Hi Richard,
Here's what I would probably do:
- create directories on your USB or partition for each of the DVDs
- extract each ISO, and place the contents in the directories
- if using a separate partition, mount it in your fstab at a location
such as /mnt/deb, or if using a USB, just make sure to always mount it
at the same location when you want to install something
Then you can add a line such as this to your APT sources:
deb [trusted=yes] file:///mnt/deb/DVD1/ buster main
deb [trusted=yes] file:///mnt/deb/DVD2/ buster main
deb [trusted=yes] file:///mnt/deb/DVD3/ buster main
Now whenever you want to install something, you shouldn't have to worry
about which DVD it was on, APT should just automatically find it.
Jeremy
On Fri, 5 Feb 2021 at 09:55, Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net
<mailto:rowlett@cloud85.net>> wrote:
I wish to do custom Debian install on a machine *WITHOUT*:
1. functional mechanical CD/DVD drive.
2. without internet access.
One can purchase a flash drive containing ISO images of all
installation
DVDs of the desired architecture. It is straight forward to do a
default
install after copying dvd1.iso to a flash drive.
Resulting problems include:
1. undesired programs clutter machine (e.g. LibreOffice).
2. project critical software cannot be installed as Synaptic
asks for a non-existent DVD be inserted in a non-existent drive.
One vendor has a shell program which loop mounts the ISO files in
such a
way that *IF* you have the purchased flash drive installed you can use
Synaptic.
The Debian documentation does not appear to describe how apt &/or
Synaptic can access ISO files on dedicated partition.
Are the instructions to create a "local repository" composed of
appropriate ISO files?
TIA