The Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" has been a real success and the community has received it with open arms. So much so that the official repository is no longer able to fulfil requests for all the users. The developers recommend that users choose a different mirror for the repos.

The Linux Mint project has a lot of users and their number has increased in the last couple of years. This distribution is one of the fastest rising open source operating systems and more people than ever are now using it. This is putting quite a strain on the official servers, but there are available mirrors that anyone can use.

Not everyone knows that the repos for Linux Mint are spread out on numerous mirrors, from all over the world. This means that few users actually go through the trouble of selecting a different mirror for their repos, although it most likely provides a much better connection. This policy had a direct effect on the repos and there is nothing the devs can really do right now, with the exception of asking everyone to change the download mirrors and to upgrade the server array.

Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" is too successful

Said no one, ever. The fact that the servers are now being bombarded with requests is nothing to worry about. In fact, it shows just how many Linux Mint fans are out and how many have downloaded and installed the latest versions.

"Our main repository packages.linuxmint.com isn’t currently able to serve connections to everybody. This can result in errors, timeouts and delays in apt-get, and in your update manager," reported Clement Lefebvre, the leader of the project. He also explained, step by step, what users need to do in order to select a different mirror.

code From the menu, open “Software Sources” or type “mintsources” in a terminal

Type your password

Click on the combo box beside “Main”

Select a server from the top of the list

Click on “Apply”

Click on “Update the Cache”

This is a tip that also works for the Ubuntu base, which also has lots of mirrors spread all across the globe. You can also download Linux Mint 17.1 from Softpedia.