Looking for a Debian Squeeze ISO with KDE today for a friend (incidentally, Squeeze no longer receives updates), I came across something that I had seen for a long time, but had not had the opportunity to try: jigdo, a tool for the distribution and obtaining of Debian ISOs in an easy, fast and very efficient way.
What the hell is Jigdo?
I will try to explain it in the simplest way possible. Get the idea that jigdo it is like a download manager or a torrent client, which looks for the parts of the same file on several servers, trying to use the fastest connections. To make it better understood, I give you my example.
A Debian image can easily be over 600MB, and when we don't have a fast connection, this can be a hindrance. So how does Jigdo solve the problem for me? very simple, let's see the procedure of how to use it.
How do we use Jigdo?
The only thing I need in my case are 2 things:
- A mirror fast enough.
- An Internet connection that allows us to download the files .jigdo y .template that we will see later, which depending on the version, can weigh between 15MB and 60MB.
In my work we have a mirror of Debian Testing quite up to date, and the good thing about it is that most of the .iso packages I get from that repository. That is, in my case, I will not have to download the packages from the Internet, only the files .jigdo y .template.
Let's say then that I want to download the iso as fast as possible debian-testing-amd64-kde-CD-1.iso What is there in this link. As I said before, downloading 600MB quickly is impossible, so all I need are the files in:
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/amd64/jigdo-cd/
and in my particular case, I explicitly need this file: debian-testing-amd64-kde-CD-1.jigdo
We don't have to download that file ourselves, Jigdo does that automatically. How?
The package is installed first jigdo-file, on Debian
$ sudo aptitude install jigdo-file
and the command is executed in console:
$ jigdo-lite
The first thing it will ask you is the file .jigdo to use. If we have already downloaded it, it will take it directly from the folder where we execute the command, otherwise, we paste the link of the file. Remember that you can take any of this link: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/amd64/jigdo-cd/
$ jigdo-lite Jigsaw Download "lite" Copyright (C) 2001-2005 | jigdo @ Richard Atterer | atterer.net Loading settings from `/home/elav/.jigdo-lite '--------------------------------- -------------------------------- To resume a half-finished download, enter name of .jigdo file. To start a new download, enter URL of .jigdo file. You can also enter several URLs / filenames, separated with spaces, or enumerate in {}, eg `http: // server / cd- {1_NONUS, 2,3} .jigdo 'jigdo [http://cdimage.debian.org /cdimage/weekly-builds/amd64/jigdo-cd/debian-testing-amd64-kde-CD-1.jigdo]: Not downloading .jigdo file - `debian-testing-amd64-kde-CD-1.jigdo 'already present
Notice how in the previous example the file path already appears .jigdo by default, since I had already downloaded it from that link previously.
The second thing this application asks or tells us is that if we already have a previous downloaded image that matches the one we want to download, Jigdo will reuse the files of said image if they have not been modified, therefore, it will not be necessary to download them again .
-------------------------------------------------- --------------- Images offered by `http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/amd64/jigdo-cd/debian-testing-amd64-kde-CD -1.jigdo ': 1:' Debian GNU / Linux testing "Jessie" - Official Snapshot amd64 kde-CD Binary-1 20140929-06: 33 (20140929) '(debian-testing-amd64-kde-CD-1.iso ) Further information about `debian-testing-amd64-kde-CD-1.iso ': Generated on Mon, 29 Sep 2014 06:36:38 +0000 ---------------- ------------------------------------------------- If you already have a previous version of the CD you are downloading, jigdo can re-use files on the old CD that are also present in the new image, and you do not need to download them again. Mount the old CD ROM and enter the path it is mounted under (eg `/ mnt / cdrom '). Alternatively, just press enter if you want to start downloading the remaining files. Files to scan:
As this is the first time that I am going to download the iso, I give Enter and I don't add anything in this step.
The third thing that will ask you which mirror you want to use (you can use a local mirror as long as it is updated to the latest).
-------------------------------------------------- --------------- The jigdo file refers to files stored on Debian mirrors. Please choose a Debian mirror as follows: Either enter a complete URL pointing to a mirror (in the form `ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ '), or enter any regular expression for searching through the list of mirrors: Try a two-letter country code such as `de ', or a country name like` United States', or a server name like `sunsite'. Debian mirror [http://download.mitrabajo.cu/repos/debian/jessie/]:
Once the mirror is set, what Jigdo does is download a file .template that corresponds to the file .jigdo that we go down. Once you download it, well what happens next is great: jigdo start taking the packages from the mirror you put and create an image . Iso with the packages that are in the repository.
Once finished we will have something like this:
----------------------------------------- FINISH --2014-09-30 17 : 27: 11-- Total clock time: 3m 16s Downloaded: 6 files, 4,6M in 3m 14s (24,5 KB / s) Found 6 of the 6 files required by the template Successfully created `debian-testing-amd64 -kde-CD-1.iso '----------------------------------------- ------------------------ Finished! The fact that you got this far is a strong indication that `debian-testing-amd64-kde-CD-1.iso 'was generated correctly. I will perform an additional, final check, which you can interrupt safely with Ctrl-C if you do not want to wait. OK: Checksums match, image is good! elav @ Tinored8: ~ $
You see, I got my Debian Testing KDE ISO in 3 minutes 16 seconds. What do you think?
More about Jigdo
With Jigdo you can do a lot of other things, what I just showed is just basic, however you will find much more information in the following links:
- http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Debian-Jigdo/howjigdoworks.html
- http://atterer.org/jigdo/jigdo-file.html#EXAMPLES
Great!! Thank you so much!!
Will you need it? LOL
I have used Jigdo before (Cuban at last, trying to use less megabytes), I was impressed by how it takes advantage of the iso packages you have, many people send themselves to download the iso and do not even consider these options.
There are other alternatives, the Ubuntu isos for example use zsync.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ZsyncCdImage
In truth, I wasn't expecting Jigdo. Since I usually use Bittorrent for almost everything (especially when I have very bad connections) ...
Seriously, I'll give it a try to download the 64-bit Slackware DVD (if there is one, of course).
eliotime3000 if you want to use Slackware you don't have to advertise it 😛 however, I have half good news: http://slackware.org.uk/people/alphageek/slackware-13.37/slackware/jigdo/
Where are the images with Gnome?
Gnome comes by default in Debian.
I wrote about this some time ago on the blog, I leave you the link to complement your entry
http://debianhackers.net/busqueda-de-contenidos-de-ficheros-jigdo/
Excellent contribution
Finally someone who explains it simply and in Spanish. Several times he had tried to understand it but out of carelessness he left the company.
Luck.
a question, the .template file download it from the mirror or from where you downloaded the .jigdo.
And how would it be if I have the repos on a local disk.
I already saw that the template is where the .jigdo was.
But will it stop using a previously downloaded .template?
a fix, squeeze if you get updates, now it's lts
True, Debian Squeeze updates will continue to be received until February 2016. Here's how to get them:
https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/Using
In fact, if you go into the Debian repositories you will see a squeeze and a squeeze-lts. Is it a symbolic link?
Excellent Post, but this works for other distributions, I want to download Evolve OS but my internet is super slow and to download it I would need to let the Computer dawn, they could tell me how it would be done with jigdo.
That's so good. Too bad I can't use it because it is necessary to download the .template anyway and it is more than 50 MB, a pittance but you know how it is. I would like to get an iso of debian testing + kde for i386. A doubt, it is not possible to manually download the .template and use it offline as the .jigdo itself ???