It also may be worthwhile to try to make an ISO of the debian CDROM(s) and mount them on loopback. I'm not sure how the speed would be compared to a native cdrom, ive used loopback before and dont have any performance complaints. Also you would not get the cdrom timeouts/screwups that happen(happens to me a lot too on all kinds of CDRd cds) im not sure if your method would work since im not that well versed in the packaging system.
nate [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > I'm installing debian via ethernet to many machines in sucession as part > of "Ernie's Charity Recycling". I've managed to get the install process > working. This is installation on computers without CDROMs (they're > scarce) via a server with a CDROM. > > However, the overhead of nfs, a slow CDROM on the server machine, and the > fact that the CDROM goes troppo sometimes (it does get itself sorted out > eventually) means that the present way dselect operates is painfully > slow (this is a charity orginisation with marginal equipment). > > By this, I mean going through all files in all directories of the > distribution, and checking if each is marked for install. Merely listing > multiple files seems a real overhead in nfs. And each time it lists a > file, the CDROM might go troppo. > > I have an idea for how to improve the speed, which I'll go into, but I > thought I'd ask if there are any options for stepping past this approach. > > My thought is to run a perl script which has access to a file which > lists all files referenced to the binary-i386 directory (eg > admin/acct_6.3.5-4.deb), and step through the file /var/lib/dpkg/status. > > If we find an entry "install ok not-installed" under Status, we then > use the package name and search through the directory list and thereby > obtain the filename. We then use the dpkg --unpack command to unpack > the file. After it is complete, we do --configure --pending. > > There are degrees of automation - I could just have a list of files > I install via a script, but the remaining functionality of dselect is > appealing, and I do not want to go this far. > > Anyway, is this a good idea or are there other approaches ? Yeah, I'm > not using the latest debian ... but dselect still operates via the > "recursive directory search", right ? > > As a separate question - dselect notwithstanding - is there is a way > of listing the "tree of dependencies" for a given package, so you have > an idea of all the packages needed for a given one to run ? > > I'm not on the list, but am using a mail-news gateway, and should be > able to read list replies. > > Thanks, > > -- > John August > > It is, because it can be. > > -- > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null -- ::: ICQ: 75132336 http://www.aphroland.org/ http://www.linuxpowered.net/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
