[SATLUG] internet and updating

[Don Wright]

On Monday 02 October 2006 07:37, Chris Lemire wrote:
> I destroyed Debian Etch on my computer trying to install XGL. Now I 
need to update everything to try to fix the problem, but I have no 
internet, and I do not know what packages I need.

Refer to http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
for the current images. You are strongly encouraged to read the 
Documentation links further down the page. Three versions of the 
current installer are provided: Etch beta 3, weekly snapshot, and daily 
snapshot. The later ones are generally preferred unless you encounter 
some temporary breakage during development.

By "no Internet" I understand you to mean the Debian system you are 
rebuilding lost it's connection to the 'Net as a result of the failed 
install. If it is a simple matter of enabling a standard network 
connection to an existing LAN (maybe just a router), which then 
provides a gateway to the 'Net, then any of the installer images for 
your architecture should work. They are designed for DHCP or manual 
network setup. The Businesscard image is the smallest. Both it and 
Netinst load a minimal install package from the CD or other media, then 
download the rest of the packages from the Internet.

If you need to get PPPoE working first, have an unsupported network 
card, or another network situation which prevents Internet access, a 
full CD or DVD image might be best. These include a large subset of the 
Debian archive, ordered by popularity. You need only download the CDs 
you require. I think the first two or three CDs (or first DVD) should 
be sufficient for most installs.

You can use any snapshot for the smaller images. The full CDs and DVDs 
are only built weekly. Monday is update day, so Bittorrent downloads 
are unavailable until the magic scripts rebuild the tracker, and some 
mirrors are slower then usual. Be patient and the data will come.
  --Don