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You can set up a local file system to be a repository with Smart (other linux package managers too I think!). So if you had a mounted flash stik, you can point smart to that or a CD or a file you got in email (though I'd start to wonder about security with things handed around like that)<BR>
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The double-click install feature is a matter of getting a distributed .channel file into /etc/smart/channels. Auto Run (CD/ Memory Stik/ etc) could do that.<BR>
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One issue to consider is how to make certain your user is not installing to a non-compatible system. An assumption with package managers is that the repo/channel is configured by the original distro or by a user who nominally know what he's doing. I can add a Fedora 3 repo to my Fedora 7 system and install from there. So long as the RPM dependencies are met the packages would install. They might not work correctly though.<BR>
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I don't know about changing Linux forever ;) Laos is likely to have widespread bandwidth sometime in the future so I doubt you'd get a lot of buy-in from package devs. The cheapest mass-distribution is probably a branded Update CD; easily mailed, durable, inexpensive, integrated with auto-run so script can assert the proper platform, etc.<BR>
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On Tue, 2007-07-31 at 15:45 +0700, Hamish Robertson wrote:
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">Hey guys,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">I'm remastering a version of linux for use here in Laos.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Now for this distro to take off here, thje only thing that's really</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">stopping it is the rpm dependancy issue. If everyone here was on</FONT>
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not a dependency problem. Unless I misunderstand, it's just about raw bandwidth. How to get a lot of bytes to users who don't have high speed and/or cheap internet.
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">broadband, synaptic or smart package manager would make this a non</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">issue, but they're not. Laos is a 3rd world country and has got a LONG</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">way to go in terms of IT and infrastructure. This project hopes to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">fill in quite a few of the gaps.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Anyway, I've come up with a solution to this issue. Here me out, if</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">I'm right it could change linux forever. Anyway, here it goes (I'm</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">NOT a programmer!!! ).</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Currently when installing a package, smart looks at the big library in</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the sky and works out where the rpm is, and which dependancies you'll</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">need, then go fetches everything and installs it in the right order.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">It's fantastic...but what I was thinking was...what if we could freeze</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the packages and the synaptic install script into a single file? This</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">super rpm would be able to be distributed on usb sticks, attached in</FONT>
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This IS a dependency issue. What if I have a slightly different version of GCC or some lib or something than does the person creating the Super-RPM? On MY system the package cannot install. Normally my package manager will offer to fetch the necessary dependent packages or versions. I don't think RPM would find those in such a Super-RPM b/c the SrRPM itself would have a version and specified dependencies. Even if it did work, I'm back to needing internet to obtain the packages needed.
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<FONT COLOR="#000000">emails and installed on the same distro (if it was created from a</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">clean install) with a simple double click (opeing it with smart).</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">H.</FONT>
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There's a Fedora project to create re-mix distributions that have milestone point releases. This allows the user to install (not sure about upgrade though probably the upgrade-existing-installation would work that way) a Fedora without the need to immediately go get a bunch of update RPMs. <BR>
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I speak of Fedora b/c that's what I use. It's the wrong distro for your need though as it changes all the time. Ubuntu is probably a better bet, but you've probably already determined the distro you're going to base from.<BR>
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-- <BR>
Richard Hendershot <<A HREF="mailto:rshendershot@mchsi.com">rshendershot@mchsi.com</A>>
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