[clug] Debian session for any Choobs?

[Hal Ashburner]

steve jenkin wrote:
> Hal Ashburner wrote on 16/6/09 2:04 PM:
>   
>> Michael James wrote:
>>     
>>> I've bitten the bullet and am trying to learn Debian.
>>>
>>>
>>> Topics:
>>>     Lightning tour of Installation*
>>>     Apt from an RPM user's perspective.
>>>    
>>>       
>> This might be one of those "from 1000ft" things.
>> the rpm equivalent is a thing called dpkg. The packages themselves end
>> in .deb rather than .rpm. Apt is the equivalent of something like yum or
>> (is it yast on suse?)
>> The basics seem to translate pretty easily nowadays.
>> Let's just list them. To start it off:
>>     
>
> <snip>
>
>   
>> Hal Ashburner
>>
>>
>> *I thought I'd loathe gentoo for example, I was wrong, it's rather nice
>> for certain uses. using emerge isn't a million miles away from apt/dpkg
>> and yum/rpm either.
>>     
>
>
> Hal,
>
> good stuff, thanks.
>
> Could someone comment on/briefly describe correct use of 'apt-cdrom'?
> (mentioned here:
> <http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-basico.en.html>)
>
> Something that bugs me with .deb systems is 'upgrade'/'dist-upgrade'
> default being done over the Net.
>
> I don't maintain a local repo - is that the real answer?
> What commands to sync it or load it from a CD/DVD download?
> [This may be way beyond the simple intro Michael wanted :-(]
>
> I know its possible to update from downloaded (optical) media, but have
> never learnt how it do it :-(
>
> i.e. what are the instructions to update/upgrade/dist-upgrade a system
> from CD/DVD/... ?
> Which media should be downloaded/used for Debian & Ubuntu?
iirc your /etc/apt/sources.list is agnostic about what it contains for 
sources

eg

deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.1 _Lenny_ - Official i386 NETINST 
Binary-1 20090413-22:27]/ lenny main

It's been a while for me, but unless things have changed when you 
install from cds, each cd is scanned to create a package list database 
that maps a package (whether installed or not) to a cd. So if you have a 
sudden desire to install, say, Conrad Parker's wave editor, sweep.
# apt-get install sweep
will invite you to insert the appropriate cd rather than making you keep 
inserting them until it finds what it's looking for.

apt-cdrom add
appears to be the command that which adds the cd packages to the database.

It probably doesn't make sense to do security upgrades via cds so you 
should probably have a lines like these there someplace.

One thing to consider is that the full debian distribution takes up an 
insane number of cds. I recall a number something like 15 last time I 
noticed.

deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main

http://www.debian.org/releases/lenny/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html#cdroms
appears to be the instructions for doing upgrades between releases using 
only optical media.
basically comment out all the deb lines in sources.list that refer to 
teh internets.
make sure cd/dvd drive mounts to /cdrom
run
# apt-cdrom add
for each disk

For me the real answer is to have an ISP that maitains a 'local' ie 
unmetered mirror . ;)

apt-proxy might be the thing if you've got multiple machines and you're 
worried about downloading the same thing from the net again and again...
http://packages.debian.org/etch/apt-proxy
Various universities use this as a solution rather than running a full 
mirror, or so I'm told.
apt-cache-ng appears to be another one.

I've never knowing used either.