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Problems installing from flash drive.

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  Problems installing from flash drive. Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2021-02-05 16:00 +0100
    Re: Problems installing from flash drive. Jeremy Andrews <thejeremy.net@gmail.com> - 2021-02-05 17:30 +0100
      Re: Problems installing from flash drive. Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2021-02-06 15:20 +0100
        Re: Problems installing from flash drive. songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2021-02-07 19:30 +0100
    Re: Problems installing from flash drive. "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2021-02-05 18:20 +0100
      Re: Problems installing from flash drive. Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2021-02-05 18:30 +0100
    Re: Problems installing from flash drive. songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2021-02-05 20:10 +0100
      Re: Problems installing from flash drive. Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2021-02-06 15:30 +0100
    Re: Problems installing from flash drive. Doug McGarrett <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> - 2021-02-05 22:20 +0100

#231416 — Problems installing from flash drive.

I wish to do custom Debian install on a machine *WITHOUT*:
   1. functional mechanical CD/DVD drive.
   2. without internet access.

One can purchase a flash drive containing ISO images of all installation 
DVDs of the desired architecture. It is straight forward to do a default 
install after copying dvd1.iso to a flash drive.

Resulting problems include:
   1. undesired programs clutter machine (e.g. LibreOffice).
   2. project critical software cannot be installed as Synaptic
      asks for a non-existent DVD be inserted in a non-existent drive.

One vendor has a shell program which loop mounts the ISO files in such a 
way that *IF* you have the purchased flash drive installed you can use 
Synaptic.

The Debian documentation does not appear to describe how apt &/or 
Synaptic can access ISO files on dedicated partition.

Are the instructions to create a "local repository" composed of 
appropriate ISO files?

TIA

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#231418

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Hi Richard,

Here's what I would probably do:

- create directories on your USB or partition for each of the DVDs
- extract each ISO, and place the contents in the directories
- if using a separate partition, mount it in your fstab at a location such
as /mnt/deb, or if using a USB, just make sure to always mount it at the
same location when you want to install something

Then you can add a line such as this to your APT sources:
deb [trusted=yes] file:///mnt/deb/DVD1/ buster main
deb [trusted=yes] file:///mnt/deb/DVD2/ buster main
deb [trusted=yes] file:///mnt/deb/DVD3/ buster main

Now whenever you want to install something, you shouldn't have to worry
about which DVD it was on, APT should just automatically find it.


Jeremy

On Fri, 5 Feb 2021 at 09:55, Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> wrote:

> I wish to do custom Debian install on a machine *WITHOUT*:
>    1. functional mechanical CD/DVD drive.
>    2. without internet access.
>
> One can purchase a flash drive containing ISO images of all installation
> DVDs of the desired architecture. It is straight forward to do a default
> install after copying dvd1.iso to a flash drive.
>
> Resulting problems include:
>    1. undesired programs clutter machine (e.g. LibreOffice).
>    2. project critical software cannot be installed as Synaptic
>       asks for a non-existent DVD be inserted in a non-existent drive.
>
> One vendor has a shell program which loop mounts the ISO files in such a
> way that *IF* you have the purchased flash drive installed you can use
> Synaptic.
>
> The Debian documentation does not appear to describe how apt &/or
> Synaptic can access ISO files on dedicated partition.
>
> Are the instructions to create a "local repository" composed of
> appropriate ISO files?
>
> TIA
>
>
>

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#231438

That works.
Your choice of directory names in the path to the files extracted from 
each ISO broke my current mental logjam.

Thanks


On 02/05/2021 10:21 AM, Jeremy Andrews wrote:
> Hi Richard,
> 
> Here's what I would probably do:
> 
> - create directories on your USB or partition for each of the DVDs
> - extract each ISO, and place the contents in the directories
> - if using a separate partition, mount it in your fstab at a location 
> such as /mnt/deb, or if using a USB, just make sure to always mount it 
> at the same location when you want to install something
> 
> Then you can add a line such as this to your APT sources:
> deb [trusted=yes] file:///mnt/deb/DVD1/ buster main
> deb [trusted=yes] file:///mnt/deb/DVD2/ buster main
> deb [trusted=yes] file:///mnt/deb/DVD3/ buster main
> 
> Now whenever you want to install something, you shouldn't have to worry 
> about which DVD it was on, APT should just automatically find it.
> 
> 
> Jeremy
> 
> On Fri, 5 Feb 2021 at 09:55, Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net 
> <mailto:rowlett@cloud85.net>> wrote:
> 
>     I wish to do custom Debian install on a machine *WITHOUT*:
>         1. functional mechanical CD/DVD drive.
>         2. without internet access.
> 
>     One can purchase a flash drive containing ISO images of all
>     installation
>     DVDs of the desired architecture. It is straight forward to do a
>     default
>     install after copying dvd1.iso to a flash drive.
> 
>     Resulting problems include:
>         1. undesired programs clutter machine (e.g. LibreOffice).
>         2. project critical software cannot be installed as Synaptic
>            asks for a non-existent DVD be inserted in a non-existent drive.
> 
>     One vendor has a shell program which loop mounts the ISO files in
>     such a
>     way that *IF* you have the purchased flash drive installed you can use
>     Synaptic.
> 
>     The Debian documentation does not appear to describe how apt &/or
>     Synaptic can access ISO files on dedicated partition.
> 
>     Are the instructions to create a "local repository" composed of
>     appropriate ISO files?
> 
>     TIA
> 
> 

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#231472

Richard Owlett wrote:
> That works.
> Your choice of directory names in the path to the files extracted from 
> each ISO broke my current mental logjam.

...

  yes, that's what i did, years ago, so the added parts in the
line about security weren't needed back then.  glad it works.  :)


  songbird

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#231419

On Fri, Feb 05, 2021 at 08:54:55AM -0600, Richard Owlett wrote:
> I wish to do custom Debian install on a machine *WITHOUT*:
>   1. functional mechanical CD/DVD drive.
>   2. without internet access.
> 
> One can purchase a flash drive containing ISO images of all installation
> DVDs of the desired architecture. It is straight forward to do a default
> install after copying dvd1.iso to a flash drive.
> 
> Resulting problems include:
>   1. undesired programs clutter machine (e.g. LibreOffice).
>   2. project critical software cannot be installed as Synaptic
>      asks for a non-existent DVD be inserted in a non-existent drive.
> 
> One vendor has a shell program which loop mounts the ISO files in such a way
> that *IF* you have the purchased flash drive installed you can use Synaptic.
> 
> The Debian documentation does not appear to describe how apt &/or Synaptic
> can access ISO files on dedicated partition.
> 
> Are the instructions to create a "local repository" composed of appropriate
> ISO files?
> 
> TIA
> 
> 

Things I learned today - someone wants us to make a 128GB flash drive image to have "all of Debian" on one flash
drive - see the discussion across on debian-cd.

You want to do a custom install of Debian without internet access: if you were doing this completely from scratch,
then I would recommend that you might want to have another machine with internet access to make images from all the 
DVD image files by using jigdo.

Many things can be installed by using the first three DVDs or so - rarely if ever are you likely to need all 16.
To make the images from 4 to 16, you would need to use jigdo if you were doing this entirely yourself.

If you have a flash drive with the .iso files for DVD1 to DVD3 (or 1-16 if you have them): Write DVD1 to another 
flash drive and use it to boot and install. For myself, I would always use the text mode installer and the expert 
mode: do a very simple install, installing the minimum you can get away with: base files and maybe an ssh server. 
Reboot.

Part way through the install, you may be prompted as to whether you want to scan another disk: if so, see if you can
arrange to loop mount the next image. 

At that point, the installer will have written DVD1 in /etc/apt/sources.list as the location to pull files from.
Mount the flash drive with the images on under /mnt, loop mounting individual iso images if needed. Use the command
"apt-cdrom add" to add the individual DVDs This will read the manifests on each DVD in turn and effectively add the 
contents of each disk to cache.

At that point, you can apt-get install / synaptic install anything you like: if apt needs you to "swap DVDs", you 
will get a prompt to tell you which .iso needs inserting / mounting. It's slow but it will work.

You can always install files in small numbers and check what you're doing: if you don't want LibreOffice, don't
install it.

All the very best, 

Andy C.

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#231420

Andrew M.A. Cater wrote: 
> On Fri, Feb 05, 2021 at 08:54:55AM -0600, Richard Owlett wrote:
> > I wish to do custom Debian install on a machine *WITHOUT*:
> >   1. functional mechanical CD/DVD drive.
> >   2. without internet access.
> 
> Things I learned today - someone wants us to make a 128GB flash drive image to have "all of Debian" on one flash
> drive - see the discussion across on debian-cd.
> 
> You want to do a custom install of Debian without internet access: if you were doing this completely from scratch,
> then I would recommend that you might want to have another machine with internet access to make images from all the 
> DVD image files by using jigdo.

My company used to use apt-mirror to sync changes from Debian,
and then made them available internally via Apache.

We now use aptly, because we keep several versions of the Debian
repo plus our own internal packages.

> You can always install files in small numbers and check what you're doing: if you don't want LibreOffice, don't
> install it.

Indeed.

-dsr-

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#231424

Richard Owlett wrote:
...
> One can purchase a flash drive containing ISO images of all installation 
> DVDs of the desired architecture. It is straight forward to do a default 
> install after copying dvd1.iso to a flash drive.
...
> Are the instructions to create a "local repository" composed of 
> appropriate ISO files?

  yes, i'm sure there are, but also in the past i was able to
just copy the files to the right place on a hard drive or
partition and use that without using any other tool other 
than a straight copy.

  i would be surprised if that were not still the case.

  i copied the files from the DVD disks.

  i explained this in more detail years ago to you (here on
this forum) so you might be able to find those messages again 
via searching.

  i no longer have that set-up on my drives at all so i can't
tell you what i did, but it worked just fine and exactly
like you want.

  note, i no longer use Synaptic, whatever happened to it to 
turn it into wanting security or lacking thereof or whatever the
problems were just made me ditch it.  other tools work for
what i needed to get done so...


  songbird

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#231439

On 02/05/2021 01:05 PM, songbird wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
> ...
>> One can purchase a flash drive containing ISO images of all installation
>> DVDs of the desired architecture. It is straight forward to do a default
>> install after copying dvd1.iso to a flash drive.
> ...
>> Are the instructions to create a "local repository" composed of
>> appropriate ISO files?
> 
>    yes, i'm sure there are, but also in the past i was able to
> just copy the files to the right place on a hard drive or
> partition and use that without using any other tool other
> than a straight copy.
> 

As I just replied to Jeremy, that works.
I don't recall a previous so can't say why things didn't work.
I suspect I've been using Debian enough since that my unstated 
assumptions more closely match yours ?????

Thanks for your time.

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#231428

On 2/5/21 9:54 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> I wish to do custom Debian install on a machine *WITHOUT*:
>   1. functional mechanical CD/DVD drive.
>   2. without internet access.
>
> One can purchase a flash drive containing ISO images of all 
> installation DVDs of the desired architecture. It is straight forward 
> to do a default install after copying dvd1.iso to a flash drive.
>
> Resulting problems include:
>   1. undesired programs clutter machine (e.g. LibreOffice).
>   2. project critical software cannot be installed as Synaptic
>      asks for a non-existent DVD be inserted in a non-existent drive.
You can--and in my opinion, should--purchase an external optical drive. 
They cost somewhere in the $20 range.
I have an LG model GP08LU11. It can read and write CD, DVD, and it will 
do LightScribe.  I don't know if this model is
still available, but LG does have a couple models listed. Putting the 
request into Google produces a slew of drives.
--doug
>
> One vendor has a shell program which loop mounts the ISO files in such 
> a way that *IF* you have the purchased flash drive installed you can 
> use Synaptic.
>
> The Debian documentation does not appear to describe how apt &/or 
> Synaptic can access ISO files on dedicated partition.
>
> Are the instructions to create a "local repository" composed of 
> appropriate ISO files?
>
> TIA
>
>

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