[HLUG] install dvds and repository cds

[j michaelson]

hello all,

now i've cracked building ubuntu repositories i've been thinking about
what to do with it.

my first thought was to make an installation dvd. i was thinking about
copying an installation cd onto my hard drive, adding a load of
software, rebuilding the Package.gz and burning it to a dvd. this
would give synaptic and apt-get over 3gig of extra software to play
with. it would be interesting to find the list that defines which
packages are installed by default and tweak it so that some of the
extra packages get installed during installation.

the only problem with an installation dvd is that a lot of people
don't have dvd drives to use them or dvd burners to copy them. a more
useful idea might be a repostitory cdrom (or cdroms). it's dead easy
to add cdroms to synaptic (settings - repositories - add cdrom). this
would probably be useful to more people than a dvd. i'm currently
using the amd64 version of ubuntu, but if i was going to do something
like this then i'd probably do it with the 32bit version instead,
because that's what most people are using.

something else i'm going to be looking into is dummy packages. i'm
under the impression that dummy packages are debs that don't actually
contain any binaries, just a list of dependencies. if i do make a
repository cd i could include one called johns-stuff which lists all
my favorite programs as dependencies. i could then select and install
that package and everything else would fall into place. that would be
a big time saver.

john.