[sclug] Socket timeout

[Roland Turner]

On Wed, Nov 26, 2003 at 11:58:44PM +0000, Douglas Holden wrote:

> Hi all. I don't often post here 
> Just to see if it could be done I am downloading and installing a cut-
> down version of Debian using only a 56k dial-up connection (along the
> lines of an article from the USA by Clinton de Young a year ago, though
> he used broad-band). 
> wget got the jigsaw files and then I got CD-1 with jigdo, which got the
> base system installed. But apt-get x-window-system never seems to finish
> before a "socket timeout" due to the modem dropping the line happens.
> Then it leaves the package half downloaded and starts on the next one.
> So that leaves me with problems...
> Is there a way to increase the time that apt-get will wait for the
> network (which I have not configured) (dial-up is done by IPCop firewall
> box)?

I suspect that apt is subject only to the TCP timeout, which you
can't realistically change.

Instead, much as suggested by Leon, start with a CD copy. If someone
has one to lend/give you at the next SCLUG meeting, great. If
not, check out the Debian CD vendors list[1].

This is how I solved a similar problem when I started using
Debian; the Pacific Ocean stood between me and the nearest
mirror at the time.

- Raz

1: http://www.uk.debian.org/CD/vendors/