5.4-RELEASE local ftp sysinstall (packages in wrong directory)

[Bruce R. Montague]

Due to recent call for testing, I downloaded the
5.4-RELEASE iso's and did a clean local ftp install
to an old machine. The 5.4 sysinstall program (run
via the boot floppies from the CD) does not seem to
be aware of the location of the packages on disc1.iso...
Apologies if this has been covered somewhere; I
haven't been following this list and can't find the
exact problem mentioned.

Problem: With the 5.4-RELEASE CD's, doing an install
from a local ftp server, sysinstall attempts to
access "5.4-RELEASE/packages/INDEX", instead of
"packages/INDEX", resulting in sysinstall "Unable
to get packages/INDEX" errors on packages such as
X11.

Attempted Kludge work around: copy CD to ftp mountpoint
and create the missing symlink (ln -s ../packages
packages).  This eliminates access to INDEX problems,
but results in "This is disc #0. Package _blah_ is
on disc1 Would you like to switch discs now?" messages.

Kludge solution #2.  Ignore packages...


More details:

*  Ran Sysinstall with "All", with "ports" collection
selected.

 disc1 in /dev/acd0c mounted as
  /usr/ftp/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386

Installation proceeds, (accesses "5.4-RELEASE" under
the mountpoint, as defaulted in Installer Options;
dir "5.4-RELEASE" is in disc1.iso's root).


* After installing the ports tree, the message:

  "Unable to get packages/INDEX file from selected media."

This error occurs because the installer ftp is doing a:

  get pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/5.4-RELEASE/packages/INDEX

It should be asking for:

  pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/packages/INDEX

The "packages" directory (which contains INDEX) is
located in the root of the CD, not under the
"5.4-RELEASE" directory.

(were there some e-mails somewhere recently about a
missing file link on the CD's... ?)

* These errors can be ignored although retrying gets
tedious. Eventualy sysinstall proceeds after a message
that it can't install at least packages for perl and
X11...


* This problem seems very similar to:

 Subject: Wrong directory (or symlink?) in ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/5.3-BETA1/
 http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=5423+0+archive/2004/freebsd-hubs/20040829.freebsd-hubs


 and also releated to:

 Subject: sysinstall new disc layout in 5.4 RELEASE
  http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=366255+0+archive/2005/freebsd-stable/20050515.freebsd-stable
  http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=479254+0+archive/2005/freebsd-stable/20050515.freebsd-stable

 and

  Subject: Will 5.4 be an "Extended Life" release?
  http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2005-April/013903.html