[clug] Debian session for any Choobs?

[Russell Weatherburn]

Hal Ashburner wrote:
> 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.
> 

I'd second apt-proxy - I've been using it for a number of years, and the
v2 product is a heap better than the original.  It's fairly obvious to
set up, and you just point to the back end that you want.  I've even got
it working for backports.org, multimedia.org, winehq (don't ask why,
just look around on mailing lists for problems I had with WINE at stages..)

The good thing with apt-proxy is that it will  *ONLY* get what you have
asked for.  And, for someone who is on a dial-up link you can just let
it go off and get things by itself and, although it may take the usual
amount of time, you won't have to wait for the whole distribution to be
mirrored..  Oh.  And it still uses the diff for package listings settings.

Regards,

Russell.