fetchMirrorsGui

# fetchMirrorsGui

This software is for Arch Linux only

what Does it Do?

Well on Arch Linux there is a file at /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist , this file contains a list of mirrors where the system can retrieve software, for instance when you run: sudo pacman -Syu

Now seasoned users are ok at the command line; surprisingly some people seem to be able to install Arch but still prefer a visual GUI. I guess the quota of GUI lovers will increase as Arch gets easier to install using the likes of calam-arch-installer archfi and others.

There are packages in the aur which also populate the mirrorlist but use reflector to work.

What I have attempted to do is create a a self contained elf executable binary, which does not need reflector and also should have all libraries needed for it to run, so you don't need to download anything else. The elf binary called fetchMirrorsGui can be put at /usr/bin or usr/local/bin and then be evoked from the command line such as :

sudo fetchMirrorsGui

###whuch file is which

So fetchMirrorsGui.py is the python script and fetchMirrorsGui is the elf executable binary which should have required libraries embedded meaning it should be stand-alone.

###whats the selections

On the tkinter GUI option 1 radio button works fine and is quick as does option radio button2

The last option gets the mirrors near to where you are by your choice ,tests them, sorts then with quickest first and then writes them in that order to

/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Now that can take a minute or two and can look like the program was frozen- it hasn’t

Hint : try worldwide from option three first , it only has 2 lines of mirrors

Also the gui may look like its frozen when working on getting repsonse time if the mirror list is several lines long You will see thats not the case when a message appears on gui 'written to /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist'

I haven't managed to add any 'progress ' update yet

which files do you need ?

Really only the executable elf file called fetchMirrorsGui ; the py file is if your interested in coding.