Christian Perrier wrote:
Perhaps a better option would be to install the security packages only after the first installation has completed? That way, at the very least, I'd have a usable system while waiting for the updates.
The option exists but is not shown at the default install priority. You can either preseed it (apt-setup/security-updates=false) or use the medium priority to get the question asked in 2nd stage.
As I experienced the same last week, another possibility would be, to have the security-updates repository included in the mirroring concept, to avoid bottlenecks.
Just my figures: - my connection allows 4 Mbit/sec - ftp.at.debian.org performs at 1 Mbit/sec most of the time - security.debian.org goes down to 2 Kbit and less Helmut Wollmersdorfer