Re: Non-debian tools for fetching DEB packages?

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On Tue, Jan 16, 2007 at 08:08:57PM -0800, Joe Emenaker wrote:
> Craig Sanders wrote:

> >....you can (in theory) run debian without apt, but nobody
> >does. and all of the scripts in /usr/lib/debootstrap mention apt as a
> >base or required package.
>
> Yeah... I just noticed that. I think the problem might be that 
> debtakeover uses the "required" profile and not the "base" profile 
> (where apt is listed).

ah, okay.

i've gotta chime in with someone else, who asked what advantage
debtakeover has over reformatting the swap partition and installing a
minimal debian system onto that, then using that partition to install
debian onto the main partition?

i've never used debtakeover, but i have converted several machines
(remotely - me in .au, machines in .uk) from RHEL to debian by initially
installing debian onto the swap partition. it's pretty straight-forward
process and, as long as you're careful and do it methodically, it works
well.

> >anyway, if it doesn't install it, you can download apt (with ftp
> >or whatever) and all dependancies...
> >dependancies for apt are:
> >....
> >dependancies for debian-archive keyring are:
> >...
> >and dependancies for ...
>
> That's kinda what I was trying to avoid. Back when RedHat only had rpm, 
> I used to curse up a storm whenever I'd have to go update somebody's 
> RedHat box and I'd be alternating between lynx and rpm as I'd fetch 
> another package and then find out that *it* depended on other packages. 
> So, I'm really loathe to go down that road again.
> 
> It's okay, though. I've almost written a little script that goes through 
> the Packages file for a release and finds all of the depends.

huh?  that was a once-off, just to get apt installed.

i just gave you the list of depends for apt (and their dependancies
too). download and install those and you'll never have to do it again
because apt will be working and will figure out the dependancies for
anything else you want to install.

alternatively, just install a minimal debian system (including apt) onto
the swap partition and use that to install onto the main partitions
(i.e. backup the old /etc and other crucial stuff, reformat, "cp -af
..." or "tar c - ... | tar x -", then reboot and start installing
packages)



and if you have multiple machines to convert, once you've finished
installed debian onto one, tar the whole thing and use that
.tar.gz/.tar.bz2 image to speed up converting the rest.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>           (part time cyborg)