Re: Still no base tarball
On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, Peter S Galbraith wrote:
>
> Dale Scheetz wrote:
>
> > > > > nobody has yet provided a convincing argument for putting the
> > > > > tarball on the CDs.
> > > >
> > > > Of the machines that I get a chance to install Debian on
> > > [cut]
> > > > 25% don't even have a CD-ROM drive.
> > > [cut]
> > > > So I'd say about 30% of machines I see need the whole base install done
> > > > from floppies.
> > >
> > > So how does it help to have a 24MB file on the CD?
> >
> > I would think that would be obvious. It saves about 5 hours of download
> > time on a 56K modem. It provides a CD archives that matches the FTP
> > archives, providing least surprise to the user.
>
> I was merely (badly) pointing out that a 24MB file is nearly
> useless to plain users with no CD and only floppy access to
> transfer it (unless the CD comes with a script to split it for
> them?).
See previous posting. I didn't realize that the tarball and the floppies
were two different sets of data. The floppy images is the most useful way
for these to be placed on the CD, although I could still make use of the
basedebs tarball.
>
> > Looks like a completeness argument to me...
>
> Perhaps. How will they get the rest of the system installed?
Once you have the base system installed PPP is available. Until then it is
not. If pppd were available on the boot floppies this would be a moot
point.
> Can't they use the same method to fetch the base packages?
Not without net (read LAN, not PPP) or CD access.
> (Perhaps they can't; I don't know).
>
> Personally, I liked having a base.tgz file I could quickly unpack
> to make a chroot environment. But I can learn to do it the new
> way if I have to.
If I understand the current solution, the tarbal will be available
somewhere in the archives. I have done many base installs with the tarball
in the past, now that the installer can get the packages for base out of
the archives of the CD, that will be my preferred method barring hardware
restrictions.
Luck,
Dwarf
--
_-_-_-_-_- Author of "Dwarf's Guide to Debian GNU/Linux" _-_-_-_-_-_-
_- _-
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