How to speed up `apt-get upgrade`? My network is slow

Question

I wanted to upgrade faster. I already tried the apt-get update command.

As my network connection is slow, I couldn't be able to finish it.

After 49% I stopped the process by hitting Ctrl+Z.

Answer 1

Use a Closer Mirror

• Use apt's built in mirror support
• Use netselect to find the fastest available mirror
• Use a source list generator

Auto-Download Security Updates

This may be benefitial to ensure you get the most important updates. You could schedule the downloads for a time at which you don't use the Internet. You can also adjust what is updated/downloaded automatically.

unattended-upgrades instructions

Cache Packages

This will help if you have multiple machines on your network that will use the same updates

• Apt-Cacher-Server
• Apt-Proxy

Answer 2

Install apt-fast :

Ubuntu 14.04 and above :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/myppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-fast

Older distributions :

https://askubuntu.com/a/501905/458410

and then do :

sudo apt-fast update
sudo apt-fast upgrade

instead of apt-get.

Create an alias :

• adding this line at the end of /.bashrc

  alias apt-get='apt-fast'

• launch

  source /.bashrc

and use apt-get as an alias for apt-fast:

apt-get update