[Illustration: Figure 3.2: dselect Access screen]
Here we tell dselect where our packages are. Ignore the order that
these appear in. It is very important that you select the proper
method for installation. You may have a few more methods listed, or
a few less, or you may see them listed in a different order; just
don’t worry about it. In the following list, we describe the
different methods.
multi_cd. Quite large and powerful, this complex method is the
recommended way of installing a recent version of Debian from a set
of multiple binary CDs. Each of these CDs should contain information
about the packages in itself and all prior CDs (in the file
Packages.cd). When you first select this method, be sure the CD-ROM
you will be using is not mounted. Place the last binary disk of the
set (we don’t need the source CDs) in the drive and answer the
questions you are asked:
CD-ROM drive location
Confirmation that you are using a multi-cd set
The location of the Debian distribution on the disk(s)
[ Possibly ] the location(s) of the Packages file(s)
Once you have updated the available list and selected the packages
to be installed, the multi_cd method diverges from normal procedure.
You will need to run an “install” step for each of the CDs you have,
in turn. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of dselect, it will
not be able to prompt you for a new disk at each stage; the way to
work for each disk is outlined here:
1. Insert the CD in your CD-ROM drive.
2. From the main dselect menu, select “Install.”
3. Wait until dpkg finishes installing from this CD. (It may report
installation successful, or possibly installation errors. Don’t
worry about these until later.)
4. Press Return to go back to the main dselect menu.
5. Repeat with the next CD in the set.
It may be necessary to run the installation step more than once to
cover the order of package installation; some packages installed
early may need to have later packages installed before they will
configure properly.
Running a “Configure” step is recommended to help fix any packages
that may end up in this state.
multi_nfs, multi_mount. These are similar to the multi_cd method and
are refinements on the theme of coping with changing media—for
example, installing from a multi_cd set exported via NFS from
another machine’s CD-ROM drive. indexdselect!multi-NFS, multi-mount
installation
apt. One of the best options for installation from a local mirror of
the Debian archive or from the network. This method uses the “apt”
system to do complete dependency analysis and ordering, so it’s most
likely to install packages in the optimal order.
Configuration of this method is straightforward. You may select any
number of different locations, mixing and matching file: URLs (local
disks or NFS mounted disks), http: URLs, or ftp: URLs. Note,
however, that the HTTP and FTP options do not support local
authenticating proxies.
If you have proxy server for either HTTP or FTP (or both), make sure
you set the http_proxy and ftp_proxy environment variables,
respectively. Set them from your shell before starting dselect by
using the following command:
# export http_proxy=http://gateway:3128/
#
# dselect
#
#
#
#
Update
dselect will read the Packages or Packages.gz files from the mirror
and create a database on your system of all available packages. This
may take a while as it downloads and processes the files.