Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

Amplify.EXE · 2007-11-09 20:37:29

Dear Arch Linux community,

I would like to tell you a little background information about myself before I start to talk about my actual subject. I know that this part of my message does not belong here, but it is my own ritual to do it like this in my first message in every community. I hope I can make friends with people here and try not to harm this community in any way. Thank you for reading this.

I am a 16-year-old male student from Finland and addicted to GNU/Linux and freeware / open source software. My previous experience with GNU/Linux is fairly large; from thin client Debian GNU/Linux administrator to kernel hacker and software developer. My delight is music, particularly writing and composing my own music tracks which vary from classic chiptunes to acid trance and dance beats. Arch Linux seems to be a great GNU/Linux operating system for me, because I am looking for a GNU/Linux distribution that does not focus on desktop, but rather on simplicity and lightweight solutions. I also do not fear "bleeding edge" software which is a positive point for Arch Linux compared to Debian GNU/Linux. As you can probably notice I have been using Debian GNU/Linux before I considered Arch Linux. However now I am here hoping for a totally new experience from Arch Linux.

Enough with my foreword, I would like to now go back to the actual subject. Usually I use DVD media for GNU/Linux images to have both the installer for the GNU/Linux distribution and the main package repository to make installations faster and to have the possibility for an offline installation. As I see, Arch Linux provides only CD images which are approximately 160MB in size, making me to think about incorporating Arch Linux's "Core" and "Extra" package repositories to fill up the remaining 4GB on the DVD. If the "Core" package repository is already included in the Arch Linux CD image, please forgive my lack of information as this is the first time I have ever entered to the world of Arch Linux.

My question is as follows: Is it possible to incorporate Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD while retaining the ability to install Arch Linux from that DVD? If positive, how should I go on to do it?
Thank you in advance!

Last edited by Amplify.EXE (2007-11-09 20:53:44)

lilsirecho · 2007-11-09 22:31:03

You certainly should be able to do what you propose but I suggest that it might be more appropo to utilize pacman to keep your system upgraded weekly if not daily. I surmise you desire to load direct from the DVD without internet access. A DVD+rw disc should provide a bootable arch and a repo for your selected pkgs up to ~3.6GB on a separate partition. This assumes you can boot your dvd

Another successful approach using archlinux as a basis is the Faunos flash boot system. This is a young, new OS with archlinux pacman support with upgrades to be made in coming weeks. It boots with 990+MB with USB 2.0 flash drive or with 890MB into DVD.

It should well be possible to load the desired pacman related .pkg.tar.gz into the remaining ~3gb and access them at your preference using,,,,pacman -A (drag and paste ,pkg.tar.gz) or use ...pacman -Ud (drag and paste .pkg.tar.gz).

I think the latter ensures dependencies are included.

It would be a slow running system since it uses the DVD in lieu of a HDD.

When running FaunOS with flash, the speed is satisfying.

If you try the flash system, a 4GB flash device would be improbable to include 3GB of repository packages since it would require 4GB to save the packages in the flash OS overlays and no further saves would be possible.
The best approach would be to select packages to be included and allow partition space for the added .pkg.tar.gz.

Be aware that FaunOS has kde desktop and 500 packages included in the system.

lilsirecho · 2007-11-09 22:42:16

Also, why not use a flash drive for the repo..it is faster and easier to upgrade.....?

Also better in faunos to use a second flash drive for the repo....

Last edited by lilsirecho (2007-11-09 23:08:23)

neotuli · 2007-11-09 23:52:02

No niin, tervetuloa arch-mailmaan.
Ok, I better stop at one sentence before someone gets mad at me :roll:.

To answer your question, yes. It is quite possible to put something like that together, heck I think someone suggested we should distribute those some time, but we decided not to (don't quote me, I'm too lazy to read the archives right now) since in most cases pacman will get the job done will job done with less bandwidth waste, and distributing huge snapshots isn't really too conducive to the whole rolling-release thing.

You might want to check out archiso [1], the install scripts [2], and one of my sample archiso configurations [3] that effectively creates an install CD. Now, keep in mind that archiso isn't the *current* way installers are created, but I think it's much more straightforward to work with than what we're using right now. That said, we currently use archboot to create the CDs, so that may be worth taking a look at as well. There is also a really old installer remastering wiki article [4], though not terribly relevant, you could still use a similar technique to pull apart one of our recent install iso's and remaster it with whatever packages you want. Anyhow, if you'd like help with this, I'd be more than happy to give you a hand (I need some more test-cases for archiso...), or if you look at it and go "gee, this is dumb", don't be afraid to send patches. Just get in touch with me through email, jabber, irc, or whatever.

Good luck

[1] http://projects.archlinux.org/git/?p=ar … a=summary)
[2] http://projects.archlinux.org/git/?p=in … ;a=summary
[3] http://code.neotuli.net/gitweb/?p=archi … stall-conf
[4] http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Rem … nstall_ISO

Amplify.EXE · 2007-11-10 11:10:24

lilsirecho wrote:

[..]It should well be possible to load the desired pacman related .pkg.tar.gz into the remaining ~3gb and access them at your preference using,,,,pacman -A (drag and paste ,pkg.tar.gz) or use ...pacman -Ud (drag and paste .pkg.tar.gz).[..]

Great, that is exactly the answer I was looking for! Now all I need to do is to download all packages from the "Core" and "Extra" repositories which seems to be a single rsync according to http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Local_Mirror
Of course utilizing a USB flash drive is a much more efficient solution for my needs, but I prefer to use a single DVD for every GNU/Linux distribution.

neotuli wrote:

[..]To answer your question, yes. It is quite possible to put something like that together[..]

Hei neotuli!
Thank you for the links! The article about remastering the Arch Linux ISO is exactly what I was looking for!

This is a great community indeed! I will catch up with you later!

Last edited by Amplify.EXE (2007-11-10 11:48:31)

pelle.k · 2007-11-10 15:28:03

I welcome this suggestion, even though arch isn't really the best fit for an offline OS (if that is targeted).
I have no idea of how large the "extra" repo is (it would seem "community" would be better off as an add-on since "extra" is good enough to get a WM/DE up and running).
This could be synced to the official install cd releases, and distributed in the form of a torrent to save bandwidth.

Please report back on your progress

lilsirecho · 2007-11-10 16:53:58

There are many many packages in the repos that you would never use.!

Be selective in which ones you put in your repo!!

Amplify.EXE · 2007-11-10 17:03:02

Hejdå Pelle!

I will report back once I get this running.. My internet connection allows me to download maximally at 800KB/s resulting in a quite slow progress synchronizing the packages from the package repositories. Providing this over Peer-2-Peer communication protocols seems to be a great idea!

Anyway as I said earlier I do not want to harm the community, that is why I used the rsync mirror at "distro.ibiblio.org" to avoid throttling the official Arch Linux rsync server. The command I used to start the progress is as follows: rsync -av rsync://distro.ibiblio.org/distros/archlinux/extra/os/i686/ /home/extra/

After little research and investigation it seems that the "Core" package repository is already on the Arch Linux ISO; is this positive?
Thank you in advance!

pelle.k · 2007-11-10 18:58:14

Hejdå Pelle!

Terve Amplify.EXE!

There are many many packages in the repos that you would never use.!

I was thinking the same thing, but depending on how large the extra repo actually is, you could;
1. include is on the DVD and have it included in pacman.conf as a *full* local repo
2. include essentials to get a basic WM/DE up and running. i.e. gnome, gnome-extra, kde, Xorg (+ extras) and maybe some wifi packages that isn't in the core repo.

Just a thought...

Amplify.EXE · 2007-11-11 12:46:49

pelle.k wrote:

[..]I was thinking the same thing, but depending on how large the extra repo actually is, you could;
1. include is on the DVD and have it included in pacman.conf as a *full* local repo
2. include essentials to get a basic WM/DE up and running. i.e. gnome, gnome-extra, kde, Xorg (+ extras) and maybe some wifi packages that isn't in the core repo.[..]

Hejsan Pelle!
I have great news for you! The synchronization from the rsync server has finished, and the whole "Extra" package repository is approximately 4GB, specifically 4342181536B in size. The next step is to remaster the Arch Linux ISO and everything should be as smooth as a soft ice cream scoop. In case someone could help me to check the integrity of the packages that I synchronized, here you can find the MD5 checksums for them: http://rafb.net/p/TZqLbE81.txt

Arch Linux "Core" ISO + "Extra" package repository = Full Arch Linux DVD.
What are your thoughts about this? Once I have everything done, I will hook up with you later!

Last edited by Amplify.EXE (2007-11-11 13:00:05)

lilsirecho · 2007-11-11 17:03:16

Be aware that the total you can enter into the DVD which includes the arch install is less than the capacity listed for the disc. You might end up with ~3.5MB of added packages.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-11-09 20:37:29

Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

#2 2007-11-09 22:31:03

Re: Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

#3 2007-11-09 22:42:16

Re: Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

#4 2007-11-09 23:52:02

Re: Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

#5 2007-11-10 11:10:24

Re: Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

#6 2007-11-10 15:28:03

Re: Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

#7 2007-11-10 16:53:58

Re: Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

#8 2007-11-10 17:03:02

Re: Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

#9 2007-11-10 18:58:14

Re: Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

#10 2007-11-11 12:46:49

Re: Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

#11 2007-11-11 17:03:16

Re: Incorporating both Arch Linux and a package repository onto one DVD.

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