Using apt-get with a PPP connection

[Laurent Pelecq <laurent.pelecq@soleil.org>]

Hello,

I'm a new Hurd user. I connect to my ISP with a ppp connection. Since
ppp support doesn't appear to be available, I use the following method
to install/update packages with apt-get. Maybe a better way exists. I
didn't find anything in docs I read (but I didn't read everything :-).

I'm interested in any simpler method. This one requires to boot on
Linux first and reboot again on the Hurd.

First, I download packages in my user account on a Debian GNU/Linux
install (see apt config below). Before running apt-get I copy the
var/dpkg/status of the Hurd to my user account.

In ~myself/hurd, I created the following dirs:
~/hurd/apt/state/lists
~/hurd/apt/state/lists/partial
~/hurd/apt/dpkg
~/hurd/apt/cache/archives
~/hurd/apt/cache/archives/partial

I run apt-get with --config-file=/home/myself/hurd/apt/apt.conf and
--download-only. Then I copy all .deb in the Hurd partition, reboot
on the Hurd and install packages with dpkg.

Laurent

== apt.conf ================================================
Dir {
  Etc::SourceList "/home/myself/hurd/apt/sources.list";
  Cache::archives "/home/myself/hurd/apt/cache/archives";
  Cache "/home/myself/hurd/apt/cache";
  State::Lists "/home/myself/hurd/apt/state/lists";
  State::status "/home/myself/hurd/apt/dpkg/status";
};
APT {
  Architecture "hurd-i386";
};
============================================================

== sources.list ============================================
deb ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/hurd/debian unstable main
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main
============================================================