[Soc-coordination] Looking for a mentor

[Chris Oliver]

On Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 3:31 AM, Chris Oliver <excid3 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 2:12 AM, Manoj Srivastava <srivasta at acm.org>wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Mar 21 2009, Chris Oliver wrote:
>>
>> > I am a sophmore computer science major in need of a mentor for a
>> > project I would like to work on with Debian. I have started a project
>> > called Keryx in an attempt to develop a tool capable of browsing all
>> > available packages much like Synaptic that is cross-platform allowing
>> > users to download packages, dependencies and updates from any computer
>> > to a flash drive. This can help users who perform updates on machines
>> > without internet connections, dialup users, and provides an
>> > alternative to APTonCD by giving users the ability to use common flash
>> > drives easily without having to reburn CDs. It is still a _very_ alpha
>>
>>         What criteria are you thinking of using to determine which
>>  packages would be required on the non-networked machine? That would be
>>  the crux of the problem (aptitude --download-only install; cp
>>  /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb over (after determining how much space is
>>  available at the destination) would be straightforward then.
>
>
> The dpkg status file from the offline machine we can determine which
> packages are necessary to download. For installation I was looking into
> dpkg-scanpackages and creating a local repository for the project with which
> they could be installed via aptitude like normal.
>
>>
>> > application and needs a lot of work. I plan on rewriting it from
>> > scratch, creating an API that would be able to be used with multiple
>> > interfaces, command-line and GUI. I plan on supporting package
>> > installation as well, which can be done several different ways, but I
>> > am not for sure which would be the best route yet. You can check it
>> > out here: http://keryxproject.org
>>
>>         You might be interested in checking out apt-zip.
>> ,----[ apt-zip ]
>> | Description: Update a non-networked computer using apt and removable
>> media
>> |  These scripts simplify the process of using dselect and apt on a
>> |  non-networked Debian box, using removable media like ZIP floppies and
>> |  USB keys.
>> |  One generates a `fetch' script (supporting backends such as wget and
>> |  lftp, in a modular, extensible way) to be run on a host with better
>> |  connectivity, check space constraints of your removable media, and
>> |  then install the package on your Debian box.
>> | Homepage: http://alioth.debian.org/projects/apt-zip
>> `----
>>
>>        This works somewhat differently than Keryx; in that apt-zip
>>  runs on the non-networked computer (and thus has an idea of what
>>  versions of things it has) generates a script to be run on a better
>>  networked computer, and does size checks of the usb media. (it is
>>  unclear to me how the non-networked computer runs the equivalent of an
>>  aptitude update).
>>
>>
>>        It does not seem to have a graphical interface.
>>
>
>>        manoj
>
>
> This does do the job, however the barrier to entry with apt-zip is a little
> too high for newcomers. The idea is to create a simple to use GUI that
> non-networked users could take advantage of. If you generate a script this
> will be fine, but what if you would like to download something else when you
> are on highspeed and it is not included in the script? You would need to go
> to  http://packages.debian.org and manually compare them against your
> status file to determine which ones you needed to grab. This is way too much
> to ask from someone new to Debian as well as a hassle for those of us more
> experienced. Essentially the project would be a cross-platform version of
> Synaptic in which you create a project that is kept up-to-date without the
> user having to worry about the details. You can think of it like a USB
> version of APTonCD as well. With this you could get the packages you needed
> and have them stored on your USB device and update the packages easily
> without reburning CDs all the time as well as not needing to boot to Linux
> in order to grab the packages to burn off since it will be cross-platform
> (using Python and a related tool such as py2exe). Does this all make sense?
>
>> --
>> Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish or a sparrow fall.
>> Manoj Srivastava <srivasta at acm.org> <http://www.golden-gryphon.com/>
>> 1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B  924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Chris "excid3" Oliver
>



-- 
Chris "excid3" Oliver
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