Enhanced HD (re)install without net?

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Enhanced HD (re)install without net?
started by: RoGuE_StreaK

Posted by RoGuE_StreaK on April 26 2004,01:35

Haven't tried the enhanced HD install yet, but, as with the rest of my stuff, was wondering if it's possible to get all the extra packages that are downloaded / installed, back them up, then just use these backups if you reinstall, instead of having to download them again?
It's just a pain when you stuff something up, reinstall from scratch, and have to sit for hours (dial-up) getting packages you have previously downloaded. Or when you are going to install on machines that have no net access at all.

Apt-get etc is great, but sometimes you have to rebuild a machine when you can't get on the net.

Posted by cbagger01 on April 26 2004,02:05

Here are a couple links that you may find interesting.

First link is an explanation on how to download and save a backup copy of the dpkg structure so that you can restore it without having to re-download it from the Internet:

< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....g+cache >

If you are looking for your downloaded Debian packages, they are stored in /var/cache/apt/archives
You should back these *.deb files up to some storage medium so you will not have to download them again.

However, you will need to "install" them again the next time that you boot up DSL from CD. See this thread for more details:

< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....d+%var% >

Posted by RoGuE_StreaK on April 27 2004,06:51

Hi cbagger01
I've been backing up my debs for a while now, and had the "new" dpkg tar downloaded (seems the old one doesn't work anymore?)
But when I tried the "enhanced" HD install yesterday, it didn't seem to actually add dpkg, I had to use the packaged version I had before I could reinstall my debs.

Which begs the question, WHAT is actually added in the enhanced version if dpkg isn't?? There was mention somewhere of busybox replacements, but during my install it didn't actually tell me anything at all about what it was downloading, or even IF it was downloading - just sat there, only way I knew it was doing something was that when I did a "disk free" check using emelfm, the size of hda6 (my install) was going up.

Posted by cbagger01 on April 27 2004,16:15

My understanding of the Enhanced HD install is (keep in mind that I have never used it):

All of the GNU utilities that were replaced on the LiveCD by Busybox are downloaded and re-installed.

If you go into your /bin and /sbin directories, you will notice that there are a lot of symlinks for common programs like 'ln' or 'ps' that are linked back to the 'busybox' program instead. These programs are restored back to their original glory by the enhanced HD install script.

So you may need to re-install the dpkg structure after your enhanced hd install is complete, but once it is written to the hard drive it should then be permanently installed.

Posted by RoGuE_StreaK on May 04 2004,01:09

I checked out the dsl-hdinstall script (usr/sbin), and the enhanced install downloads:
< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-sys.tar.gz >

It then unpacks it:
tar -zxf dsl-sys.tar.gz

The package is then removed from the system.

So I guess if you just download and archive dsl-sys.tar.gz, you can do a standard install and then upgrade it to "enhanced" without needing to be connected to the net!

Hmm, just checked it out, looks like it's almost a 7MB file. No wonder it takes a while to install enhanced over dial-up! ; )

So a good idea to keep a copy of it if you are using dial-up and ever want to reinstall!