[Gambas-user] Making debian repositories?

[David Paleino]

On Sat, 31 May 2008 22:44:23 +0700, Hamish Robertson wrote:

> Woah! Thanks man for the uber-quick reply!
> 
> Sorry about the ubuntu-ness of my script. I am a totall newbie and figured
> I'd start with what I know then decide if it's worth porting to other
> distros.

Ok :)

> This is what I'm trying to achieve.
> 
> A double-click install file that installs programs without the internet.
> Micro-crap style!
> 
> My target market is complete linux newbies and users in 3rd world countries
> without net access. They need to be able to double-click on a file and have
> it install.

You might want to take a look at something like AutoPackage: did you check that?

> This script is designed to be run from a custom minimal distro run in a VM
> so as to allow synaptic to download all the dependancies. and make the
> output "setup" file compatible with most ubuntu variants. [..]
> 
> then the idea is to merge all the downloaded .debs + the metapackage into a
> repository created in a local folder.

Then, you will create the repo, and distribute the zip?

> The repository is then zipped into an executeable archive along with a
> script that will install it with a nifty utility called makeself.

Yep, I know that tool!

> When a user double clicks on the "setup" archive, it extracts the repo into
> /tmp, replaces sources.list with a new one pointing to the new repository,
> runs apt-get update then installs the metapackage and all of it's bundles
> dependancies.

Ok.

If you want to distribute "mirrors" of packages with their dependencies, just
use apt-zip. I've never really used it, but it shold do the trick. This is the
package description:

 These scripts simplify the process of using dselect and apt on a
 non-networked Debian box, using removable media like ZIP floppies and
 USB keys.
 One generates a `fetch' script (supporting backends such as wget and
 lftp, in a modular, extensible way) to be run on a host with better
 connectivity, check space constraints of your removable media, and
 then install the package on your Debian box.

David

-- 
 . ''`.  Debian maintainer | http://wiki.debian.org/DavidPaleino
 : :'  : Linuxer #334216 --|-- http://www.hanskalabs.net/
 `. `'`  GPG: 1392B174 ----|---- http://snipr.com/qa_page
   `-   2BAB C625 4E66 E7B8 450A C3E1 E6AA 9017 1392 B174
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.gambas-basic.org/pipermail/user/attachments/20080531/a746c184/attachment.sig>