On Mon, 6 Jan 1997, Thomas Veldhouse wrote:
> Will this be a problem if I downloaded all the packages and the install
> directly to my hard drive? I install from a DOS partition. I should then
> get the new FTP and telnet packages, correct? I can use dselect to choose
> these off of my hard drive DOS partition. I just recently put debian on
> my system, but I don't have any packages installed yet. I have been
> toying with RedHat, but I can't get the boot disk to be created, but
> Debian worked great in that respect. So I am going to use Debian. To
> reiterate, my question is, will I have telnet and ftp capability when I
> install all of the packages from my hard drive.
>
Sounds like a little general information would be useful here:
When you install a new Debian system (rather than upgrade an old one) you
typically start with a boot/root disk and several base disks (currently
4). When you are done with this "base" installation, you will have a boot
floppy that can boot your new system, and a root file system that contains
the bare minimum of utility to continue with the "larger" installation.
At this point your options are varied. Dselect is the most comprehensive
installation tool currently available. Because of it's comprehensive
nature, new users can find it very daunting, but if you are careful, and
read all the screens fully, take things slow, and be willing to quit and
start over whenever you get tangled or confused, dselect can deliver a
complete Debian installation in a reliable, repeatable fashion. I
typically don't install the "whole thing" so I tend to use dpkg more often
than dselect. Dpkg is the work horse for dselect. It is the package that
actually does the installation for the collection that dselect manages.
So, if you only need to add/upgrade a few packages at a time, dpkg is the
best choice for the job.
This brings us to: "What about all the other packages, where are they, how
do I get them?"
You have already (apparently) downloaded the archive to your msdos
partition. To properly get unmangled file names you should have gotten
them from debian/rex/msdos-i386, rather than the binary-i386 path. If you
have also gotten a valid Packages file with that path, you are all set for
installing the rest of Debian from your dos partition. You should be able
to mount your dos partition with a command like: mount -t msdos /dev/hda1
/mnt, or you can let dselect do so when you choose the hard disk method
from the installation choices.
You will notice, if you look at the contents of debian/rex/msdos-i386 (or
binary-i386 for that matter), that there are a number of subdirectories to
be found. The subdirectory base, contains all the packages (well, almost)
that you will find on a set of base disks. If you are upgrading from a
previous Debian system, it is advisable to upgrade from this directory
first. The other directories (also known as sections) are pretty much
organized around functional class, so you will find tools like cron in
admin, as it is viewed as an administrative tool.
What you take from this collection of packages is entirely up to you, and
is based on your needs and interests. If you are not sure where a
particular program might reside (which package has xxx?) you can grep the
Contents file. This is a listing of the contents of all the packages in
the distribution (assuming it is up to date). You can then find out more
about that package from the Packages file (like what section it is in,
what other packages it depends on, even a description of the packages
intended use)
As to the question of where to get it: If you did the above archival
correctly on your dos partition, you already have it all! (with the
exception of source) If you do a complete installation of those packages
you will certainly have ftp, telnet, and a host of other things as well
(both of those are found in the netstd package, in section net), and,
although your will certainly find use for your new ftp you will not need
it to install the full Debian system.
In general you should be able to obtain a complete install with the ftp
method in dselect. The primary source for the distribution is
ftp.debian.org, and if that site is snowed under, it will give you a list
of the known mirrors that you can use as alternatives.
Once you have a reasonable system going, you can use mirror to maintain
your own personal archive and keep it up-to-date with current development.
This does, of course, require that you have sufficient disk space.
You can also purchase gold CDs from either myself or I-Connect, or the
several other producers listed at www.debian.org. Other useful info found
on this site are the bug reports, the faqs, and, under ideal
circumstances, actual ftp access to the archive.
I am sure I have told you more than you wished/needed to know, so I hope
there is something helpful in all this drool ;-)
Luck,
Dwarf
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Flexible Software 11000 McCrackin Road
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tallahassee, FL 32308
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