MEPIS Mirrors and downloads

Submitted by twanj on Mon, 08/28/2006 - 17:18. Site Suggestions
Posts: 10

Hi,

I think it would be useful if MEPIS checked out Metalink for the download page.

A metalink (XML file) is a single link that contains all the mirrors & p2p for a file like an ISO, along with checksum information.

Right now, OpenOffice.org uses Metalinks to distribute their free office suite at http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p/magnet.html and a few Linux distributions use it too.

aria2 is a great command line client for metalink.

There's a metalink for SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso at http://www.metalinker.org/samples.html#isos if you'd like to check it out.

Thanks but... Spam?

Submitted by Jon Du Quesne on Mon, 08/28/2006 - 18:36.
Posts: 5513

Twanj, thanks for the link. However, I just did a quick Google search on "twanj metalink" (no quotation marks) and got about 82 links. Most of the entries on forums have been since June of this year.

So are you somehow affiliated with metalink? If so, I would appreciate the "truth in advertising" to let us know. If you are not affiliated, how do you believe this will be helpful?

I'm not a real "P2P guy" so I'm just trying to figure out why metalink is better than BitTorrent or other techniques like it. And for someone on dial-up, where downloads already take forever, any type of peering method just changes the time to forever-and-a-month Smiling

Comments?

Jon

comments?

Submitted by drlizau on Tue, 08/29/2006 - 02:14.
Posts: 4864

i tried to load metalink.org but got to view a great blank screen. obviously thousands of mepis forum users trying to check out the site.
i'll leave it here long enough for jon to read and then go for slash-and-burn agriculture

still waiting for jon's avatar....
gotta find a suitable portrait one day to join the witch, pirate and penguins

Jon, Yes, I'm affiliated

Submitted by twanj on Tue, 08/29/2006 - 03:31.
Posts: 10

Jon,

Yes, I'm affiliated with metalink. I've added it to my sig to clarify things. Yes, I'm on a lot of forums.

I'm not a very good salesman (as you can probably see from the original post - no hype).

Metalink uses mirrors (ftp/http) and p2p (BitTorrent, ed2k, magnet links). Being able to draw from all these sources at once makes for speedy downloads if you have a fast connection.

If a mirror you're using goes down, then the alternates listed are automatically used and your download won't be interrupted.

For dial up users, this won't increase your speed but by having more sources a download can be more reliable. On dialup, you probably want to be using a download manager to get ISOs and large files, so they can be easily resumed if you're disconnected or have to log off. Checksums are also verified automatically. If the metalink has partial checksums, then only sections with errors will need to be re-downloaded (saves a LOT of time on dialup).

I can only say, try it out. It's not easy to get commercial and open source software to agree on a standard. It speaks for itself. That's why I created the .metalink for MEPIS. On dialup, you won't notice a speed difference since one server can max out your bandwidth, but those with better connections should. I've seen downloads of 9 MB/sec (all depends on your connection obviously) which were not possible with a single mirror (metalink just makes it easy).

drlizau,

grin. Here are some more stable sites for info:

http://torrentfreak.com/metalinker-integrating-http-ftp-and-p2p/

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/08/28/metalinks-integrated-bittorrent-http-and-ftp-downloads/

metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ]

Thanks twanj

Submitted by Jon Du Quesne on Tue, 08/29/2006 - 13:09.
Posts: 5513

Thanks twanj for clarifying your affiliation.

It does not happen often on this site, but occasionaly some bozo will zip by, start a thread and say, "Hey, isn't this great! Come on over and see!!!" and it's either bogus, or has absolutely NOTHING to do with Mepis, or Linux, or...

So I appreciate your "helpful" link Smiling

To drlizau: I wanna avatar (boo hoo hoo!) Smiling
So, can you tell me where I can go to find/build such a thing??

Jon

jon there are some default

Submitted by Baldy on Tue, 08/29/2006 - 15:09.
Posts: 153

jon there are some default avatars in your settings area or you can do a search for them there a 100's of sites that have them for free download.

Linux User #266786
http://www.thebarrel.net

My Turn!

Submitted by Jon Du Quesne on Wed, 08/30/2006 - 00:49.
Posts: 5513

Thanks Baldy. It's my turn to be dense. What "settings area" are you talking about? I'm looking at my "Home >> user account >> edit" area on Mepis.org. I only see an "Upload picture" spot, but no examples. Are you suggesting to do a search for "avatar" to find them? Is there something that will narrow the search just a little bit more? I haven't played around a lot with these types of graphics.

Thanks for your help in "finding myself" Smiling

Jon

the witch

Submitted by drlizau on Wed, 08/30/2006 - 06:52.
Posts: 4864

i found the witch somewhere on a share pictures site, cut her down to size and left the head bit only. The background was transparent, but something's gone odd with that and she's on a black background now. Back to gimp to give her a white background one day.

"finding myself"

Submitted by Jimmy Johnson on Wed, 08/30/2006 - 11:43.
Posts: 516

Jon, I have a Pinguin with your name on it if you would like it let me know.

regards,
Jimmy

INTEL P-IV/HT 3.0GHz - 2X256 DDR3200 - Debian, Etch Beta-3
KDE 3.5.4 - kernel 2.6.16-2-686-smp - My iMAC runs Debian, Sarge

anyone get a chance to try

Submitted by twanj on Thu, 09/21/2006 - 16:07.
Posts: 10

anyone get a chance to try out the metalink download for MEPIS yet? about 10 Linux/BSD distributions are using it now.

Here's a better description...

"Metalinks makes complex download pages obsolete by replacing long lists of download mirrors and BitTorrent trackers with a single .metalink file. As you might have already guessed, a .metalink file is a file that tells a download manager all the different ways it can download a file. The file itself takes the form of an open XML standard that can list an unlimited number of HTTP and FTP sources as well as BitTorrent trackers and ed2k and magnet links."

& here's the metalink: http://www.metalinker.org/samples/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso.metalink

& here's what it looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><br />
<metalink version="3.0" generator="Metalink Generator v1.00.0034" xmlns="http://www.metalinker.org/"></p>
<publisher>
    <name>MEPIS</name><br />
    <url>http://www.mepis.org/</url><br />
  </publisher>
  <description>MEPIS Linux 6.0 ISO</description><br />
  <files><br />
    <file name="SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso"><br />
      <version>6.0</version><br />
      <os>Linux-x86</os><br />
      <verification><br />
        <hash type="md5">f53d134974db0d24aa97925e3707ab4c</hash><br />
      </verification><br />
      <resources><br />
        <url type="ftp" location="be" preference="100">ftp://ftp.belnet.be/linux/mepis/released/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="ftp" location="us" preference="100">ftp://ftp.cise.ufl.edu/pub/mirrors/mepis/released/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="ftp" location="us" preference="100">ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/mepis/released/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="ftp" location="nl" preference="100">ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/metalab/distributions/mepis/released/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="ftp" location="cz" preference="100">ftp://ftp.sh.cvut.cz/MIRRORS/mepis/released/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="ftp" location="us" preference="100">ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/linux/distributions/mepis/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="ftp" location="us" preference="100">ftp://ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/distributions/mepis/released/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="ftp" location="at" preference="100">ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/mepis/released/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="http" location="cz" preference="100">http://ftp.sh.cvut.cz/MIRRORS/mepis/released/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="http" location="us" preference="100">http://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/linux/distributions/mepis/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="http" location="at" preference="100">http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/mepis/released/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="http" location="us" preference="100">http://mirror.cs.vt.edu/pub/MEPIS/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
        <url type="http" preference="100">http://www.debianworld.net/pub/mirror/mepis/released/SimplyMEPIS_6.0_i386.iso</url><br />
      </resources><br />
    </file><br />
  </files><br />
</metalink>