Install apt-fast Download Accelerator in Ubuntu 12.04/11.10/10.04

apt-get command is a normal way to download and install packages and update system. apt-fast is a shellscript wrapper for apt-get that can drastically improve apt download times by downloading packages in parallel, with multiple connections per package. It uses axel or aria2c as a download manager.

Once you’ve setup apt-fast, you can use it like apt-get. To install a single package, make sure your database is up to date (apt-fast update), and run apt-fast install packagenamehere. Watch it download with incredible speed, and install your requested packages. To upgrade or dist-upgrade, do the same thing. Just use apt-fast dist-upgrade or apt-fast upgrade.

Install and set up apt-fast in Ubuntu:
apt-fast got an official PPA provides packages for Ubuntu 12.04, 11.10, 11.04, and 10.04. You can use a graphical way installing apt-fast from ppa:apt-fast/stable

Or, open up a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) window and just execute following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apt-fast/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-fast axel

After installation, configure apt-fast to use axel as download manager:

• edit the configuration file:

  sudo gedit /etc/apt-fast.conf

• remove # before following “_DOWNLOADER” line and save the file
  

  # axel:
  _DOWNLOADER=’cat /tmp/apt-fast.list | xargs -l1 axel -n ${_MAXNUM} -a’ # axel

Now, run this command and then you can use apt-fast as apt-get

sudo apt-fast update