Adding new source to Apt

[muskrat]

I have added new sources to apt using the atp-cdrom function, but now I am having trouble getting dselect to show that list. What am I doing wrong. does dselect have a different source list it uses?

Or another way of putting it is there some way it get apt to show me a list of available to install programs?

I've reinstalled Xandros with a minamal installation and I no longer have Xandros update installed.

Verify the location of the cdrom drive. Is your sources.list like the following in which /cdrom is the drive?

deb file:/cdrom stable main contrib

[TRN]

Sorry to have not answered earlier. It looks like someone started with you.

I read somewhere that dselect can get out of sync with apt-cache. Otherwise, manually editing the sources.list is fine.

I suspect that you are trying to use dselect Access method to CDROM - right? Is the block defined for the cdrom drive? When you choose Access Method and then CDROM, does a message appear?

Dselect is ncurses based and can be powerful. However, synaptic is my choice. Type this at the command line (root):

apt-get update
apt-get install synaptic

You start synaptic at the cli by typing "synaptic"

Let us know your sources.list and success or failure.

[TRN]

As an aside, I forgot to mention that it is possible to locate packages in the apt-cache through the search command:

apt-cache search <part of package name or desciption> | more

This is a great way to list things too.

Another way to list installed packages:

apt -l |more

[muskrat]

Thanks I'll try some of these mothods.

Here's where I'm at. I installed woody 7 disk set. but the install isn't user friendly and I seem to be missing some thing. not all the hardware is being pickedup. When I install Xandros it's breeze, but then I struck with xandros. Some of which I can't stand, for example the default file browser. And Xandros update Gui.

I have found that KDE has a program called Kpackage very simalar to Xandros update, that will allow for difining the source from the gui. Xandros update has one big fault it will not allow you to remove the ftp source from xandros site.

Because this box isn't online and won't be except maybe though a network, I can't have it allways pointing to a ftp site to get the list of available programs. because then it times out in error and of course no list not even a partial list.

I'm in a little over my head here, But praise God it's Linux not windoze or it'd be hopeless With linux I can see a whole lot of hope just how I get there is the question.

Glad you found Debian.

(1) Start reading the man pages for apt-get
(2) Download Synaptic
(3) Edit your sources.list

Here is my sources.list


#Debian
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
# deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ woody main contrib non-free

#Debian Non-US
deb http://non-us.debian.org/ sid/non-US main contrib non-free
# deb http://non-us.debian.org/ woody/non-US main contrib non-free

#Debian security updates
deb ftp://security.debian.org/debian-security/ stable/updates main contrib non-free
# deb-src ftp://security.debian.org/debian-security/ stable/updates main contrib non-free

# deb http://www.inf.tu-dresden.de/~cw183155/ debian/

# deb ftp://download.us.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/3.1/Debian/ stable main


Good luck !

[muskrat]

Ok I'm back still battling this apt- get

I've redid my Xandros installation fresh. Then using "apt-cdrom add -d /mnt/cdrom0" I added all 7 disk from the woody distro to my source. Using Xandros update I shreached manually for the program Kpackage and installed it. Upon booting Kpackage it built the list from my sources of seven disk.

I have all ftp sites commentted out in the sources.list file.

But now when I pick a program to install from Kpackage I get this error. (I'll try and be as complete as I can with the error, I'll use a line retrun when the line ends in the console).

apt-get install --yes bookmarks ;echo RESULT=$?
Reading package lists... done
Building Dependency Tree... done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
bookmarks
Need to get 0b/157kb of archives. After unpacking 766kb will be used.
Err cdrom://[Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 rl _Woody_Official i386 Binary -3 (20021218)] unstalble/main bookmarks 0.16
Unable to change to /cdrom/ - chdir (2 no such file or directory)
Failed to fetch cdrom: [Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 rl _Woody_Official i386 Binary -3 (20021218)] /pool/main/b/bookmarks/bookmarks_0.16_all.deb unable - /[Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 rl _Woody_Official i386 Binary -3 (20021218)] directory
W. Couldn't stat source package list file://var Woody/main Packages
(var/lib/apt/lists/var_autofs_cdrom.1_cdrom.1_Debian_dists_Woody_main _binary-i386_Packages)
-stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: you may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing

So much for that now on with the dignostics I did. Like I meantioned before all FTP sources are commented out, the only other lines in sources.list are my 7 disks ending the file with this line.
file://var/autofs/cdrom.1/cdrom.1/Debian Woody main

Now when I use Midnight commander I can't access the cd with the autofs/cdrom.1 file even if it is mounted I tried to change this in the sources.list file but it didn't help only slitly changed the error. I can access cdrom with the /mnt/cdrom0 but only when it's mounted. There is another access point called disks/removable/cdrom.1 that can be accessed mounted or unmounted.

I also looked at var/lib/apt it contains a file caled cdrom.lists which has a list of my 7 cds but not access point defined in them. it also cantains a folder called lists which contains numorus files holding all the information which those 7 cds have.

My question is simple but the answer is out of my reach.
What am I doing wrong or not doing?
How do I get Kpackage/aptget to promt for a certian cd and then mount it and access it?

[muskrat]

I final comment I did try apt-get update but only got errors simaler to the one above, the --fix command I couldn't seem to forulate right.

But What I see is that /var/list etc there is no cdrom access there. Where am I going wrong?

I cannot answer your last question but might suggest you follow some of the suggestions already given. I would then add that you should just use apt-get update with the sources.list provided in this thread. Kpackage 3.1.1 will be found easiest.

[Davepet]

I really don't know, but I have a guess:

apt-get *may* be looking for a file (or files) on one of the CD's that is *not* in the cd rom drive at the moment. Perhaps others with more experience know for sure, but I don't know if apt-get will prompt for the CD it's looking for.

Just a guess.

Dave

[muskrat]

I really don't know, but I have a guess:

apt-get *may* be looking for a file (or files) on one of the CD's that is *not* in the cd rom drive at the moment. Perhaps others with more experience know for sure, but I don't know if apt-get will prompt for the CD it's looking for.

Just a guess.

Dave

That's not the issue, when I installed Debian Woody on the desktop, Kpackages works without a hitch. you call for a program to install it tells you which disk to insert and proceeds after you hit inter. Kpackage is a GUI front end for apt-apt.

I would install Debian Woody on the laptop to except for some reason It can't configure my vidio display without more info than I have. Xandros does fine and Knoppix also does fine. In another post I ask where I could find this info and save it out. I have yet to beable to get that done.

So I'm still tring to get apt to function offline using cds. In Xandros

[Davepet]

Well, I'm really only familiar with using Xandros tools to install Xandros Network software, so I'm flying a bit blind when you talk about Kpackages & Midnight Commander.

Can you copy your sources list in here?

What happened when you "added all 7 Debian disks" ? I would assume that you would at some point need to stick each one in your CD drive so it could be read for an apt-get update & that any subsequent updates would require the same procedure, is that correct?

Dave

[muskrat]

I did source all seven disks, I had to use "-d /mnt/cdrom0" for "apt-cdrom add" to find the cdrom. it sourced them and added the to the available programs in Kpackage, When I look at the database each program ahs a specifice address for it's appropiate cd.

As for the source list. I commented out all lines except the seven cds. The problem I can't seem to find is Xnadros does something strange with the cd auto mount and mount point.

I find three different mount points one is automount for the Xnadros system only not KDE or Linux, only Xandros spcific programs can use it. Then one is /mnt/cdrom0 which I can mount manualy which seems to be the one MC and Kpackage want to use. Then there's another which seems to be automounted disk/removeable/cdrom.1

Out of three mount points in the tree, the cdrom has two names cdrom0 - cdrom.1

The more I reshearch this and work on Knoppix Xnadros and Woody I am getting confused.

I guess i need a more fundamintal understanding of the nuts and bolts to debian/Linux.

I am tring to move from a RPM based system to Debian, Debian woody installer leaves me with a broken system, Xnoppix, and Xnadros leaves me with a system that depends on online downloads to install and upgrade my system. This box I'm working on will never be online. It's my laptop I take in the truck to do misc. work that I don't have time to do here at home being online.

This box could be and was runing Xandros online no problem installed all the programs I wanted and updated every thing fine using Xandros update. My problem is getting debian to work in a stand alone box the base system will work but leaves me stranded with noway to add more software.

[TRN]

I'll try to pickup the conversation because I asked in another thread for you to copy the sources.list as well as try to get a better idea of what you are wanting. I'm just also pointing you to a howto guide on dselect.

The Debian documentation (http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/dselect-beginner/ch-main.en.html) suggests that dselect and multi_cd rather than apt cdrom should be used on multiple cds. It also states that apt is beta for multiple cds and therefore use dselect.

Here is the quote

Quite large and powerful, this complex method is the recommended way of installing a recent version of Debian from a set of multiple binary CDs. Each of these CDs should contain information about the packages in itself and all prior CDs (in the file Packages.cd). When you first select this method, be sure the CD-ROM you will be using is not mounted. Place the last binary disk of the set (we don't need the source CDs) in the drive and answer the questions you are asked:

* CD-ROM drive location

* Confirmation that you are using a multi-cd set

* The location of the Debian distribution on the disk(s)

* [ Possibly ] the location(s) of the Packages file(s)

Once you have updated the available list and selected the packages to be installed, the multi-cd method diverges from normal procedure. You will need to run an ``install'' step for each of the CDs you have in turn. Unfortunately due to the limitations of dselect it will not be able to prompt you for a new disk at each stage; the way to work for each disk is

* Insert the CD in your CD-ROM drive.

* From the main dselect menu, select ``Install''.

* Wait until dpkg finishes installing from this CD (it may report installation successful, or possibly installation errors. Don't worry about these until later).

* Hit [Enter] to go back to the main dselect menu.

* Repeat with the next CD in the set...

It may be neccesary to run the installation step more than once to cover the order of package installation - some packages installed early may need to have later packages installed before they will configure properly.

Running a ``Configure'' step is recommended, to help fix any packages that may end up in this state.

Therefore, if kpackage is showing the package but it doesn't find it or ask for the correct cd then the configure step may be important to get it straightened out.

Now, you are saying mount is a problem but without setting up a system in this same manner -- it's hard to tell.

Let us know.

[muskrat]

Thanks for the clipping, There is a lot I don't know about linux, I tried dselect but was unable to get very far, I'll need to study the man pages some more. As for the source.list I never posted it because I belive that's not my problem. I'm not a hacker but I am a pretty good PC repairman. I'm just a little green on linux still.

I had a good long look at the data base of programs available to install, all the programs had tags as to what cd they were to come off of. The source.list was commented out for all ftp sites and only the 7 cds were available.

I did post a complete error message above. What I see in the error was kpackage couldn't find the right path to the cd.

Now I did have a good long read on that article about hackers edicte. and post the question the right way. I'm sorry if i've offended anyone with my questions I've never been one for edicte.

As for posting that source.list I could post one, but the question wasn't just for me and one machine. I tried that method on several boxes with the same results, and my dad was following this post also trying it on his box. We both came to the same dead end, although he did seem to understand deselect better than me.

Thanks a millon for all your help, I have had this posted on several boards one board never got any replies others virous replys they all ahve been helpfull. If not to answer my question, it answered questions that I had, but wasn't posting. I always got more questions than time to ask. You alls answers were a big help to me.