While updating or installing new packages in ubuntu we often experienced slow downloading speed even while our network connection is running fine. To get around this and speed up the downloads, we use apt-fast wrapper. apt-fast is a shell script wrapper for “apt-get” and “aptitude”. It improves downloading speed for packages by providing a correspondence, multiple packages download per connection.
Step 1: To use apt-fast wrapper we need to have axel or aria2 package install in our system. Open the terminal and install any one of the packages.
To install axel
$ sudo apt-get install axel
To install aria2
$ sudo apt-get install aria2
Step 2: Now to install apt-fast we need to add required PPA for apt-fast.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apt-fast/stable
While installing it will prompt to press enter.
After installing PPA it’s good to update and upgrade system.
$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Step 3: Now installing apt-fast
$ sudo apt-get -y install apt-fast
During the installation of apt-fast, it will provide with certain popups.
Here, select apt-get and hit Enter to move to the next step.
Let it be “5” and press Enter.
Leave the default value selected and press Enter.
Step 4: To configure more options use can use
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure apt-fast
Or open it’s configuration file
$ sudo vim /etc/apt-fast.conf
Step 5: Create alias to use it as default.
$ sudo echo "alias apt-get='apt-fast'" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc
