switching discs during install

[Al Plant]

Jerry McAllister wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 07, 2008 at 07:06:03AM -0400, Randy Pratt wrote:
> 
>> On Sun, 7 Sep 2008 10:22:37 +0100
>> Mike Clarke <jmc-freebsd2 at milibyte.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> On Sunday 07 September 2008, James Strother wrote:
>>>
>>>> That said, I still think that as long as the freebsd foundation
>>>> distributes CD images it would be worthwhile to make them as
>>>> effective as possible. Actually, even if the install were moved to a
>>>> DVD, the ordered install I proposed would still improve the
>>>> situation.  When the packages are haphazardly ordered on the disc,
>>>> the CD/DVD reader is forced to perform a large number of seeks that
>>>> dramatically reduces data throughput.  When they are read in order,
>>>> read rates should be much better.
>>> They might not be as haphazard as you suggest. ISTR once reading that 
>>> the CDs were arranged with the most popular packages on the first CD so 
>>> that you would only need to download disk 2 (and 3) if you wanted some 
>>> of the less common packages. With your suggested layout it's quite 
>>> likely that a package which most of the others depend on would be right 
>>> down at the bottom of the list with the result that you'd invariably 
>>> need to download all 3 CD images.
>>>
>>> I think the best way to avoid the need for frequent CD switching would 
>>> be for sysinstall to sort the list of selected packages into CD order 
>>> before installing them. I imagine this would require some changes to 
>>> pkg_add to prevent it from installing dependencies and I expect the 
>>> possible benefits would not be considered to be sufficient to justify 
>>> the effort.
>> Another way to avoid switching CDs is to select an FTP server for
>> installing packages.  This also avoids downloading bits you don't
>> need or want.
> 
> I think the OP mentioned having a difficult or slow internet
> connection as being part of the reason for the question/comment.
> Although I enjoy having a 100MB line to my office into a 10GB
> backbone, still not all people are that fortunate and I don't even
> have a good line at home where I am still stuck with dialup (so I 
> drag my machine in to the office for installs).
> 
> ////jerry
> 
>> There is another discussion:
>>
>>   http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/mid.cgi?1220762797.29265.43.camel
>>
>> which would address the disk swapping by removing all the packages
>> from disc1 and providing a DVD of packages that could be used
>> after installation.
>>
>> HTH,
>>
>> Randy
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
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Aloha,

Slow internet is an unforunate fact of life. Here in Hawaii we have many 
military  installations and many times they down load or up load 
satellite or other images that hog our Trans Oceanic band width. I have 
a 3 meg download line and it is excellent most of the time. However, 
when there are certain missions or satellite tests going on it slows 
things noticably. I have found that by using the Australian Mirrors can 
help from here or trying one of the less popular mirrors from MIT or one 
of the Canadian ones can really speed up down loads.

I Make a copy of CD 1 FreeBSD and then load a minimal install (with 
ports). Then down load from a FreeBSD server anything else I need for 
the server or desktop I am setting up. And select one of the ftp mirrors 
  that is normally not too choked.

Best of luck.

~Al Plant - Honolulu, Hawaii -  Phone:  808-284-2740
   + http://hawaiidakine.com + http://freebsdinfo.org +
   + http://aloha50.net   - Supporting - FreeBSD 6.* - 7.* - 8.* +
   < email: noc at hdk5.net >
"All that's really worth doing is what we do for others."- Lewis Carrol