Re: Et voila! (was: Re: Slink not installable from CDs)
On Tue, Oct 20, 1998 at 12:42:05PM -0600, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> > Jason> It would mirror the technique I plan to use in APT.
> >
> > Rethink your technique... yes, it's simpler from your POV, but a huge
> > PITA for the user. Why not combine it? Have a central list of
> > packages giving the medium, but let the user add CDs later on...
>
> You can't do that because there is no way to specify the CD ID. The CD
> needs to be seen at least once so that it's ID can be determined, recorded
> and associated with it's contents. I really don't think it's a big problem
> to ask once at the start for each CD to be popped in - this would happen
> one time ever, not once each time.
No other OS does this that I know of. I would find it annoying to have to
insert CD #1... wait... insert CD #2... wait... and so on. Debian will be
three or four CD's soon, at the current rate of growth.
It's easy to specify a CD ID. One typical way is to create a file in the
root directory, say "disk.label" with the contents "debian-2.1-disk-1". The
Packages.all file on disk 1 specifies the right disklabel for each package.
By the way... I haven't looked at dpkg-multicd yet, but I hope it uses long
disk labels, not just numbers 1,2,3. We need long labels so the user can't
mix and match versions of Debian by accident. Think ahead :)
> It also provides an opertunity to verify that the CD is structured
> correctly and to make corrections to it's layout if necessary (Think those
> blasted infomagic CDs)
We should have a program to test if a CD is structured correctly _before_ we
burn it.
Have fun,
Avery
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