making a minimal CD

[Juergen Fiedler]

Hello,

I am trying to make a potato CD that contains only what is really
necessary to install the base system in preparation for downloading
the packages from the Net.
Right now, I am experimenting with the pseudo-image-kit: I removed
all lines referencing /dists/potato/main/binary-i386/ from the
official binary-i386-1.list. The make-pseudo-image throws numerous
generic errors at me. I am using the ftp method and the progress
indicator in pseudo-image.log looks OK. So the errors might (or might
not) be bogus.
But assuming I end up with a complete pseudo image: Obviously, I
can't run rsync against the official image. That would defeat the
purpose. So, is the image created by make-pseudo-image going to be a
valid ISO image? Is it going to be bootable? And most importantly: Is
there a better way?
I got the debian-cd package from CVS, but it seems somewhat
inaccessible. I can't even figure out how best to create the local
mirror that it requires. Is there any in-depth documentation on that
somewhere?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Juergen

[Jorge....@gmx.net]

Hello!

On Wed, Nov 07, 2001 at 12:26:03PM -0500, Juergen Fiedler wrote:
...

> I got the debian-cd package from CVS, but it seems somewhat
> inaccessible. I can't even figure out how best to create the local
> mirror that it requires. Is there any in-depth documentation on that

I have been doing this with relatively usable results, the following
way:

- Installed the apt-move package, which I use to create a mirror.
apt-move sync downloads just every package I have installed in my
debian system.

- Copied the /boot, /tools, /indices,
/debian/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/ directories from the
original binary CD 1 to my mirror (simply /var/www/debian)
along with some README files and other stuff searched for by
debian-cd.

- Installed the debian-cd package and configured CONF.sh

How to make the CD?, I will paste my instruction list, but your milage
may vary, it does for me too:

* as root
* in a terminal
* in the directory /usr/share/debian-cd

issue the following commands

1. cd /usr/share/debian-cd (yet done)
2. . CONF.sh
3. make distclean
4. make mirrorcheck
5. make bin-list COMPLETE=1
6. make -k bootable

-k: while some problems are not resolved

Yields an error which I ignore.

7. make packages

yields: ( /var/www/debian/indices/override.potato.main.gz: No
such file or directory
/var/www/debian/indices-non-US/override.potato.main.gz: No such file
or directory /var/www/debian/indices/override.potato.contrib.gz: No
such file or directory
/var/www/debian/indices-non-US/override.potato.contrib.gz: No such
file or directory /var/www/debian/indices/override.potato.non-free.gz:
No such file or directory
/var/www/debian/indices-non-US/override.potato.non-free.gz: No such
file or directory ) etc. etc.

8. make bin-md5mlist
9. make bin-images

Best regards,

Jorge-León

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[Juergen Fiedler]

On Wed, Nov 07, 2001 at 01:38:03PM -0600, Jorge....@gmx.net wrote:
> Hello!
>
> On Wed, Nov 07, 2001 at 12:26:03PM -0500, Juergen Fiedler wrote:
> ...

> > I got the debian-cd package from CVS, but it seems somewhat
> > inaccessible. I can't even figure out how best to create the local
> > mirror that it requires. Is there any in-depth documentation on that
>

> I have been doing this with relatively usable results, the following
> way:

[...]

> - Copied the /boot, /tools, /indices,
> /debian/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/ directories from the
> original binary CD 1 to my mirror (simply /var/www/debian)
> along with some README files and other stuff searched for by
> debian-cd.

[...]

OK, my first problem is: I have a 2.2r3 CD _somewhere_. But rather
than go looking for it (or worse: downloading the whole ISO image
again), I would like to get the requisite files from an FTP site. The
problem is: I only see /tools and
/debian/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/ on the ftp sites. No /boot and
no /indices. Is there a way to get those without getting the full CD
first?

Thanks,
Juergen

[Juergen Fiedler]

I finally got around to building a CD following your advice. After
removing the dists/ directory, I was left with a 25M ISO image - and
it works perfectly. I am quite pleased. Thank you very much!
The next thing would be to customize the installer. It is in
boot/rescue.bin, is it not? Are there any documents concerning the
creation of your own rescue.bin? I'm sure the source is available
somewhere, right?

Thanks,
Juergen