Change default APT mirrors

[Scott Moser]

On Mon, 4 Jun 2012, Alan Hoffmeister wrote:

> Hello there!
>
> The default installation of Ubuntu Server get packages from the main
> repository, is there a simple way for changing this? I mean, it would
> be much faster to download packages from a mirror in Brazil, where the
> server is, than the USA default one.
>
> Nanoing sources.list and changing one by one is so creepy :P

This is pre-seedable.  The specific section you need is:
  d-i     mirror/country string manual
  d-i     mirror/http/hostname string archive.ubuntu.com
  d-i     mirror/http/directory string /ubuntu
  d-i     mirror/http/proxy string http://@@server@@:8000/

If you're doing more than one install, and have a spare system with some
disk space, I highly recommend a squid proxy and using the above to point
the installer at the proxy.  Its a very easy way to get psuedo-lan speeds.

You can specify a pre-seed at the prompt if you're doing a manual install,
by adding 'url=<some-url>'.  If you're doing install to real hardware,
then that might be the easiest way.  Just set up a bit.ly url for some
server you have a http running on, and use:
  url=http://bit.ly/your-nickname-here

Further reading
http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2012/01/ubuntu-quick-installation-preseed-link.html