Re: Debian slink CD images
On Mon, 14 Dec 1998, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
>> <sigh> Do they have any of their own design docs up on the web anywhere?
>
>Actually I said that this standard does not solve any problems. I don't
>know if you've read it, but all it describes is a 'CD Package File Index'
>(contents) which is supposed to solve the non-problem of locating Package
>files and the other non-problem of identifying which CD is in the drive.
>
>The standard did not specify how to split the distribution and it did not
>specify how the CDs should look. These are problems that need solving.
>
>APT needs nothing more than N sets of properly formed Debian distributions
>on each CD, that is there should be a package file in the 'regular'
>location on each disc with .debs and it should index only the files on
>that disk. That's it.
>
>Oh, I also followed Joey's lead, if .disk/info exists it is assumed to be
>the CD name, but it is not required.
Is it compatible with the dselect multi-cd method then? It sounds like.
The script I'm using now splits (by default, this can be changed by the
user) simply:
Disc 1: main binary-i386 section 1 (admin -> misc)
Disc 2: main binary i386 section 2 (net -> x11)
contrib (bin/src)
non-US (bin/src: optional)
Disc 3: main source section 1 (admin -> graphics)
extras (e.g netscape, kernel source)
Disc 4: main source section 2 (hamradio -> x11)
project (optional)
Disc 5: non-free (bin/src)
And I'm producing the .disk/info files as suggested. I've got all the
binaries on 3 CDs. I've got offers of help to do similar layouts (mainly
we just need to check sizes and adjust accordingly) for the other
architectures.
Each disc has two sets of Packages files - the normal Packages files
clipped to list the contents of each section on each disk (as you
specified above) and the Packages.cd files that contain an X-Medium: tag
for each package. Each of the 4 Packages.cd files
(main,contrib,non-US,non-free) is duplicated on each disk so that
dselect/apt multicd should only need to scan one of the disks at startup
to update.
This layout _works_ - I've got CDs here right now that use it, and I
installed a friend's machine using another similar set over the weekend.
It asks for a couple of swaps to start with (IIRC pre-depends on perl?),
then two scans through the set met all of dselect's needs. Install from
scratch took about 45 minutes.
Does anybody else have a script to generate slink CD images, or is anybody
else even working on one?
See
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~stevem/DebianCD/slink_cd_0.7.tar.bz2
for the latest version of the script. Comments welcome...
--
Steve McIntyre, CURS CCE, Cambridge, UK. stevem@chiark.greenend.org.uk
"It's actually quite entertaining to watch ag129 prop his foot up on
the desk so he can get a better aim." [ seen in ucam.chat ]
Finger for PGP key
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