Re: mini-dinstall, repository signing and apt-get authentication

[Ian Zimmerman <itz@madbat.mine.nu>]

Neil> Time for a bug report, I think. But in order to actually get the
Neil> thing working, I need more help.

Have you ever filed the report?  I can't find it searching on b.d.o.

Neil> I get:
Neil> Failed to fetch
Neil> http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/packages/unstable/amd64/Release  
Neil> Unable to find expected entry  Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)

And this is my main question: have you figured out what causes this error?
I am pretty much in banging-head-against-wall mode now.

Let me describe my situation: I have a flat (single directory) archive
of personal debs.  I see absolutely no point in maintaining "code names"
and "suites" and what not.  So I put the debs into /var/local/debian
(which apache aliases to /debian/) on my.server.com, and in the clients'
sources.list I put

deb http://my.server.com/debian/ ./

I generate the Packages.gz file by

cd /var/local/debian && apt-ftparchive packages ./ | gzip - > Packages.gz

and the Release file by

cd /var/local/debian && apt-ftparchive release ./ > /tmp/Release && mv /tmp/Release .

Followed by apt-get update on the clients of course.

All this works flawlessly until I introduce signing.  As soon as I add a Release.gpg
file (generated by cd /var/local/debian && gpg -abs -o Release.gpg Release)
apt-get starts giving me the above error message.  Now the wording made me think
that perhaps perhaps I should NOT compress the Packages file, so I tried to omit
the gzip step above.  But then apt-get complains it cannot retrieve Packages file!

<rant>
It seems the security layer of apt was a quick hack which introduced this sort
of confusion, instead of the thoughtful redesign it needed.
</rant>

Thanks for your help in advance.

-- 
This line is completely ham.