Copying DVD install files to HDD

[infoseeker]

I have recently installed Debian 3.1 onto my pc and I would like to copy the packages from the install DVD onto my harddrive. Where is the best place (directory) to copy them, and what changes need to be made to the system after doing so?

Thanks

[chris-harry]

Um... ok...

If you mean packages like packages to install, then me opinion on that is why bother... you can use "apt-get install package" to install packages from the dvd, if you havent got this option set in apt-get then run the code apt-setup, and configure it so that it does get the packages from the dvd...

but however in the case that i am wrong about what type of packages they are, read on

there are two ways you can do this eaasily... through GUI, or a shell... either is perfectly fine, and both have their ups and downs... but first mount your DVD drive..

GUI way...

Open up konquor, its a internet browser and a file manager all crunched in one... it does a great job at what it does... once open... what you want to do is press F9 (i think this is the correct button... this should bring up a little column usually on the left with a whole heap of things)... click on the media tab, this shall bring you to the media area, where all drives are shown (those that are usually mounted anyway)... here your dvd drive should be, click on it (sometimes doing this automatically mounts your dvd drive)... then select and copy what you want and paste it any where you want...



Text way...

Open up a terminal... i forgot the code on how to mount a dvd drive, but i'll take a pung at it...

mount /dev/dvd

most likely wrong... but in the case you have mounted it already... use the code

cp "source" "destination"

cp is copy, the "source" is something like /mnt/cdrom0/stuff/ and the "destination" is something like /home/user/

[infoseeker]

I tried copying the DVD install files (all 4.2 GB of them) onto the pc harddrive (that wasn't the problem) so I don't need the DVD in the drive for apt-get installs, but I kept getting errors (forget them exactly now), so I removed them and now still using the DVD in the drive for installs.

Thanks anyway

[brother_mick]

If you want to copy your install files to your filesystem you will have to tell apt where to find them. When I did this I run base-config (as root).

If you dont want all the packages from the DVD then its a bit more complicates as you have to make a new Packages.gz file to tell apt what packages are available. This is done with dpkg-scanpackages.

man dpkg-scanpackages sould help out.

As for where to put them . I put them in ~/dists/

Hope this helps.