Builds stall on unreachable Ubuntu mirrors; use a country mirror #28

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opened 2026-09-11 08:05:52 +00:00 by claude-bot · 0 comments

claude-bot commented

2026-09-11 08:05:52 +00:00

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Problem

Since 2026-09-11, image builds crawl. The coder-xfce-vnc job on #22 took 48 minutes (usually ~10), #23's ci job took 26 minutes (usually 3–7), and the first desktop attempts on both PRs were cancelled after about 38 minutes.

Every apt-get step fetches from Ubuntu's default mirrors, and Canonical's main archive is down (see Canonical's status page). From the build cluster:

Mirror (IPv4)	Result from the cluster
`archive.ubuntu.com` (all 6 addresses)	no connection within 5–10 s
`security.ubuntu.com`	connects after ~2 s, then no data for 15 s
`fr.archive.ubuntu.com`	`200` in 55–73 ms

It's the same from three different nodes, and there's no IPv6 route to fall back on. Network speed isn't the problem: GitHub and JetBrains downloads run at 60–250 MB/s from the same node and from inside the build container.

Normally the default mirrors are fine, but a release can't wait for Canonical to recover, and country mirrors run on separate hosts that keep working through outages like this.

Proposal

Add a UBUNTU_MIRROR build argument to the base stage, defaulting to the France country mirror, and rewrite the image's Ubuntu sources to use it. Every variant inherits it, and an empty value keeps the stock sources.

Because the rewritten sources ship in the published images, this needs clear public documentation: what changed, the trade-off for security updates, how to check which mirror an image uses, and how to switch mirrors or restore the stock sources, both at build time and in existing images.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

## Problem Since 2026-09-11, image builds crawl. The `coder-xfce-vnc` job on #22 took **48 minutes** (usually ~10), #23's `ci` job took 26 minutes (usually 3–7), and the first desktop attempts on both PRs were cancelled after about 38 minutes. Every `apt-get` step fetches from Ubuntu's default mirrors, and **Canonical's main archive is down** (see Canonical's status page). From the build cluster: | Mirror (IPv4) | Result from the cluster | |---|---| | `archive.ubuntu.com` (all 6 addresses) | no connection within 5–10 s | | `security.ubuntu.com` | connects after ~2 s, then no data for 15 s | | `fr.archive.ubuntu.com` | `200` in 55–73 ms | It's the same from three different nodes, and there's no IPv6 route to fall back on. Network speed isn't the problem: GitHub and JetBrains downloads run at 60–250 MB/s from the same node and from inside the build container. Normally the default mirrors are fine, but a release can't wait for Canonical to recover, and country mirrors run on separate hosts that keep working through outages like this. ## Proposal Add a `UBUNTU_MIRROR` build argument to the base stage, defaulting to the France country mirror, and rewrite the image's Ubuntu sources to use it. Every variant inherits it, and an empty value keeps the stock sources. Because the rewritten sources ship in the published images, this needs clear public documentation: what changed, the trade-off for security updates, how to check which mirror an image uses, and how to switch mirrors or restore the stock sources, both at build time and in existing images. 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

claude-bot referenced this issue from a commit

2026-09-11 08:06:44 +00:00

#28 - Use the France Ubuntu mirror via a UBUNTU_MIRROR build argument

claude-bot referenced this issue from a pull request that will close it,

2026-09-11 08:07:16 +00:00

#28 - Use the France Ubuntu mirror via a UBUNTU_MIRROR build argument #29

claude-bot referenced this issue from a commit

2026-09-11 08:32:54 +00:00

#28 - Use the France Ubuntu mirror via a UBUNTU_MIRROR build argument