How to speed up package downloads and updates with apt-fast
Liam Parker
Updated on March 29, 2026
We all know that we can install, update, upgrade and remove packages using apt or aptitude package managers in Debian-based systems such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint etc. These package managers pulls the packages along with all required dependencies from the repositories and install them on our system. In addition, we can speed up downloading of packages in our Ubuntu system using a simple, yet powerful utility called apt-fast.
Apt-fast is a shell script wrapper for apt and aptitude package managers. It dramatically increases the download speed by downloading the packages in parallel, with multiple connections per package. This tool is quite useful to get things done faster than traditional apt-get command. In this brief tutorial, we will see how to speed up the package download process using apt-fast.
Install Apt-fast in Ubuntu
We can install apt-fast utility using the following one-liner command in any DEB-based system:
Also, install aria2 command line downloader:
Alternatively, you can use the following PPA to install Apt-fast.
Some DEB based distributions like PCLinuxOS includes apt-fast in its official repositories. So, you don’t need to add the above PPA in that systems. Simply run the following command to install apt-fast:
Configure apt-fast
After installing apt-fast, we need to add some additional mirrors in “apt-fast.conf” file.
Edit apt-fast.conf file:
Add the following lines depending upon the distribution you use.
On Ubuntu and derivatives, add:
On Debian, add this:
Save and close the file.
Please note that If you have any mirrors in your sources.list or sources.list.d, you will need to add them to the apt-fast.conf mirror list.
Speed Up Downloading Of Packages Using Apt-fast
Once you installed and configured apt-fast in your system, simply use it as the way you use apt or aptitude commands.
For example, to install Apache web server, run:
Sample outputs:
Speed Up Downloading Of Packages Using Apt-fast
Speed Up Downloading Of Packages Using Apt-fast In Ubuntu
As you see in the above outputs, the apt-fast is downloading apache2 package in parallel, with multiple connections.
To update your system, you can run:
Hope this tool will be useful to you. Have you tried this tool already? Great, Let us know your thoughts about this utility in the comment section below.
We all know that we can install, update, upgrade and remove packages using apt or aptitude package managers in Debian-based systems such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint etc. These package managers pulls the packages along with all required dependencies from the repositories and install them on our system. In addition, we can speed up downloading of packages in our Ubuntu system using a simple, yet powerful utility called apt-fast.
Apt-fast is a shell script wrapper for apt and aptitude package managers. It dramatically increases the download speed by downloading the packages in parallel, with multiple connections per package. This tool is quite useful to get things done faster than traditional apt-get command. In this brief tutorial, we will see how to speed up the package download process using apt-fast.
Install Apt-fast in Ubuntu
We can install apt-fast utility using the following one-liner command in any DEB-based system:
Also, install aria2 command line downloader:
Alternatively, you can use the following PPA to install Apt-fast.
Some DEB based distributions like PCLinuxOS includes apt-fast in its official repositories. So, you don’t need to add the above PPA in that systems. Simply run the following command to install apt-fast:
Configure apt-fast
After installing apt-fast, we need to add some additional mirrors in “apt-fast.conf” file.
Edit apt-fast.conf file:
Add the following lines depending upon the distribution you use.
On Ubuntu and derivatives, add:
On Debian, add this:
Save and close the file.
Please note that If you have any mirrors in your sources.list or sources.list.d, you will need to add them to the apt-fast.conf mirror list.
Speed Up Downloading Of Packages Using Apt-fast
Once you installed and configured apt-fast in your system, simply use it as the way you use apt or aptitude commands.
For example, to install Apache web server, run:
Sample outputs:
Speed Up Downloading Of Packages Using Apt-fast
Speed Up Downloading Of Packages Using Apt-fast In Ubuntu
As you see in the above outputs, the apt-fast is downloading apache2 package in parallel, with multiple connections.
To update your system, you can run:
Hope this tool will be useful to you. Have you tried this tool already? Great, Let us know your thoughts about this utility in the comment section below.
By Default, Ubuntu uses apt-get to install packages and updates. Apt-get is a good tool but you can get much faster download speeds using Apt-Fast when downloading and updating your Ubuntu box.
Apt-Fast is a script created by Matt Parnell that allows for up to 26x faster downloads. So how does it work? It is a script which uses Axel, a command line application which accelerates HTTP/FTP downloads. Well, the magic behind this is simple; it opens multiple connections to the server or multiple servers to download from. So basically it works like torrent client, downloading different pieces of the same file from different places simultaneously. Thus, reducing/eliminating the effect of server being overloaded.
To get Apt-Fast on your system, download the file “apt-fast.sh” from the link at the bottom. Once downloaded, open a terminal window to continue from there. Start by navigating to the file’s directory and rename it using this easy command:
Now you need to move the file to “/usr/bin” to make it executable. Do so by using:
One last command to add execution permission to the file:
And we are done. Apt-fast is now installed and ready to run. For all future installing and updating operations substitute “apt-get” with “apt-fast” in the command line. For example:
Enjoy your supercharged downloading speeds and don’t forget to come back for more interesting Ubuntu stuff.
Have you ever experienced slow download speed when downloading or updating packages in Ubuntu, even if your network connection is working fine? This problem mainly occurs when you update and install packages for the first time after installing a new Ubuntu operating system. However, there is a way to work around this problem by speeding up the download speed with the apt-fast command in Linux.
Apt-fast is a shell script wrapper for “apt-get” and “aptitude” that harnesses the power of both axel and aria 2 download managers to speed up the download process. It improves download performance by downloading multiple packages per connection simultaneously and in parallel.
In this article, I will show you how to install and configure apt-fast to speed up the package update and download process in Ubuntu. We use Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for the description of the procedure mentioned in this article.
Step 1: Installing prerequisites
We need to install axel or aria2 in order to use apt-fast. These are command-line based Linux download managers. They help to download multiple files simultaneously and act as download accelerators.
Run the following command in Terminal to install either axel or aria2:
For this article, we will use axel.
Step 2: Installing apt-fast
Now we are prepared for installing apt-fast. Follow the below steps in order to install apt-fast.
1. Add the required PPA to your list of software resources by running the following command in Terminal:
2. After adding PPA, update your local apt repository by running the following command in Terminal:
3. Then run the following command in Terminal to install apt-fast:
During the installation of apt-fast, a window will appear asking you to perform some package configuration.
When the following screen appears, select apt if you are using apt command or apt-get if you mostly use apt-get command to install packages. Finally, hit Enter to move to the next step.
Now choose the maximum number of connections allowed. Hit Enter to move on to next step.
If you want, you can also set maximum number of connections later using the _MAXNUM variable in the configuration file.
When the following screen appears, choose yes, and press Enter.
Step 3: Configuring apt-fast
After the installation is completed, we will need to do a basic configuration. The default configuration file of apt-fast is at /etc/apt-fast.
1. Run the following command in Terminal to edit the configuration file in the editor:
2. In the configuration file, add the comma-separated mirrors in the following syntax:
MIRRORS=( ‘ )
You can use the following Ubuntu’s official mirror page and add the nearest mirrors based on your geographical location.
3. Also add the mirrors that are present in /etc/apt/sources.list in the apt-fast configuration file /etc/apt-fast.conf.
Step 4: Using Apt-fast
Apt-fast is really simple to use, just use fast instead of get in the apt-get command. Following are the commands that you will require the most in order to use apt-fast:
To install a package using apt-fast, use the following command:
For removing a package with apt-fast, the following command is used:
For updating packages using apt-fast, use the following command:
To upgrade a package using apt-fast, use the following command:
Let’s see how apt-fast works by installing the Flash Player in Ubuntu. For that, run the following command in Terminal:
It will ask for confirmation, enter y to confirm.
From the above results, you can see that it is downloading the flash player package using several connections.
That is all we required in order to install apt-fast for increasing download speed while installing and updating packages on Ubuntu. Now enjoy the faster downloading experience!
Karim Buzdar
About the Author: Karim Buzdar holds a degree in telecommunication engineering and holds several sysadmin certifications. As an IT engineer and technical author, he writes for various web sites. You can reach Karim on LinkedIn
In one of our previous articles, we have explained how to use apt package manager in order to perform different operations like searching for available packages, installing or upgrading packages, removing packages, etc. But today, we will discuss another utility that can improve the download speed of apt packages and that is known as apt-fast.
Apt-fast is a shell script wrapper for “apt-get” and “aptitude” that utilizes the power of axel or aria 2 download managers to accelerate the download process. It improves download performance by downloading packages simultaneously and with multiple packages per connection.
In this article, we will explain how to install apt-fast in order to accelerate the update and downloading process, this speeds up installations with apt. We have run the commands and procedure mentioned in this article on a Debian 10 system.
Step 1: Installing prerequisites
In order to use apt-fast, first we have to install axel or aria2 command-line download accelerators. Both are great tools that help to improve the download speed with multiple connections per package.
Launch the Terminal application in your system by going into the Activities tab in the top left corner of your desktop. Then in the search bar, type terminal. When the Terminal icon appears, click on it to launch it. Then run the following command in Terminal to install axel or aria2:
Step 2: Installing and configuring apt-fast
For installing apt-fast, first we will have to add the repository key for apt-fast. It will allow the system to trust the packages being added from the repository. Run the following command in Terminal to add the key:
After adding the key, add PPA repository of apt-fast to your system by running the following command in Terminal:
Now update the local apt repository by running the following command in Terminal:
Finally, run the following command in Terminal to install apt-fast:
During the installation of apt-fast, a window will pop-up for you to configure apt-fast.
When the following screen appears, select apt-get as a package manager and hit Enter to move to the next step.
Now choose the maximum number of connections allowed. Leave it as default. Hit enter to move on to the next step.
Remember, you can also set the maximum number of connections later using the _MAXNUM variable in the configuration files.
You can choose to suppress the apt-fast confirmation dialog each time you want to install a package. For that leave the default value and press Enter.
Once the installation is completed, we will need to do a basic configuration. The default configuration file of apt-fast is at /etc/apt-fast.
Run the following command in Terminal to edit the configuration file in an editor:
In the configuration file, add the comma separated mirrors in the following syntax:
MIRRORS=( )
Use the following Debian’s official mirror page and add nearest mirrors based on your geographical location.
Also add the mirrors that are present in /etc/apt/sources.list or in the apt-fast configuration file /etc/apt-fast.conf.
Step 3: Using Apt-fast
Once you are done with the installation and configuration of apt-fast, use it in the same way as you use apt-get. Just substitute fast instead of get in the apt-get command. Following are some useful commands in order to use apt-fast:
Use the following command to install a package using apt-fast:
Use the following command to remove a package using apt-fast:
Use the following command to update a package using apt-fast:
Use the following command to upgrade a package using apt-fast:
Let’s see how apt-fast works by installing Apache2. To do so, run the following command in Terminal:
It will ask for confirmation, enter y to confirm.
From the above results, you can see that it is downloading the Apache2 package using multiple connections.
In this article, we have seen how the apt-fast utility can be used for not only installing the software packages on your system but also for increasing the download speed. Now enjoy the fast download experience!
Karim Buzdar
About the Author: Karim Buzdar holds a degree in telecommunication engineering and holds several sysadmin certifications. As an IT engineer and technical author, he writes for various web sites. You can reach Karim on LinkedIn
In one of our previous articles, we explained how to use the apt package manager to perform various operations like checking for available packages, installing or updating packages, removing packages, and so on. But today we are going to discuss another utility which is the download speed of apt packages and that is called as apt-fast.
Apt-fast is a shell script wrapper for “apt-get” and “aptitude” that uses the power of Axel or Arie-2 download managers to speed up the download process. It improves download performance by downloading packages at the same time and with multiple packages per connection.
In this article we explain how to install apt-fast to speed up the update and download process, this speeds up the installations with apt. We ran the commands and procedures mentioned in this article on a Debian 10 system.
Step 1: install prerequisites
To use apt-fast we first need to install the axel or aria2 command line download accelerators. Both are great tools to help improve download speeds with multiple connections per package.
Launch the Terminal application on your system by going to the Activities tab in the top left corner of your desktop. Then type terminal in the search bar. When the terminal icon appears, click on it to launch it. Then run the following command in Terminal to install axel or aria2:
Step 2: install and configure apt-fast
To install apt-fast we first need to add the repository key for apt-fast. This allows the system to trust the packages that are added from the repository. Run the following command in the terminal to add the key:
After adding the key, add apt-fast’s PPA repository to your system by running the following command in the terminal:
Now update the local apt repository by running the following command in the terminal:
Finally, run the following command in Terminal to install apt-fast:
During the installation of apt-fast a window opens in which you can configure apt-fast.
When you see the following screen, select apt-get as the package manager and press Enter to go to the next step.
Now select the maximum number of connections allowed. Leave it as the default. Press Enter to go to the next step.
Remember that you can set the maximum number of connections later using the _MAXNUM variable in the configuration files.
You can suppress the apt-confirmation dialog almost every time you want to install a package. To do this, leave the default value and press Enter.
Once the installation is complete, we need to do some basic configuration. The standard apt-fast configuration file is located in / etc / apt-fast.
Run the following command in the terminal to edit the configuration file in an editor:
In the configuration file, add the comma-separated mirrors using the following syntax:
SPIEGEL = ( ‘)
Use the Debian official mirrors below and add the closest mirrors based on your geographic location.
Also add the mirrors that are in /etc/apt/sources.list or in the apt-fast configuration file /etc/apt-fast.conf.
Step 3: use apt-fast
When you’re done installing and configuring apt-almost, use it in the same way as apt-get. Just quickly replace instead of typing the apt-get command. Here are some useful commands to use apt-fast:
Use the following command to install a package with apt-fast:
Use the following command to remove a package with apt-fast:
Use the following command to update a package with apt-fast:
Use the following command to update a package with apt-fast:
Let’s see how apt-fast works by installing Apache2. To do this, run the following command in the terminal:
It will ask for confirmation, enter y to confirm.
From the results above, you can see that the Apache2 package is downloaded over multiple connections.
In this article, we saw how the apt-fast utility can not only install the software packages on your system, but also increase the download speed. Enjoy the fast download experience now!
Have you ever experienced slow download speed when downloading or updating packages in Ubuntu, even if your network connection is working fine? This problem mainly occurs when you update and install packages for the first time after installing a new Ubuntu operating system. However, there is a way to work around this problem by speeding up the download speed with the apt-fast command in Linux.
Apt-fast is a shell script wrapper for “apt-get” and “aptitude” that harnesses the power of both axel and aria 2 download managers to speed up the download process. It improves download performance by downloading multiple packages per connection simultaneously and in parallel.
In this article, I will show you how to install and configure apt-fast to speed up the package update and download process in Ubuntu. We use Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for the description of the procedure mentioned in this article.
Step 1: Installing prerequisites
We need to install axel or aria2 in order to use apt-fast. These are command-line based Linux download managers. They help to download multiple files simultaneously and act as download accelerators.
Run the following command in Terminal to install either axel or aria2:
For this article, we will use axel.
Step 2: Installing apt-fast
Now we are prepared for installing apt-fast. Follow the below steps in order to install apt-fast.
1. Add the required PPA to your list of software resources by running the following command in Terminal:
2. After adding PPA, update your local apt repository by running the following command in Terminal:
3. Then run the following command in Terminal to install apt-fast:
During the installation of apt-fast, a window will appear asking you to perform some package configuration.
When the following screen appears, select apt if you are using apt command or apt-get if you mostly use apt-get command to install packages. Finally, hit Enter to move to the next step.
Now choose the maximum number of connections allowed. Hit Enter to move on to next step.
If you want, you can also set maximum number of connections later using the _MAXNUM variable in the configuration file.
When the following screen appears, choose yes, and press Enter.
Step 3: Configuring apt-fast
After the installation is completed, we will need to do a basic configuration. The default configuration file of apt-fast is at /etc/apt-fast.
1. Run the following command in Terminal to edit the configuration file in the editor:
2. In the configuration file, add the comma-separated mirrors in the following syntax:
MIRRORS=( ‘ )
You can use the following Ubuntu’s official mirror page and add the nearest mirrors based on your geographical location.
3. Also add the mirrors that are present in /etc/apt/sources.list in the apt-fast configuration file /etc/apt-fast.conf.
Step 4: Using Apt-fast
Apt-fast is really simple to use, just use fast instead of get in the apt-get command. Following are the commands that you will require the most in order to use apt-fast:
To install a package using apt-fast, use the following command:
For removing a package with apt-fast, the following command is used:
For updating packages using apt-fast, use the following command:
To upgrade a package using apt-fast, use the following command:
Let’s see how apt-fast works by installing the Flash Player in Ubuntu. For that, run the following command in Terminal:
It will ask for confirmation, enter y to confirm.
From the above results, you can see that it is downloading the flash player package using several connections.
That is all we required in order to install apt-fast for increasing download speed while installing and updating packages on Ubuntu. Now enjoy the faster downloading experience!
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
To install aria2
Step 2: Now to install apt-fast we need to add required PPA for apt-fast.
While installing it will prompt to press enter.
After installing PPA it’s good to update and upgrade system.
Step 3: Now installing apt-fast
During the installation of apt-fast, it will provide with certain popups.
After successfully installing apt-fast, simply use it the same way you run apt or aptitude commands. The apt-fast configuration file is: /etc/apt-fast. conf , you can further increase your download speeds by adding multiple mirrors and distribute load, make sure to add nearest mirrors.
What is apt-fast?
apt-fast is a shell script wrapper for apt-get and aptitude that can drastically improve APT download times by downloading packages with multiple connections per package. . During the apt-fast installation process, you will be prompted to perform some package configuration.
How do I upgrade a package with apt-get?
To update a single package on the system, use the apt-get command + the package name we want to update. Press “space” to scroll through the list of installed packages. See their version and of course obtain the exact package name in order to update it with the: apt-get update && apt-get upgrade packagename command.
Why is Ubuntu download slow?
It’s possible that the internet provider you use has a connectivity problem to the node where the ISO file is being downloaded from. The following is a screen capture of my torrent client downloading Ubuntu 16.04. . *Downloading torrents can quickly add up gigabytes of data to your internet connection.
How long does it take to download Ubuntu?
Typically, it shouldn’t take more than about 15 to 30 minutes, but you may have issues if you don’t have a computer with a good amount of RAM. You said in another answer’s comment that you had built the computer, so check out how large the RAM chips/sticks you used are. (Older chips are usually 256MB or 512MB.)
What is the difference between apt install and apt-get install?
apt-get is one such command-line tool which is widely popular. . apt is more structured and provides you with necessary options needed to manage packages. Bottom line: apt = most common used command options from apt-get , apt-cache and apt-config . I have written in detail on the difference between apt and apt-get.
Why is Kali so slow?
If you are running it natively, and it is slow, it is a lack of adequate hardware that is the issue. If you don’t have an SSD for storage, upgrading can make it faster. If you have a fairly new machine with 8 GB or more RAM, it should be blazingly fast.
Why is Kali download so slow?
It will be some other issue like too less space on the parition in which OS is installed. Otherwise hardware faults can also cause the programs to run slowly. Just make sure that all hardware is working fine especially HDD. Since this will need someone with good knowledg of LInux type OS post it in Kali Linux Forums.
What is the difference between apt-get update and upgrade?
apt-get update updates the list of available packages and their versions, but it does not install or upgrade any packages. apt-get upgrade actually installs newer versions of the packages you have. After updating the lists, the package manager knows about available updates for the software you have installed.
What is the difference between apt-get upgrade and dist-upgrade?
However, when you run apt-get dist-upgrade, it will intelligently install or remove packages as needed, in order to complete the upgrade. . Apt-get upgrade does not remove packages, it only upgrades. Can you use sudo apt-get dist-upgrade as your regular upgrade tool?
What is sudo apt-get dist-upgrade?
The apt-get dist-upgrade command intelligently handles changing dependencies with new versions of packages and will attempt to upgrade the most important packages at the expense of less important ones if necessary.
