Please ignore this mail and accept my apologies if you receive it more than once.
> My apologies for sending you a direct email question, but I > can't find any regerence to, say, a Debian specific newsgroup > in your general info, and your name is on the "dselect for > beginners" document. > > I am trying to download packages using apt from an ftp > mirror site. I know the stuff is there because I can see it > just using ordinary ftp (and this is from the machine I'm > trying to install to, so the connection is working). > > Every time I get as far as the Install stage, it reports that > it can't locate the packages. I presume the information about > source list that I'm providing is in an uncorrect format, yet > I've tried every combination that I can think of - literally > dozens - without apparently finding the right one. (Incidental > question: why was it able, after a couple of attempts, to find > Pacakges.gz but not the actual packages when it came to > installing them, given that I didn't change the access source?) > I cannot consult the man pages or whatever other documentation > for apt there might be because, of course, it's not loaded onto > the system. > > The "stuff" is at ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Linux/debian/ > dists/stable/main/binary-i386 > > However I break this up it fails. I've tried missing parts out, > even using ftp.debian.org/debian as in the eg, accepting defaults, > trying to override defaults, using http or ftp, everything. So, > could you please tell me _exactly_ how to respond to these prompts: > > Base URL of the debian distribution: > > Distribution [stable]: > > Components [main contrib non-free] > > These latter in particular keep appearing as a list separated by > spaces if I check what apt thinks is my source list, which makes > for a nonsense pathname (so presumable apt "knows" something > about the structure of the archive). > > Since you've read this far, let me add that I've used Linux for > over 5 years now and have installed it on many systems since the > early days when I obtained a slackware dist on 100+ floppies from a > University. I've used many distributions but I'm attracted by > Debian because much of the Linux world seems to be getting more > and more commercial. However, I'm not a naive user, so I have to > say that I don't think this is an easy to use installation method. > > Many thanks in anticipation for your help, and sorry to have taken > up so much of your time. > > Paul Douglas > > > > Paul Douglas [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Univeristy of Westminster > London W1M 8JS > telephone 0171 911 5800 x3582 > >
