When installing or updating packages using a package manager, a package repository is used to get a list of all available packages and to download those packages. Package mirrors are replicas of these package repositories. Akamai offers public package mirrors for Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS. Since our mirrors are hosted in every data center, responses and downloads are typically much faster than using other public mirrors.

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By default, all new Compute Instances use our package mirrors. No additional configuration is required.

Package mirror settings

For best performance, you will want to use the mirror in the same data center as your Compute Instance. When using the our DNS resolvers, mirrors.linode.com will resolve to the mirror within the same data center. For public queries, mirrors.linode.com will return a round robin of the US locations.

Instructions for setting the package mirror location are provided in the following subsections.

Ubuntu system settings

For a Ubuntu system follow the instructions below:

1. Edit the sources.list file with the following command:

   sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
   

2. Replace the line containing the address http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ with the new address location:

   http://mirrors.linode.com/ubuntu/
   

3. Do not modify lines containing the address http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/. These lines contain security updates for packages.

4. Save and exit the sources.list file.

Debian system settings

For a Debian system follow the instructions below:

1. Edit the sources.list file with the following command:

   sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
   

2. Replace the line containing the address http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ with the new address location:

   http://mirrors.linode.com/debian/
   

3. Do not modify lines containing the address http://security.debian.org/. These lines contains security updates for packages.

4. Save and exit the sources.list file.

CentOS system settings

For a CentOS system follow the instructions below:

1. By default, yum will try using fastest mirror available. This need to be disabled to use our mirror. Edit the fastestmirror.conf file with the following command:

   sudo nano /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/fastestmirror.conf
   

2. Change the enabled= variable to 0:

   /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/fastestmirror.conf

   ...
   enabled=0
   ...
   

3. Save and exit the fastestmirror.conf file.

4. Edit the CentOS-Base.repo file with the following command:

   sudo nano /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
   

5. Comment each mirrorlist line by adding the # sign before each line.

6. Uncomment each baseurl line by removing the # sign before each line.

7. Edit all baseurl lines containing the address http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/os/$basearch/ to reflect the new address location:

   http://mirrors.linode.com/centos/$releasever/os/$basearch/
   

8. Save and exit the CentOS-Base.repo file.