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Idea #1931: Simultaneously download and install with Update Manager

Written by Felix_the_Mac the 29 Feb 08 at 23:16. Related project: Update manager. Status: New
Rationale
Update Manager works in a serial fashion.
Currently you can spend ten minutes downloading updates followed by ten minutes installing them.



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Solution #1: Implement parallel downloading & installing
Written by Felix_the_Mac the 29 Feb 08 at 23:16.
Update Manager should analyse the dependencies in packages which need updating and download the packages with no dependencies first (that is no dependencies on packages which themselves need updating), followed by files which only depended on the first package downloaded etc.

This will allow updates to be installed in parallel - as soon as the first package is downloaded it can be installed.

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booljayj wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 04:06
Interesting insight, could yield some interesting results.

cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 03:34
The current method is simple and protects your system.

Haste and impatience during an installation are great reasons to hose your system. Schedule it for down time instead (lunch is a nice time to let the machine churn).

Change nothing about install/update without good reason.

ethana2 wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 08:56
That's good reason. If your machine dies in the middle of applying updates, it gets screwed anyway.

...and it fixes itself with a line of text.

yes. voted up.

preben4 wrote on the 22 Mar 08 at 00:17
This would make large updates, like the first when you install ubuntu, go much faster. slow computers spend more time intalling than downloading, this could help at least 40% of the installing time.

eld1e6o wrote on the 22 Apr 08 at 18:23
Good idea.

I had the same idea.

+1

Greetings!

grahamatubuntu wrote on the 10 Jul 08 at 08:31
Related to idea #10965

mlissner wrote on the 1 Sep 08 at 07:08
I imagine this would lead to disk hashing, though it could still be faster this way.

cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 1 Sep 08 at 13:45
You can also simply renice the upgrades to a lower priority and move it all to the background.

nice -n 15 update-manager

Then who cares how long it takes? Start it after you boot and let it chug for 20 minutes invisibly and undetectably while you work on something else.

Olberd wrote on the 2 Oct 08 at 17:08
Would love this time saver.

Apart from the dependency issue, packages that affect the network connectivity should also be marked as so, and not installed until all packages have been downloaded.

L4Linux wrote on the 5 Nov 08 at 10:30
I believe it too risky. People won't be so impressed if 400 updates are done 10 minutes faster, but they will be furious and erase Ubuntu if an update breaks their system.

Ahdistunut Antilooppi wrote on the 7 Nov 08 at 10:36
Many possibilities to f-up, but huge speedup on slow systems behind slow internet connections.
Diskspace needed for upgrade can also be reduced if installed packages are deleted.
As an option yes, not as default.

SoftwareExplorer wrote on the 4 Mar 09 at 01:38
I had this same Idea. as long as the computer downloads and then installs the dependencies first it would work great. I don't get how this would be dangerous at all if Ubuntu is still paying attention to required dependencies. I think this should also be implemented for apt-get, synaptic, and Add/Remove programs too. +1!


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