Re: dselect (Re: Using dpkg for a custom installation from cdrom media)
On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Henry Hollenberg wrote:
> Hello Joost and thanks for the reply.
>
> I've been tinkering with dselect and I think I've figured out enough to
> get it to do what it can for me......as far as that goes.
Oh, sorry, I didn't quite get that.
> But I'm trying to do a "custom" install with alots of selected packages
> for a bastion host/firewall. This would be cumbersome to do by hand on
> the three machines that would make up the firewall.
> therefore I believe dselect just will not have the functionality required
> for this project and that is why I'm looking into dpkg.
You're probably wrong about that:
- theoretically because: dselect builds on dpkg; it provides extra
functionality that dpkg doesn't have and calls upon dpkg to do what dpkg
can.
- practically because: see suggestions below;
> It looks as if dpkg can probably pull it off.....I'm just not sure how to
> use it in this complex scenario.....I've used it for simpler stuff and it
> works great.....installing a kernel dselect couldn't find for instance
> (2.0.33).
Was that a kernel you brewed yourself with kernel-package? Then it
probably wasn't mentioned in a "Packages" file. How would dselect know
about your package then?
Dselect's standard way of getting to know what packages are available in
an archive is to run dpkg --update-avail on the Packages file that comes
with the archive.
You could have made a Packages file yourself, with dpkg-scanpackages and
put that in a DIY archive and use it with dselect (making a custom
archive). You'll have to make an "override" file too, to get
dpkg-scanpackages to add sections to the packages entries in the Packages
file. You can find examples in the ftp.debian.org /debian/indices/
directory.
Or (not using an archive at all) you could have used dpkg --avail
custom-kernel.deb. I'm afraid you'd have to put the .deb on a floppy to
use it with dselect, because that's the only way it knows how to deal with
a non-archive. In this simple case, dpkg -i by hand is more convinient of
course.
> so my question remains, what are the steps?
Another solution is to build a package with dependencies on all the
packages you want to install. Create an archive that contains that
package, the packages it depends on and packages that those depend on.
Since you want to build a firewall, you'll probably want to put in a
_lot_ of conflicts as well ;-).
Use dpkg-scanpackages to generate a Packages file. Burn it on a cd or
put it on your ftp site and it should work fine with dselect and deity.
If you're really serious about creating your own cd, then dselect is
definately the way to go.
Cheers,
Joost
--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-user-request@lists.debian.org .
Trouble? e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .
Reply to: