[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > On 15-Dec-98, Lyndon Fletcher took time to write : > > Hi all, > > I have a number of small problems getting Debian packages onto my > > PC. Ok, for a start the machine has an unrecognised CDROM type and > ^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > the OSes don't recognize it ? or you don't recognize it ? > you should at least know if it's an ide one, a scsi one, or one hooked up a > sound card. > so what it is ?
It is an ATA (NOT ATAPI) style CDROM drive with a proprietary interface. This is not one of the proprietary drives that Linux supports, therefore I can't use it. > > > second it has a limited HD size (~360Mb). I can't do anything about > > either of these problems at the moment and would like some advice for > > working around my problems. > > > > I managed to install by leaving a small 30MB dos partition on the > > machine and copying the base distribution and install files into it via > > from where did you do your copy ? the cd ? > then if the dos sees the cdrom, linux should see it also ! Not nescessarily. Unless Debian can run 16bit DOS driver code there is to way to access the CDROM without a Debian driver and there ain't one. > > > DOS. This allowed me to get the basic system loaded. > > > > > > My problem is how to load the rest of the packages. I have a couple of > > ideas and would like to know the answers to a few specific questions. > > > > 1) Idea 1 > > > > I could copy a few packages at a time onto the 30Mb Dos drive and > > install from there. > > > > Question 1 --- To run dselect do I only need the .deb files or do I need > > the "packages" files too? > > yes you need the packages files, otherwise dslect won't know anything about > what is present and what it is. > > > Question 2 --- If I do need the "packages" file do I have to edit it to > > reflect the actual path to the .deb files? > > manual edition ? strongly discouraged ! > > ... > > > Hope that you can send me some answers... I've been pulling my hair out > > over this all week. > > i think what you could be easier for you is just to unplug the cdrom drive > from the win95 and to plug it in your machine. > > why aren't you doing this ? > it's simpler ! Because... the Win95 machine is a laptop and consequently I would have to tear that machine apart to get at the CDROM. There is method to this madness... I am not a newbie to computers of even to Unix just a newbie to the way Debian works. Fletch > > Patrick
