough to go wrong and putting things right was usually no more than a few point-and-clicks away.

Mandriva changed that when they introduced their invisible mirror list which purported to get you the best connection for your locality (at least I think that was the reason they gave) but somehow it never quite worked that way for me. That wasn't a problem, though, because there was still a point-and-clicky way to bypass it using urpmi strings you could get from Easy Urpmi (always my first Speeddial entry after a new install).

Problem is, Mageia also uses the invisible mirror list thing, but without an easy way for me to get around it. That isn't a compelling issue for me with Mageia 1 as the connections I have been given are quite fast thank you very much. Sadly I have been struggling for weeks with seldom better than dial-up speeds on Cauldron and I would like to find a few alternative mirrors and/or find a way to blacklist the one I am getting from MIRRORLIST or whatever it is called.

Does anyone have a list of current Cauldron mirrors they could post here?
Is it possible to blacklist a MIRRORLIST mirror?

Thanks

Richard

You don't need EasyUrpmi for that. If you already have Mageia 1 configured with your favourite mirror(1) all you have to do is edit the list:
Open MCC->Software->Mirror Setup, where you can see all active entries of your current setup. Now mark the first activated entry (usually "core") and click on the "Edit"-Button at the right side. In the field where the URL is given, replace "/distrib/1/" with "/distrib/cauldron/" - that's all. Repeat that with all active entries.

You can do the same as root in a terminal by editing /etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg

After that you can open a konsole window and as root do 'urpmi.update -a' which will fetch the new lists.

(1) If you haven't done that already, open the mirror setup tool in MCC/software and remove all entries. Then click on "Select a dedicated mirror" in the "File" menue, after clicking on "Complete set" you will be presented with a list of Mageia mirrors. Mark the one you want and sit back and watch the setup being done. No need to go elsewhere to EasyUrpmi or SmartUrpmi any more.
After you have done that you can edit the URLs to pint to cauldron instead of 1.

You can also use urpmi directly, that's probably less work. Just remove all your current repos, and add the Cauldron ones, like so:

Code: Select all

urpmi.removemedia -a
urpmi.addmedia --distrib ftp://ftp.mandrivauser.de/mirrors/Mageia/distrib/cauldron/i586/

That would add all cauldron repos, but maybe you need to enable nonfree and/or tainted _release
repos, if you need any packages from those repos. You would use ftp.mandrivauser.de mirror,
but you can use any other if you have a preferred mirror. For 64bit system you need to replace "i586"
with x86_64.

In addition to the Doktor's tip:

If you want to use another mirror, you can get the appropiate urls here:

http://mirrors.mageia.org/distrib

cheers,
Bernd

winstonteacox wrote:In addition to the Doktor's tip:

If you want to use another mirror, you can get the appropiate urls here:

Perfect, thanks Bernd, that's exactly what I need. I take it that there is no way to stick with the MIRRORLIST method and just blacklist the really slow ones? No worries, I'm sure I can find something close to home in that lot.

Richard

wobo wrote:If you already have Mageia 1 configured with your favourite mirror(1) all you have to do is edit the list:

Thanks Wobo, I am using Cauldron. The Mageia 1 is on my normal USB boot disc, and the default mirror works at a good speed. I am using an alternative USB boot disc to try Cauldron, but the auto-assigned mirror is painfully slow. Bernd has supplied a reference to the Mageia mirror picker page which I can use, but wouldn't it be nice if you could pick the mirror and click to get the urpmi strings needed for each repository? Sort of like the PLF way.

Richard

doktor5000 wrote:You can also use urpmi directly, that's probably less work.

Thanks Doc, that looks like the easiest way to use the mirrors from Bernd's list (apologies to those really responsible for making it available).

Richard

Just for completeness, now using a new Cauldron mirror after a few attempts to get something quicker. I am now officially a happy bunny, at least the dread of Update Agony has gone away.

Richard

jaywalker wrote:wouldn't it be nice if you could pick the mirror and click to get the urpmi strings needed for each repository? Sort of like the PLF way.

Richard

There is, just go to mcc (Mageia Control Centre) > Configure media sources for install and update > File > Add a Specific Mirror, you'll be asked if you wish just Updates or a Complete set of sources, you'll then be given a list of mirrors to chose from and everything will be setup for you.
Much faster than the PLF way.

Ken-Bergen wrote:Much faster than the PLF way.

My God, you are right! You know, I think I saw that menu entry once, might have been in Mandriva days, but I must have ignored it because the way it is worded it looked like I had to have a specific mirror in mind. It is MUCH better than having to fire up a web browser.

I wonder how many other gems there are hidden behind equally innocuous menu entries?

Thanks, Ken, for the heads up.

Ken-Bergen wrote:There is, just go to mcc (Mageia Control Centre) > Configure media sources for install and update > File > Add a Specific Mirror, you'll be asked if you wish just Updates or a Complete set of sources, you'll then be given a list of mirrors to chose from and everything will be setup for you.
Much faster than the PLF way.

Yes, that's the way I described in the first reply in this thread

wobo wrote:Yes, that's the way I described in the first reply in this thread

You are absolutely right. Sorry I missed it in your footnote. I must not speed-read responses, I must not speed-read responses, I must not speed-read responses ...

I have already slapped myself on the back of the head (not easy!) for skipping menu entries which don't look relevant. I am learning to be more adventurous, I think.

Richard