Telstra Bigpond Mirror does not provide multiverse

I've also just been in contacted Bigpond support (http://files.bigpond.com/support/) to enquire about the status of the "multiverse" component in their mirror. Hopefully I can get some useful information out of them.

Hi David.....

Multiverse is not/will not be, provided by Telstra.

You will need to use another source for multiverse. au.archive.ubuntu.com maybe.

It would be interesting to see how they word the response.

Im very happy with whats unmetered = )

I forgot to mention its for Bigpond customers/employees....

The traffic is unmetered if ya a Bigpond customer.

And i guess.... I forget why now..... Multiverse applications are not supported, not free, and alot of the time no longer maintained.....

So....

Hi Ian,

My main concern was that since this is now an official repository for Ubuntu, it will cause issues for anyone who has selected "Telstra Bigpond" as their mirror in Software Sources and has Multiverse selected. 404 errors and being unable to update or install software installed from Multiverse.

(I'm not quite convinced I like the current description for Multiverse either - "Software restricted by copyright or legal issues" - since anything really restricted by copyright or legal issues, for example Adobe Reader, can't be included in Ubuntu's repositories at all. My understanding was that it was any "non-free"/non-Open Source licence, but still legal to distribute.)

I currently have a custom "sources.list" since the Bigpond Mirror doesn't offer Multiverse, but thought that it was a requirement that "official" mirrors had to be full and complete (unless by prior arrangement).

I've spoken with Bigpond's representative, and it seems that the current problem is more to do with disk space limitations (though the ambiguity of Multiverse licences do concern them a bit). Apparently these issues are something being looked into soon.

(Don't get me wrong. I absolutely _love_ the fact that I can update and install 90% of the software I'll ever need without using any of my quota. It's a brilliant service. It's just a shame that there are a few packages that I need from Multiverse and that this will cause issues when selecting this as an official mirror.).

Hi David.....

I think last time i tried to get to the bigpond linux mirror

mirror.files.bigpond.com

from an account that was optus, i think...... pretty sure ya cant get in.... unless on a bigpond account...

Where did get this "official mirror from" ?????

Perhaps it should be removed or labeled appropriately ?????

Ok I see....

I should not be in the list......

Unless it can be accessed by anyone.

50/50

I converted the question to a bug report.

Anybody can access the repository but like you say they are left with errors and no multiverse component.

https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/571983

Originally yes, http://mirror.files.bigpond.com/ was only accessible from Bigpond. In the last 12 months or so, this policy was changed and it's now accessible from other locations (I for instance can access it through AARNet at University).

It looks like the mirror was added through https://edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archivemirrors by Trent Muldoon (see https://edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+mirror/mirror.files.bigpond.com-archive). He also seesm to be the person who's been responsible for registering mirror.files.bigpond.com as a mirror for other projects such as CentOS.

I'm assuming there is some sort of approval process, but it's not clear from just the page itself.

This is no longer an issue as mirror.bigpond.com is no longer listed as an official mirror or in Maverick's mirror list.

As discussed in bug #571983 this mirror no longer exists. Bigpond users should use mirror.aarnet.edu.au (metered for Bigpond users). See http://go.bigpond.com/help/file_library/ for details.