[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: new debian packages - what iss so good about Unix/X



On Fri, 23 May 1997, Alexander Indenbaum wrote:

> > So can RH, if I remember correctly. Furthermore, RH can install
> > WITHOUT floppyies if you have the CD and DOS running (with
> > autoboot, using the initrd ramdrive).
> 
> AFAIK RedHat can be instlled by ftp only with ethernet, wich I 
> personally do not have at home :{) So it makes this option really useless
> to me and for most home users.
> 
> FreeBSD can be installed by ftp also via ppp and via ethernet and via any 
> other medium.

starting at RH 4.2, it can be installed over Ethernet, PPP, SLIP, PLIP and
maybe even TokenRing (didn't check), with FTP, NFS or SMB (!)

> Apropo RH 4.2 is out. How exactly can I stay up to day without downloading
> the whole release or buying a CD?

do NOT attempt to install packages one by one from a different
distribution. I tryed that with 4.0 -> 4.1 and this week again 4.1 -> 4.2
and in most cases I had to revert in a painfull way. the dependencies will
"look" fine and the rpm will not report problems, but things might not
turn out to be smooth after. better buy the entire CD and update if you
must. that's also the reason they have separate update directories for
each distribution...

> And third of all as I said it is wonderfull way to stay -current or
> -stable. I once installed FreeBSD and since than I synchronize my source 
> code from cron every night, and 'make world' every friday night.

excuse me for interrupting your FreeBSD trip here... doesn't "make world"
take a few days? I remember reading somewhere that "make world" is used
many times to test a system's speed, it used to take 2.5 days on old
systems, and modern Pentiums finish it in slightly less than 24 hours...
is this a sort of thing that's really necessary? seems weird to me...

anyway, there's an "autoupdate" script for RH 4.* in RedHat's incoming
contrib, I tryed it for a week. it synchs with redhat's FTP site's update
dir of your distribution, mirrors it and attempts to update all the
packages (RPM will automatically give up on already existing packages, or
ones that were not originally installed). it's dumb, but it works... :-)


Follow-Ups: References: