[GTALUG] debian Linux -- Installation DVDs Full Set - Shipped To Canadian Destination ??

[Clifford Ilkay]

On Sun, Mar 4, 2018 at 8:53 AM, Steve Petrie, P.Eng. via talk <
talk at gtalug.org> wrote:

> I likely will be building the new PC at my friend's place. Before I teke
> the new PC home with me, to do all the work of installing debian Linux for
> regular use, I want to check the new PC to make sure that at least it can
> boot Linux and mess around with the hardware (e.g. create files).
>
> System Rescue seems perfect to me, for doing this Linux compatibility
> pre-qualification at my friend's place.
>
> * **
> * * *
>
> Certainly I could probably use my friend's high-speed link to do a
> painless install of debian Linux.
>
> But I want to perform the debian install in such a way that I am
> completely independent of any other facilities.
>


This reminds me of the Gentoo fans who thought that they were somehow more
"in control" of their machines just because they were copying/pasting
commands from the Gentoo forums and building Gentoo from source. It was an
exercise in yak shaving, just as an offline installation when you have
access to a broadband connection is and just as configuring a dial-up
connection knowing that you're switching to broadband Internet anyway is.
Taken to the extreme, I suppose you could get a printout of all the
software you intend to install and start transcribing. :)



> And also to be independent of any need for a network connection to be able
> to do a fresh installation of debian Linux.
>


I don't know if you realize that you have spent more time talking/writing
about this than it would have to download and install Debian. If you are at
your friend's place and your friend has a broadband connection, you'll have
Debian running in about 20 minutes with a reasonable network connection.
Installing this way does not preclude you from using a dial-up connection
to update later. In fact, if you install via a DVD, you're going to have to
change /etc/apt/sources.list to point to the online repos that your machine
should fetch from when you connect via dial-up. Otherwise, it will check
for updates on the DVD. If you install using your broadband connection, you
won't have to change a thing in sources.list to update later when or if you
get dial-up working.

If I were in your shoes, I would download the Debian netinstall CD, which
is just over 300M. That is small enough that you can even do that over your
dial-up connection. I would boot from the netinstall image and install away
while you have a broadband connection. Subsequent updates generally won't
be that big so if you get dial-up working, you'll be able to do the updates
when you connect. I say "if you get it working" because I don't remember
what type of modem you're starting with. If you have an exernal modem, you
should be fine. Internal modems are dicier. There were many that were
WinModems and those wouldn't work 20 years ago when dial-up was commonly
used. In those days, I used to use wvdial. I see that it's still available
in Debian <https://wiki.debian.org/Wvdial>.

Regards,

Clifford Ilkay

+1 647-778-8696
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