apt-cdrom, apt-get and Potato {r1,r2}
I've come across an awkward situation involving the Potato r0 CDROMs,
apt-get running across a slow modem connection, and the newly arrived
Potato point releases (r1 and soon r2).
I have my sources.list set up to install packages from the r0 CDROMs,
as well as network sources for security.debian.org, stuff from non-free,
contrib etc. 99% of the packages on my system can be installed locally
from CDROM, and only the odd package needs to come across the slow and
expensive modem link.
With the point releases of Potato, I'd like to be able to track the
most recent versions of updated packages. I figure this will still only
involve a small percentage of the total number of packages, so it
shouldn't involve too much download time. Unfortuately, if I add the
the lines for the full network Potato archive after the lines for the
CDs (inserted by apt-cdrom), then I run into a bug which makes apt-get
revert to the network source for all runs involving multiple packages
spread across more than one CDROM (bug reports #71810, #69482, #76547).
This pretty much defeats the purpose of having the CDROMs...
A workaround is to install the packages one at a time, but this means
I have to figure out all the dependencies myself, and that seems like
reinventing the wheel. I imagine this is a simple bug in apt-get, and
perhaps it's already fixed in woody. If so, would it be possible to have
a fixed version in the next Potato point release, or maybe just an
unofficial package somewhere? I suspect there are a number of
other users in my situation.
cheers,
Malcolm
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