Re: dselect tool
Please ignore this mail and accept my apologies if you receive it more
than once.
> My apologies for sending you a direct email question, but I
> can't find any regerence to, say, a Debian specific newsgroup
> in your general info, and your name is on the "dselect for
> beginners" document.
>
> I am trying to download packages using apt from an ftp
> mirror site. I know the stuff is there because I can see it
> just using ordinary ftp (and this is from the machine I'm
> trying to install to, so the connection is working).
>
> Every time I get as far as the Install stage, it reports that
> it can't locate the packages. I presume the information about
> source list that I'm providing is in an uncorrect format, yet
> I've tried every combination that I can think of - literally
> dozens - without apparently finding the right one. (Incidental
> question: why was it able, after a couple of attempts, to find
> Pacakges.gz but not the actual packages when it came to
> installing them, given that I didn't change the access source?)
> I cannot consult the man pages or whatever other documentation
> for apt there might be because, of course, it's not loaded onto
> the system.
>
> The "stuff" is at ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Linux/debian/
> dists/stable/main/binary-i386
>
> However I break this up it fails. I've tried missing parts out,
> even using ftp.debian.org/debian as in the eg, accepting defaults,
> trying to override defaults, using http or ftp, everything. So,
> could you please tell me _exactly_ how to respond to these prompts:
>
> Base URL of the debian distribution:
>
> Distribution [stable]:
>
> Components [main contrib non-free]
>
> These latter in particular keep appearing as a list separated by
> spaces if I check what apt thinks is my source list, which makes
> for a nonsense pathname (so presumable apt "knows" something
> about the structure of the archive).
>
> Since you've read this far, let me add that I've used Linux for
> over 5 years now and have installed it on many systems since the
> early days when I obtained a slackware dist on 100+ floppies from a
> University. I've used many distributions but I'm attracted by
> Debian because much of the Linux world seems to be getting more
> and more commercial. However, I'm not a naive user, so I have to
> say that I don't think this is an easy to use installation method.
>
> Many thanks in anticipation for your help, and sorry to have taken
> up so much of your time.
>
> Paul Douglas
>
>
>
> Paul Douglas douglap@wmin.ac.uk
> Univeristy of Westminster
> London W1M 8JS
> telephone 0171 911 5800 x3582
>
>
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