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Linux Mirror Setup

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Mattscreative edited this page Dec 5, 2025 · 2 revisions

Linux Mirror Setup Guide

Complete beginner-friendly guide to mirror setup on Linux, covering Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions including mirror selection, mirror ranking, and mirror synchronization.

Note: This guide focuses on Arch-based distributions (Arch Linux, CachyOS) as they use pacman and have specific mirror management tools. Other distributions have different package managers and mirror systems.

Table of Contents

  1. Using Reflector
  2. Manual Mirror Selection
  3. Mirror Ranking
  4. Other Distributions
  5. Troubleshooting

Using Reflector

Install Reflector

Install Reflector:

# Arch/CachyOS
sudo pacman -S reflector

# Generate mirrors
sudo reflector --country "United States" --latest 10 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Reflector Options

Common options:

# Top 10 by rate
sudo reflector --latest 10 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# By country
sudo reflector --country "United States" --latest 20 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# HTTPS only
sudo reflector --latest 10 --protocol https --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# Multiple countries
sudo reflector --country "United States,Canada" --latest 20 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

What it does:

  • Tests mirror speeds
  • Ranks mirrors by performance
  • Updates mirrorlist automatically

Manual Mirror Selection

Edit Mirrorlist

Edit manually:

# Edit mirrorlist
sudo vim /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# Uncomment preferred mirrors
# Order matters - first is tried first

Mirror Format

Mirror format:

Server = https://mirror.example.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

Components:

  • Server: Mirror URL
  • $repo: Repository name (core, extra, community)
  • $arch: Architecture (x86_64)

Mirror Ranking

Test Mirrors

Test speed:

# Install rankmirrors
sudo pacman -S pacman-contrib

# Rank mirrors
rankmirrors -n 10 /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# Save ranked mirrors
rankmirrors -n 10 /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist > /tmp/mirrorlist.ranked
sudo mv /tmp/mirrorlist.ranked /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Other Distributions

Debian/Ubuntu

Debian mirrors:

# Edit sources.list
sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list

# Use local mirror
deb http://mirror.example.com/debian/ stable main

Fedora

Fedora mirrors:

# Edit mirrorlist
sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo

# Or use fastestmirror plugin
sudo dnf install fastestmirror

Troubleshooting

Slow Downloads

Change mirror:

# Use Reflector
sudo reflector --country "United States" --latest 10 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# Update
sudo pacman -Syu

Mirror Errors

Check mirrors:

# Test mirror
curl -I https://mirror.example.com/archlinux/core/os/x86_64/

# Check mirror status
# Visit: https://archlinux.org/mirrors/status/

Summary

This guide covered mirror setup for Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions, including Reflector, manual selection, and mirror ranking.

Next Steps

This guide covers Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other Linux distributions. For distribution-specific details, refer to your distribution's documentation.

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