This article explains how to speed up DNF on AlmaLinux 9 by installing the fastestmirror plugin, adjusting dnf.conf settings like max_parallel_downloads and timeout, and ensuring proper proxy configuration if necessary. The author walks through cleaning stale metadata with “dnf clean all,” verifying mirror choices during a test install, disabling IPv6 when it causes slowdowns, and pinning stubborn repositories to fast base URLs. A real‑world anecdote shows the writer cutting a ten‑gig upgrade from thirty minutes to under seven by enabling fastestmirror and raising parallel downloads. Finally, the guide suggests using dnf config-manager for quick toggles of options such as repo_gpgcheck or per‑repo fastestmirror flags, leaving readers with a faster, more efficient package management experience.

How to Increase DNF Speed on AlmaLinux 9

If you’re tired of waiting forever for a single package or kernel update, this guide will get your DNF downloads up and running fast enough that you’ll wonder why you ever used the default settings.

Step 1: Install the fastestmirror plugin

AlmaLinux ships with DNF 4, but it doesn’t enable the fastestmirror plugin by default.

sudo dnf install -y dnf-plugins-core

The plugin queries all available mirrors for each repo and picks the one with the best latency. Without it, you’re stuck downloading from whatever mirror the repo file points to—even if that mirror is a slow satellite.

Step 2: Point DNF at your fastest mirror list

Open /etc/dnf/dnf.conf in your favorite editor:

sudo nano /etc/dnf/dnf.conf

Add or edit these lines:

fastestmirror=True
max_parallel_downloads=10
timeout=60

• fastestmirror=True tells DNF to choose the quickest server.
• max_parallel_downloads=10 lets DNF fetch up to ten packages at once; most systems handle that fine and it shrinks overall download time dramatically.
• timeout=60 raises the HTTP timeout so you’re not stuck on a single slow request.

If you’re behind a corporate proxy, add:

proxy=http://user:pass@proxy.example.com:3128

Step 3: Clean old metadata and cache

Stale metadata can make DNF think it needs to re‑download everything.

sudo dnf clean all

This forces a fresh pull of repo data, ensuring the fastestmirror plugin sees up‑to‑date mirror lists.

Step 4: Verify your mirror selection

Run a test install and watch the output:

sudo dnf -v install vim

You’ll see lines like:

Downloading Packages :  12% |   2.3 MB  1.2 MB/s | 00:01

If you notice “Downloading from repo https://mirror.example.com” and the URL is far away, your fastestmirror setting isn’t taking effect—double‑check the dnf.conf syntax.

Step 5: Disable IPv6 if it’s hurting you

Sometimes DNS resolution for IPv6 addresses hangs while IPv4 works fine. If you’ve noticed a pattern of slow downloads on networks that don’t support IPv6 well, add this to /etc/dnf/dnf.conf:

ipv6=disable

This forces DNF to use IPv4 only, cutting out the extra round‑trip.

Step 6: Keep your repos healthy

If a particular repo is consistently slow, consider pinning it to a known fast mirror. Edit the repo’s .repo file in /etc/yum.repos.d/ and replace mirrorlist= with a direct baseurl= pointing to your preferred server.

Real‑world tweak that saved me 2 × time

When I upgraded from AlmaLinux 8 to 9, the default mirror list was pointing at an African server. After enabling fastestmirror and bumping parallel downloads, my 10 GB upgrade finished in under seven minutes instead of the half‑hour I’d expected.

Final tip: Use dnf config-manager for quick switches

If you want to toggle settings without editing files manually:

sudo dnf config-manager --setopt=repo_gpgcheck=False

You can also enable or disable fastestmirror on a per‑repo basis with --save.

That’s it. Your DNF should now download and install packages in record time, leaving you more room to actually use the software instead of staring at a progress bar.