The *.ubuntu.com sites are typically swamped on release days and today (as of this writing) is no exception.
Here’s how to avoid the crunch (and ubuntu.com alltogether) and get your Ubuntu CDs.:
- Google for mirror sites. I’ve known (by heart) of a number of Ubuntu mirrors (for both CD images and sources.list) for a few years now. For example, three typically fast mirrors in the United States are http://ubuntu.osuosl.org/releases/hardy, http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-releases/hardy/ , and http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/
- If you’re the type that wants to verify the MD5SUM of your download, you do not need to get the MD5SUMS from .ubuntu.com. They are on the mirrors and are identical.
- Another option is to create your own CD with jigdo. You’ll note the “jigdo” files on all of the mirrors. This is a very fast method. In essence you’re downloading all the individual .deb files from any of the package mirrors and using them to create a CD image (identical to the ones on the mirrors). It’s a very quick way to get your CD image.
- And lastly there is Bittorrent. The Ubuntu .torrent files are on any of the mirrors, you don’t have to look for them on *.ubuntu.com
I hope you found this helpful.
If you already have Grub installed (for instance, you’re moving from another distro or upgrading), you don’t need to download a CD.
You can do a net install from Grub pretty easily.
@ daengbo. You can also do an upgrade from within Ubuntu from one version to the next, but many out there (like me) want a CD (or in my case a DVD) anyway. I do multiple installs, I uninstall, reinstall..;
There’s no point in downloading the same stuff over and over when you can download it just once. It saves bandwidth. Granted 3 months from now there will be 300MB in updates, but having the CD/DVD is still better.
If you know you are only going to ever do one install/upgrade then your way (or the update from within) makes perfect sense.