> Actually, dpkg has --root, --admindir, and --instdir flags, and you can have apt pass them to dpkg by > specifying it in your apt.conf file. > > This might do it (taken from /usr/share/doc/apt/examples): [...]
I tried this yesterday (being the owner of the laptop in question). I wasn't able to pursue it long enough to actually try installing packages, but I was able to get apt to look like it was resolving dependencies right. it's a little more complicated than the hurd-apt.conf you quoted; apt actually looks in dpkg's state data to figure out what packages are already installed, so you need to force it to look in a non-default spot. also, the quoted hurd-apt.conf doesn't give apt a separate place to store its own state, which is kind of important if you're also trying to use apt for the host debian-linux system :) annoyingly, the configuration parameters telling apt where to look for all of these aren't (completely) documented -- I had to look in the apt source to find all the available parameters. the question of installation scripts was also on my mind while I was doing this. ideally, I think, I'd get apt to resolve dependencies and download packages from linux, then reboot into the hurd and use dpkg to finish the installation natively. I'm hoping to get apt to print out what it would do with dpkg without actually doing it, so I can generate a script to be executed in the hurd once I reboot. once I get this all working, I'll post my scripts to the list, if anyone else is interested ..?
