FBSD PowerPak

[Robert Storey]

I posted a message a few days ago regarding my frustrations to obtain an
up-to-date PowerPak for FreeBSD 5.1. Because I don't have broadband, I
really would like to have the entire ports collection on CD-R.
Unfortunately, the PowerPak sold by FreeBSDmall is version 4.6, a full
year (and four versions) out of date.

Since I posted that message, one kind member of this list contacted me
and offered to attempt to create a homemade PowerPak by downloading the
distfiles and burning them to CD-R.

So, (forgive the pun) the burning question:

Exactly what directory from Freebsd servers should one download to
create a PowerPak? Perhaps the distfile directory? The gentlemen who
volunteered to do this isn't exactly sure, and I'm pretty clueless. I
assume there are no ready-made ISO files for producing a PowerPak, so
what would be the best procedure?

regards,
Robert

> I recently ordered and received the 4-CD set of FBSD 5.1.
> 
> I had presumed that this would give me a pretty complete
> desktop setup.  Alas, I was wrong. A lot of very commmon
> apps are missing, such as Xemacs and Mplayer. It's
> disappointing. I only have a dialup modem. I don't have
> broadband and have no hope of getting it where I live, so I
> was counting on the 4-CD set to fill in the gaps.
> 
> I noticed on the FreeBSDmall web site that they sell a
> PowerPak with 10 CDs. This is supposed to be the entire
> ports collection. Sounds like just what I need - except it's
> based on FBSD 4.6 which is one year old.
> 
> So my question - I am wondering if the distfiles in this
> PowerPak are going to be of much use? Shelling out $40 isn't
> such a great hardship if the disfiles work as advertised,
> but I'm going to be more than a little pissed if it
> generates nothing but error messages. Does anybody know if
> the PowerPak will work with 5.1? Has anyone actually tried
> it?
> 
> TIA,
> Robert