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Re: base*.tgz is gone, and why it's gone



On Sun, Jun 17, 2001 at 12:06:21AM -0600, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> 
> This is trivially solvable by having .html files with links to all the
> files that are required (or maybe if there are too many, a link to a tar
> of the .debs). I expect this is easially producable in an automated way
> from debbootstrap, and I agree it is an important requirement. 

thats a gross and unmaintainable kludge IMO.  having a debootstrap
option to simply download the debs and then stuff them in a tarball
isn't so bad.  that still creates a maintenence problem since the
tarball has to be managed manually. but thats not nearly as bad as
renaming 50 or so debs to crippled 8.3 filenames and building an html
file to map them.  

> I have frequently had to do installs on machines with ethernet cards that
> are not supported by the boot disks, invariably this is either solved
> using a 'boot from linuxcare cd' or 'boot from windows' and using a
> temporary filesystem. 

which is what a tarball of debs would solve.  something like:

debootstrap --download-only woody /var/tmp/debootstrap http://http.us.debian.org

then you get /var/tmp/debootstrap filled with about 50 .debs, run 
(cd /var/tmp/debootstrap ; tar -zcf ../base.tgz .)

debootstrap could then also support something like:

debootstrap --boot-floppies woody /target tar:/instmnt/base.tgz

where it would (cd /target/var/cache/apt/archives; tar -zxf /instmnt/base.tgz)
and begin unpacking as if it just finished a download. 

> debbootstrap sounds great, but it is essiantial that all files needed
> for install are fetchable with out excessive trouble using standard
> netscape/IE.

i tend to agree, but the only way that is possible is if we support a
tarball aquisition method, such as i have proposed above.  with my
proposal it would be trivial for the base.tgz to be updated on a
regular basis, it could even be triggered by/after the dinstall runs. 

-- 
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/

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