Package install problem

[Lyndon Fletcher <Lyndon.Fletcher@uab.ericsson.se>]

Hi all,
       I have a number of small problems getting Debian packages onto my
PC. Ok, for a start the machine has an unrecognised CDROM type and
second it has a limited HD size (~360Mb). I can't do anything about
either of these problems at the moment and would like some advice for
working around my problems.

I managed to install by leaving a small 30MB dos partition on the
machine and copying the base distribution and install files into it via
DOS. This allowed me to get the basic system loaded. 


My problem is how to load the rest of the packages. I have a couple of
ideas and would like to know the answers to a few specific questions.

1) Idea 1

I could copy a few packages at a time onto the 30Mb Dos drive and
install from there. 

Question 1 --- To run dselect do I only need the .deb files or do I need
the "packages" files too? 

Question 2 --- If I do need the "packages" file do I have to edit it to
reflect the actual path to the .deb files? 

Question 3 --- What constitutes a package? I have several directories
called things like "net" do I copy the whole directory or just the .deb
files I seem to need?


Idea 2

I have a PC with a working CDROM (running win95) I also have a FTPD for
win95. 

Qustion 4 --- when I try to use this machine as an FTP source Dselect
seems to expect a specific layout dist/stable/main and the like
Unfortunately my CD has the form d:/debian/hamm/hamm... How can I change
this so that Dselect can read fron the remote drive?

Question 5 --- the "packages" file has files listed in the
dist/stable/main way were as the layout of my CD is
D:/debian/hamm/hamm/binary-i386/... would I need a new packages file
with the paths corrected?

Question 6 --- is it possible to use a "packages" file in a different
path from where the .deb files are stored?

Hope that you can send me some answers... I've been pulling my hair out
over this all week.

Thanks

Fletch




I have another machine