DVD download

[Jonathan Berry]

On 3/25/06, Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-03-25 at 07:29 -0500, David McCormick wrote:
> > I have tried to download the DVD iso images several times and every time
> > I do it the progress bar on Firefox goes to the point that it is
> > completely downloaded and then starts in reverse showing a negative
> > speed and the total mg's of content starts getting smaller.  What can be
> > causing this?
>
> Signed 32-bit integer overflow.  After it reaches 2,147,483,647 bytes,
> it goes to -2,147,483,468 and counts down.  Many non 64-bit compliant
> HTTP clients have this issue.  Even Internet Explorer 6.

Exactly.  Which begs the question, why in the world is a file size
being represented with a *signed* number?  Last time I checked, most
of the time file sizes are 0 or positive :).

> But the question is if it is just showing the wrong number, but still
> correctly downloading?  Check the filesystem and see if the .part file
> is > 2,147,483,647.  If so, then it's probably still downloading the
> entire file, the display is just using a signed 32-bit integer value
> overflowing.

I think I used Firefox once to download a DVD iso.  I saw the strange
progress bar behavior, but it still downloaded fine.

> Either use a newer HTTP client, or use a FTP client.  I prefer ncftp for
> a FTP client.  I was able to grab FC5 at 0.5MBps (yes, mega_byte_ per

That's just wrong ;).

> second) from the fairly close USF mirror (yes, USF is good for something
> -- no way!) here in the UCF area.

There is always Bittorrent as well.  If you have a good connection and
can find a close local mirror that's not busy, Bittorrent is usually
slower.  But you don't have to worry about getting a corrupted
download.  wget is a nice tool for FTP or HTTP download.  You can even
stop and restart the download if needed.

Jonathan