# Fedora: DVD to CDs



## hitesh_hg (Dec 2, 2004)

Well i have a fedora core 3 DVD (distributed by LFY)..the DVD is bootable..
I want to know if it is possible that i can copy the contents of DVD to cds and the cds works like regular 4 fedora core 3 cds..

i mean can i distribute the packages, make first cd bootable...etc etc..

Thanks
Hitesh Gupta


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## GNUrag (Dec 2, 2004)

I dont subscribe to LFY...  could you tell us in what format is FC 3 distributed ? Is it a DVD with ISO inside or a single monolithic DVD containing all the RPMs


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## hitesh_hg (Dec 2, 2004)

well i actually dont have the DVD right now but what i was told is that it is a *bootable dvd* so all the files should be one place..

Hitesh


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## GNUrag (Dec 2, 2004)

I dont think  you can do anything in that case if its a single DVD...


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## hitesh_hg (Dec 2, 2004)

if somehow i can get the original rpmlist per cd...copy the boot sector to the first cd and manage the files i believe it should be possible..

tried to google but found nothing....will look for it in coming days...

Hitesh


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## GNUrag (Dec 2, 2004)

hitesh_hg said:
			
		

> if somehow i can get the original rpmlist per cd...copy the boot sector to the first cd and manage the files i believe it should be possible..



Well, actually if you have the original RPM list of the CDs then remastering the DVD to make your own CD-set is quite possible.... read the documemtation 

warning: creating your own CDs with anaconda installer installed on the first CD is not a child's play !!!

tip: search for * isolinux * documentation.... this is the thing you'd need for creating a bootable ISO of your RPM files... you  might also want to read this documentation that some of  my students wrote while remastering the knoppix CD....
*db.ilug-bom.org.in/lug-authors/anurag/


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## klinux (Dec 2, 2004)

@hitesh is the dvd in nov or dec issue of linux for u ??


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## hitesh_hg (Dec 2, 2004)

klinux said:
			
		

> @hitesh is the dvd in nov or dec issue of linux for u ??



december...they posted this info to my LUG


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## GNUrag (Dec 2, 2004)

hitesh_hg said:
			
		

> december...they posted this info to my LUG


Do you live in delhi ???

Also, December issue of PCQuest carries a Debian DVD !!!!
enjoy guyz....its DVDs raining these days...


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## klinux (Dec 2, 2004)

while we enjoy  , gnu u  and ur gnu/lin team here will have a hard time answering all our queries and troubleshooting our problems , which will be PLENTY lol . hope u got lots of free time dec  and jan  . @gnu did dig accept ur offer for the cd complete with documentation for linux u spoke abt long back ??

i will be getting the pcq (sub) and planning to go for the LYU one , though pcqlinux based on fed 3 core is also coming up in march . having second thoughts abt dig though .

someone should write a guide on how to switch between linuxes and not break their head . feels like wearing all the clothes u bought for diwali at the same time .


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## tuxfan (Dec 3, 2004)

Wow!! PCQ is giving Debian DVD in December!!

GNUrag, when are you coming to update my systems? I would like to install Debian in place of PCQ Linux.  A heavy lunch/snacks/dinner (or all) awaits you   

BTW, if it is ISO images in DVD and someone wants it to have transferred on CDs, I can do it as long as my costs are reimbursed. I have a DVD-ROM and CD-Writer attached to the same machine. Additionally, I subscribe to LFY and PCQ. So the DVDs will surely come to me sooner or later.


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## klinux (Dec 3, 2004)

this is getting CRAZY . now ICC is out with a dvd too . something called gentoo . next time mags should offer free or discounted Hard Disks to install all the linux flavours they giving out 

@tux : the debian sarge by pcq is on a bootable dvd . so u wont have trouble installing it


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## pradeep_chauhan (Dec 3, 2004)

what is ICC ?


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## GNUrag (Dec 3, 2004)

pradeep_chauhan said:
			
		

> what is ICC ?


*I*ntelligent *C*omputing *C*HIP

@tuxfan, I'm on my way !!!! watch out !!!


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## hitesh_hg (Dec 3, 2004)

@GNUrag i live in panchkula (near chandigarh) and i study in patiala..

Dehli ?? why???

Hitesh Gupta


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## GNUrag (Dec 3, 2004)

hitesh_hg said:
			
		

> @GNUrag i live in panchkula (near chandigarh) and i study in patiala..


I was just guessing    .... details abt LFY  PCQ's DVD issue was posted on delhi's LUG just a day  before your posting....


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## tuxfan (Dec 4, 2004)

Now I have already recveived the Debian DVD with the PCQ December issue.  GNUrag, I can't see you yet!     

BTW, one of my hard disks has 15GB space. Debian can be installed there (may be in place of Knoppix) without disturbing the existing PCQ Linux installation. On the other machine, I don't mind PCQ Linux being replaced


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## drgrudge (Dec 4, 2004)

sorry, if i am off the topic...

where can i get fedora core 3 and debian cd, for free ( not for some nominal amount) .
i saw a website, which gives unbutu ( hope i get the spelling rite), for free , home delivered. (any amount of quantity can be ordered).

-----------------------
and wht if i want to install both windows and linux, wht will i have to do.

would u guys tell me some programs which can be under this. (like for internet wht programs , and for multimedia and for word processing SF).


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## pradeep_chauhan (Dec 4, 2004)

I have both the distro downloaded. Infact we have a debian mirror in our lab so its no problem The only thing is send someone with the blank cd (7 for debian and 4 for core 3) and i will do the needful and obviously no charges


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## klinux (Dec 4, 2004)

@grudge : these might help .regarding dual boot , which OS do u have Xp / 98 or both ??


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## drgrudge (Dec 5, 2004)

klinux said:
			
		

> @grudge : these might help .regarding dual boot , which OS do u have Xp / 98 or both ??


xp pro as present.

@pradeep_chauhan,how can send u the cd's?


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## klinux (Dec 5, 2004)

@grudge : oops i think i forgot the links for alternative linux s/w in prev post

*www.linux.ie/newusers/alternatives.php
*www.kevinboone.com/howto_linux.html
*www.wlug.org.nz/LinuxEquivalentsForWindowsSoftware

site below  was a gr8 site with HUGE list but now it seems dead , if anyone knew abt the site and has another link to it , would be gr8
*linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-lin-soft-en/table.shtml

and regarding booting linux from ntldr 

*www.linuxgazette.com/issue36/larriera.html

havent tried this one , but so many sites say it will work


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## curvenger (Dec 5, 2004)

which issue of LFY contain FC 3?? Dec or Nov? I should grab that,!! hehe , I use redhat 9 but, tryin to install mpalayer is killin me, maybe FC3 might be helpful!! Is it GNUraag?


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## BONZI (Dec 7, 2004)

These news stand wallas now a days dont sell LFY with cds. Its too difficult to get


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## GNUrag (Dec 7, 2004)

@curvenger, i would rather suggest you to get a copy of this month's PCQuest. It has Debian 'Sarge'. and if you can believe me.... Debian is way much better than FC


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## tuxfan (Dec 7, 2004)

@GNUrag, since you are saying, Debian must be better. But from what I read in PCQ articles, installation seems a little complicated than Fedora Core. But I really want to try it. I will try and install it in my home PC. If something goes wrong, I want you standing right behind me with the words "MAIN HOON NA"


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## GNUrag (Dec 7, 2004)

tuxfan said:
			
		

> If something goes wrong, I want you standing right behind me with the words "MAIN HOON NA"


Dont worry.... *  Main Hoon Na *... just keep my  lunch ready and i'll  be at your place sometime soon...


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## tuxfan (Dec 8, 2004)

Thank you for being there 

Sure your lunch is ready. But I was wondering. Can we not this time even plan out breakfast and dinner? 

BTW, I just booted from the DVD yesterday and went a few steps ahead. But then felt was not too confident of messing around with the existing installation. Shall once again have a look at the data in the PCQ Linux and then decide on what to do. I think I will first take a backup on a Windows partition. But if it creates problems with Windows partition, I will be doomed. I have my Tally data of last 3-4 years.  I don't have any back-up of current year data.


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## curvenger (Dec 8, 2004)

Hi GNUrag, as you suggest i got the PCQuest Debian and but I have some problem, first I run it from the DVD and it was ok until the package selection screen appears, when I try to choose the package i cannot choose anything, the keyboard wont work, I mean the arrow is working fine but which key shoud i use to check the package, i tried every key but nothing can check the check box, and then when i press enter, the backbone of debian get installed without any other application ( no x windows, no gnome, no kde desktop). And then I have to run aptite manually, and i installed KDE and X11 manually and I after that the GUI login screen appears, and then I login and try to install the other package, it asked for root pasword and when I enter, nothing comes, what should I do now???


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## pradeep_chauhan (Dec 8, 2004)

Hey guys check out the fedora core 3 in the DVD of LFY is a test release not the final thing. Please check it out (Do tell me if i got this wrong...). And on the topic of flavors the priority should be as under (For the ease of use it is the inverse of the list Fedora is any day easier to setup and does packup a lot of packages.) 

1. Gentoo (Also called a debian killer by some.)
2. Debian (Slow and Steady ... Tortoise Hard Secure But slow on update of packages ... Sarge still has 2.6.8.... )
3. Fedora Core 3 (Easy and a no nonsense distro good for ex windows guys)


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## BONZI (Dec 9, 2004)

Which one is better ??

Debian
Gentoo
Fedora core 3?

I havent tried Debian and gentoo. I think debian cannot be bad as they are in this business for about 11 years. Whats your opinion?


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## pradeep_chauhan (Dec 9, 2004)

BONZI answer this Which is a better car maker Merc BMW Porsh ? Difficult is it? All are German precision .... good to drive and long lasting .... So similarly all the three distro are good in their own way depend on your application .... merc for the night party .... BMW for the meeting .......Porch for the girlfriend  so its a difficult choice dont you agree?


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## klinux (Dec 9, 2004)

@Bonz : go for a test drive in  merc/bmw/porshe see which one u like .
if all three
were given to u for free
u would take all 3 ????? 
use all three 
debian,gentoo & fc3 
and see .


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## BONZI (Dec 10, 2004)

That could have been a good idea if I had a 400 GB hard disk. I had installed a version of debian  4 years ago. But then I found redhat 6(or something) to be better. After that I never went back to debian. All I want know is that is there any change now. I think availability of .deb will not be a big problem but still many developers make their softwares with redhat on their mind.


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## klinux (Dec 10, 2004)

400GB , well for one thing u dont have to install all the apps in it . even if it were true , debian by pcq is on dvd , so max u need 8-10 gb for that and 5-8 gb each for remaining . how much hdd u got anyways ? most installers come with option to have min installation . anyways , if u comfy go for it else no prob . u always have CHOICE with linux , beauty of it


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## GNUrag (Dec 11, 2004)

curvenger said:
			
		

> but I have some problem, first I run it from the DVD and it was ok until the package selection screen appears, when I try to choose the package i cannot choose anything, the keyboard wont work,


I did not lay my hands on PCQ's Debian DVD as yet.... but i think you did not select your keyboard properly from the setup screen... 



			
				curvenger said:
			
		

> I mean the arrow is working fine but which key shoud i use to check the package, i tried every key but nothing can check the check box,


Spacebar is used to select or deselect a check box.... pressing enter means that you clicked on OK....



			
				curvenger said:
			
		

> And then I have to run aptite manually, and i installed KDE and X11 manually


Use * aptitude * only if your X server is not installed yet... as it is based on ncurses.... If your GUI is working then you can try * # synaptic * ..... 



			
				curvenger said:
			
		

> and I after that the GUI login screen appears, and then I login and try to install the other package, it asked for root pasword and when I enter, nothing comes, what should I do now???


Probably GDM is configured to disallow root from logging in to system in a GUI mode.... To fix this, login as a normal user... give su to become root.... and run * # gdmsetup *.... this configures your login manager.... in there uncheck the option that disables root user's gui login....


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## GNUrag (Dec 11, 2004)

Hello Bonzi,

Different people have different choices.... My reason for using debian is that its a no-fuss distribution.... If you download all the packages from debian's mirrors then you'll find a perfect unison between all the packages.... 

Debian recompiles and repackages all the software including but not limited to GNOME, KDE, and every other tools into its .deb format.... If you get everything from a single vendour then there are very little chances of broken packages and dependencies...

Other than technical issues, there are social issues also... Using Debian means that you are using a completely Free GNU System.... which has no Proprietary software included.... RedHat and others for example bundle Adobe's Proprietary Acrobat Reader software.....

Debian is very alllowing and supportive about its copyright and its Trademark licencing issues.... that's the reason why you can see so many Live-CDs based on Debian .... and not on other distributions.... RedHat for example is very strict about its usage of RedHat logo and trademark.... And no one can use its Trademark RedHat name to create another distributions....

note: Trademark is diffrent from License



			
				BONZI said:
			
		

> All I want know is that is there any change now. I think availability of .deb will not be a big problem but still many developers make their softwares with redhat on their mind.


Since then we have a strong and mature * APT * .... APT's mirror fingerprint has spread to all the continents ..... India too has an official Debian mirror....

However the complain that Debian is very slow in advancing its package's version number can be explained due to its insistance to include stable relaeases in its distributions....


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## pradeep_chauhan (Dec 11, 2004)

By the way the official indian mirror at IIT Madras is slower than the mirrors in North america. We at IISc too have a local mirror for the similar reason. And ....er ......one  parting thought ....er.....GENTOO RULES....


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## BONZI (Dec 11, 2004)

```
Different people have different choices.... My reason for using debian is that its a no-fuss distribution.... If you download all the packages from debian's mirrors then you'll find a perfect unison between all the packages....
```


```
Since then we have a strong and mature APT .... APT's mirror fingerprint has spread to all the continents ..... India too has an official Debian mirror....
```

@GNU fantastic infos thx. Another reason to think about switching to debian.


BUT



> Debian recompiles and repackages all the software including but not limited to GNOME, KDE, and every other tools into its .deb format.... If you get everything from a single vendour then there are very little chances of broken packages and dependencies...



Will there be any problems when I update packages from other sites?? I always like to keep the packages updated (as far as possible). Also can I use redhat packages in debian?? I mean rpm. tarballs will not be a problem (i think).I already have a lot of packages d/l from various sites. I dont want to d/l them again. 

And also is there any big differences in the file structure and other configuration files(in RH and deb). as get used to RH.


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## pradeep_chauhan (Dec 11, 2004)

to use .rpm in debian there is a conversion tool called "alien". This converts a .rpm to .deb which can be use in debian setup.


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## GNUrag (Dec 12, 2004)

pradeep_chauhan said:
			
		

> By the way the official indian mirror at IIT Madras is slower than the mirrors in North america. We at IISc too have a local mirror for the similar reason. And ....er ......one  parting thought ....er.....GENTOO RULES....


That's because IIT Madras Debian Mirror is a secondary level mirror....  Actually every institution has created mirrors now a days... but they dont open it to public. .... TIFR is coming up with second indian Debian mirror in a month....



			
				pradeep_chauhan said:
			
		

> to use .rpm in debian there is a conversion tool called "alien". This converts a .rpm to .deb which can be use in debian setup.


But debs created with alien aer most often broken. there are basic issues like  debian uses * /etc/rcS.d * where as redhat uses * /etc/init.d/rcS.d * or other issues with * /usr/bin * and * /usr/local/bin *


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## tuxfan (Dec 13, 2004)

GNUrag said:
			
		

> Using Debian means that you are using a completely Free GNU System.... which has no Proprietary software included.... RedHat and others for example bundle Adobe's Proprietary Acrobat Reader software.....


That means I can't read PDF files in Debian!! How many other things are there which I can't do?  Please enlighten me so that I can have a complete picture before I plan a switch from Fedora to Debian. BTW, now I have a FC3 DVD given by LFY. I don't know whether it contains all ISO images or is it a full bootable DVD.



			
				GNUrag said:
			
		

> that's the reason why you can see so many Live-CDs based on Debian .... and not on other distributions.... RedHat for example is very strict about its usage of RedHat logo and trademark


I agree. I think that is PCQ had to replace all instances of the word red hat from its code, thereby messing all email addresses as well :roll: BTW, there is a live distro based on RH9 called Bhavya OS. Its by an Indian company based in Hyderabad


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## GNUrag (Dec 13, 2004)

tuxfan said:
			
		

> That means I can't read PDF files in Debian!! How many other things are there which I can't do?  Please enlighten me so that I can have a complete picture before I plan a switch from Fedora to Debian.


Adobe is not the only company which makes PDF reader software. GNU/Linux distributions in general and Debian in particular bundles numerous pdf viewers that are Free Software in true sense and way much good looking than Acrobat Reader.
* xpdf * - comes with X11 
* gv * - part of GNU utils package
* kghostview * - comes with KDE
* gpdf * - comes with GNOME

gv and xpdf get installed by default in any case... so at a given time you have 3 pdf reader software installed. Couple this with the fact that GNU Utils package have native facilities of creating Postscript and PDF files.... provided that you have * LaTeX * installed.

want to know anything else ?


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## curvenger (Dec 14, 2004)

tunxfan FC3 given by LFY is a complete one, and also it`s bootable, but the CD check will not work properly, but all the instalation will work fine, its like all the four CD are in one DVD( i dont mean their image)..[/quote]


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## tuxfan (Dec 14, 2004)

GNUrag said:
			
		

> want to know anything else ?


 Yes. Lots. 

Anyway, please tell me in short what applications will I not see in Debian which I so easily see in Fedora Core.


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## GNUrag (Dec 14, 2004)

tuxfan said:
			
		

> Anyway, please tell me in short what applications will I not see in Debian which I so easily see in Fedora Core.


You'll have all the application in Debian. No need to worry..... I know of only one application which is not there in Debian ports collection: * mplayer * ....

The Debian ports collection contains an up-to-date archive of more than 40GB of packages.... How do i know? The server which was mirroring Debian's collection at TIFR got *disk full* errors on its 40GB partition.... we have added a new 120 GB disk to it....


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## tuxfan (Dec 15, 2004)

Thank you. Anyway, I am not a fan of mplayer. I can live without it. BTW, can I not later download and install it? .deb is not available?


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## GNUrag (Dec 15, 2004)

.deb is not available. On their site they have made available only rpms for RH9 and Fedora.... so officially they suport only redhat. Others have to compile it ...


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## tuxfan (Dec 16, 2004)

GNUrag said:
			
		

> Others have to compile it


I know I don't have to look too far beyond you to find out someone who can either do it for me or still better teach me how to do it


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## GNUrag (Dec 16, 2004)

arrey, its not a big deal....
* # ./configure *
* # make *
* # make install *

I'll come at ur place sometime and we shall do it all!!!!


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## tuxfan (Dec 16, 2004)

Cool!! But I need to install Debian first. My PC with DVD-ROM out of order since such a long time


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## GNUrag (Dec 16, 2004)

oh.... i see.. somewhere you said, you're getting a DVD writer soon.... i'll get a blank DVD also ....


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## tuxfan (Dec 17, 2004)

Yes. My brother is getting a laptop with a DVD writer. So I can copy DVDs in that machine if he is present in the office when you come 

If not that way, then one other friend also has a DVD writer (external ). Even he can copy it for me.


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