Debian/Ubuntu dselect question

[Net Llama!]

On Tue, 17 Jul 2007, David Bandel wrote:
> On 7/17/07, Net Llama! <netllama at linux-sxs.org> wrote:
> [snip]
>
>>>> just want to point dpkg to the on-network deb package and have it get
>>>> installed.  Is that not possible?  Its dead easy with RPM based distros.
>>>
>>>       You don't need access to the internet at large to use apt-get. Just edit
>>> your /etc/apt/sources.list file to point to a mounted cd-rom or to a
>>> directory containing .deb files as your source. The source can be on your
>>> local machine or any other suitable system on the private network.
>>>
>>> http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/
>>
>> This just adds another layer of complexity.  Now i'd need to start
>> automating the addition of the local source in sources.list, plus I'd
>> still need to get the packages onto the box somehow.
>>
>> --
>>
>
> Lonnie, not sure what you're smoking, but let me recap this thread:
> 1.  You have some systems on a private network that can't access the Internet.
> 2.  You want to install a package from
> http://mirrors.kernel.org/<blah> (last time I looked that was on the
> Internet)

That was an example.  Call it http://foo.bar if that makes it easier for 
you.

> 3.  You lament that dpkg/dselect/apt-whatever can't do this, but RPM can.
> 4.  You don't want to look at the documentation that would tell you
> _exactly_ how you could do whatever it is you want to do (except of
> course access the inaccessible).

Contrary to your claim, I spent quite a bit of time googling for an answer 
and found nothing.  Seeing as how no one in this thread has provided a 
solution, its quite apparent that its just not possible to install a 
package over the network without hacking up sources.list and using 
apt-get.

>
> So why don't you just use RPM?  You can use RPM on a Debian-based
> system (and Ubuntu is Debian-based).  And if you must use the
> particular debian .deb file, you can use alien to convert it.

Again, that's a ridiculous amount of kludge just to get a few packages 
installed.

>
> But I still would like to know how RPM can access from a private
> network miles away that doesn't have Internet access, an RPM on the
> Internet.  And for that matter, how do you access that network if you
> have Internet access and they don't?

You're hung up on the fact that I used an internet domain name in my 
example.

>
> Or are you just fishing for ways to pooh-pooh something you haven't
> bothered to learn?

Ahh, the irony, coming from someone who continues to rant about ancient 
problems with PHP which haven't been valid for a long time, or looks for 
excuses to complain about any RPM based distro even though you've not 
used one in years.

Anyway, the bottom line here is that dpkg just can't install packages over 
the network.  I've accepted that and moved on with my life.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lonni J Friedman                        netllama at linux-sxs.org
LlamaLand				http://netllama.linux-sxs.org