Raymond.CC Blog

Let me start by saying that I was hoping to install Xubuntu 10.04 just as much as the rest of you did today. However, they have run into a series of serious bugs that have prolonged how long we have to wait until the true final comes out. Last week, it ran into a fatal X.org error that led to a horrible memory leak, which for those not in the know, is not very good if you’d like a fast and stable system. Then as yesterday rolled around, a bug in GRUB managed to render other operating systems unbootable. For the most part, however, the bugs have been resolved in the new update that will be passed out to the servers shortly, though it might fall sometime into May for all the bugs to be fully worked out. They are updating the x86 and x64 versions of Ubuntu main, and of the netbook remix, but we can expect to see Kubuntu and Xubuntu taking a bit longer to complete. And since there are certain distros dependent on these distros, they too will be delayed.

Now that that’s out of the way, I’d like to cover a faster way at installing Ubuntu then downloading a new ISO and burning it to a disk, then installing it like that. Granted, that’s what a lot of us will be doing when it is finished, including myself, so we can have a backup copy, but it’s not the only way. Nor is updating via

update-manager -d

the only way either. (This is to be run after you hit Alt-F2 on your keyboard, and pasting it into that box that pops up.) Today, I’m going to cover Zsync, and show you a very quick way of installing Ubuntu’s updates so long as Ubuntu is already installed.

First thing’s first, we need to download and install Zsync, which is a terminal-based application. I’m aware I’m going to have people hate me for it, but it’s seriously worth using the command line for this. To install it, I’m going to show you the easiest route how. Once your terminal is open, type in, or copy and paste the following commands:

sudo apt-get install zsync -y

You also need an ISO of either Ubuntu Alpha, Beta, or Release Candidate, all of which can be found on Ubuntu’s servers or downloaded off of BitTorrent. Once you have an ISO copy, run the following commands based on the version you downloaded, and you should have an up-to-date copy of Ubuntu via ISO to be burned with ease without waiting as long for Ubuntu to download via congestion!

Important note: make sure to rename your ISO to match up to the one you’re syncing with, and if your ISO is not located in your home folder, use the cd command to direct yourself to the proper folder in which it’s stored.

32 bit Desktop Edition
zsync http://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu-releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://ftp.usf.edu/pub/ubuntu-releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirror.as29550.net/releases.ubuntu.com/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/CDs-Ubuntu/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirrors.xmission.com/ubuntu-cd/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://ubuntu.osuosl.org/releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://ubuntu.inode.at/cdimage/lucid/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso.zsync

64 bit Desktop Edition
zsync http://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu-releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://ftp.usf.edu/pub/ubuntu-releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirror.as29550.net/releases.ubuntu.com/9.10/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/CDs-Ubuntu/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://ubuntu.osuosl.org/releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirrors.xmission.com/ubuntu-cd/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://ubuntu.inode.at/cdimage/lucid/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync

32 bit Alternative Version
zsync http://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu-releases/9.10/ubuntu-9.10-alternate-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://ftp.usf.edu/pub/ubuntu-releases/9.10/ubuntu-9.10-alternate-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirror.as29550.net/releases.ubuntu.com/9.10/ubuntu-9.10-alternate-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/CDs-Ubuntu/9.10/ubuntu-9.10-alternate-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://ubuntu.osuosl.org/releases/9.10/ubuntu-9.10-alternate-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirrors.xmission.com/ubuntu-cd/9.10/ubuntu-9.10-alternate-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://ubuntu.inode.at/cdimage/karmic/ubuntu-9.10-alternate-i386.iso.zsync

64 bit Alternative Version
zsync http://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu-releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-alternate-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://ftp.usf.edu/pub/ubuntu-releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-alternate-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirror.as29550.net/releases.ubuntu.com/10.04/ubuntu-9.10-alternate-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/CDs-Ubuntu/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-alternate-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://ubuntu.osuosl.org/releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-alternate-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirrors.xmission.com/ubuntu-cd/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-alternate-amd64.iso.zsync
zsync http://ubuntu.inode.at/cdimage/lucid/ubuntu-10.04-alternate-amd64.iso.zsync

Netbook Remix
zsync http://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu-releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-netbook-remix-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://ftp.usf.edu/pub/ubuntu-releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-netbook-remix-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirror.as29550.net/releases.ubuntu.com/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-netbook-remix-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/CDs-Ubuntu/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-netbook-remix-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://ubuntu.osuosl.org/releases/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-netbook-remix-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://mirrors.xmission.com/ubuntu-cd/10.04/ubuntu-10.04-netbook-remix-i386.iso.zsync
zsync http://ubuntu.inode.at/cdimage/lucid/ubuntu-10.04-netbook-remix-i386.iso.zsync

Keep in mind, you only need to zsync with only one of these mirrors, you don’t have to sync with all of them. After that, you can burn that ISO to a disk, and install from your new, fully updated ISO. If you are getting an error, try putting it in your home directory (/home/username).