{solved} TLZ Package Installer?

[nitehawk]

This may be a dumb question.  But I like to install Vector (6.0 standard) on several of my computers.  Being on dialup,....it takes awhile to download and install the apps I want (from the repositories).   After I install Vector,..I usually add stuff (from the official repositories) like:
wine
conky
midori
opera up-grade
wbar
On dialup that takes quite some time.  On some other distros I have used,.....(Debian, Puppy, for example).  I could just save the downloaded files via a USB Flash drive,.....and transfer the  downloaded files (via "sneaker net") to the other computers,......install them by Debian's "gdebi",...or Puppy's "petget" package installer (even Mandriva has an "instant" rpm installer for rpm packages).  This saved a lot of time.
  Unfortunately,....I don't see the same kind of "package installer" for the  "tlz" files in Vector.
I go to the downloaded files in home/ftp/vector/(name-of-file).....copy and paste onto the usb flash drive,....transfer to the other computer,...
But there doesn't seem to be any way to install the tlz package  by hand (and I'm not the smartest thing that ever fell off a rock).   Any suggestions?   

[retired1af]

**cough** You've never used installpkg at the cli? 

[MikeCindi]

There is also the option of creating a local "repository" for those packages that you typically install. Perhaps the easiest way would be to copy the /home/ftp folder from a setup that already has the packages installed to each of your new VL setups.
HTH,
Mike

[nitehawk]

**cough** You've never used installpkg at the cli?

...alrighty now,...I already said it was probably a dumb question,...and stated that I wasn't the smartest thing that ever fell off a rock.  But to answer your question ....no,...I am unfamiliar with Slackware and hadn't actually heard of using installpkg.  But thanks,..I do appreciate the answer I was looking for.  (do hope your cough gets better,..).   

MikeCindi...that's an excellent idea,...think I'll try that.  Seems like I'm always "fiddling" and doing re-installs,..so that would be a good idea all right.

[Andy Price]

Hi nitehawk. You maybe realise that installing packages manually is fine as far as it goes, but there's no dependency checking doing things that way, unlike with GSLAPT. After you install a new program on the first PC via GSLAPT, make sure you save any dependencies too.

[sledgehammer]

Not too sure this is on-subject with Nitehawk's post. 

Nitehawk's post reminds me of a concern, and gives me a ray of hope that there might be a solution.  I share his concerns, at least to the extent that they relate to updating a fresh install of VL 6.  It takes my dsl system almost as much time to update an installed VL6.0 and add blender and simutrans as it does to load VL 6.0 in the first place. 

It would save time if, after updating (and perhaps updating the kernel as well), I could save the updated VL 6 to a CD rom (or something else) and install that updated VL 6 on another computer. I assume a CDrom will not work, even if I knew how to otherwise do this, as the updated VL 6 will probably not fit on a CD.  What about a USB stick?  Could I somehow save an updated VL 6 to a USB stick and install from there?

[nightflier]

Nitehawk did bring up a good question. Let's come up with a howto on adding your own source for gslapt (cdrom, usb or local drive repository).

[bigpaws]

Actually pretty easy. You can save the packages on a partition or other
media. Then use pkgtool to install them. You could add the media as a
source for gslapt as well.

For my servers that need to back up quickly. I make a cd and then use
installpkg *.tgz and allow all packages to install. Afterwords move the
configuration files for those programs.

This might get you started.

http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/How_to_create_a_local_slackware_repository_with_dependency_support

Bigpaws

[MikeCindi]

My solution is that I have /home on its own partition. I have had this partition since VL5.1. I use slapt-get --autoclean to remove "old" packages and when I reload VL (as I do often during the testing cycle) all the packages and their dependencies are already in the /home/ftp folder. It has worked well for me for the past few years (a little over four since 5.1 I think) and when I load VL on a new machine I copy /home to that machine.
I suppose not everyone is a packrat like me so you could do something similar with each new VL release but I don't think I've collect too much "junk" in my /home partition although perhaps a few things could go.
FWIW,
Mike

[sledgehammer]

MikeCindi

What I do on my own machine, when a new vector comes out, is when loading, leave my /home directory alone. I do not reformat it.  I just install the new vector in the / directory (My drive has three partitions...swap, / and /home).  This seems to work well (haven't yet lost any data), and, after a while, things settle down.  A few thises and a few thats don't work and have to be reinstalled, but not many.  And its no real problem to "update" the new VL on my machine.

My concern instead is when loading Vector on donated machines for never_stop_learning's Cigar Lions club. If we are lucky, the machine comes with a hard drive and invariably, that drive has some version of Gate's on it.  So, I partition the drive into 3 parts (swap, / and /home) and load VL 6 in /, giving Gates the boot.  Then, I have to "update" VL and add blender (in the repositories) and simutrans (not in the repositories).  I am trying to figure out how to avoid that time-consuming "update" step by somehow using an "updated" install media.  I looked at bigpaws tutorial and it seems complicated for my skill level..  I may try it.  Time is the problem.  I have learned to start the update when I retire for the evening.  That works OK long as I plan ahead.

[nitehawk]

Thanks everyone, for all the help.  I just did a complete new re-install to check out my new info.  Everything went quickly (and as smooth as silk this time!).  And I did find out about the dependency thing (discovered that Slackware is a LOT different than Debian,..LOL!).  Really sorry that my original post sounded so "newbie-ish"....but I had just thought that perhaps Vector had it's own particular GUI package installer ..sort-of like gdebi, that is separate from synaptic, or gslapt. (wasn't aware it used the basic Slackware CLI installer).  That worked great, btw. 

[MikeCindi]

My concern instead is when loading Vector on donated machines for never_stop_learning's Cigar Lions club. If we are lucky, the machine comes with a hard drive ... Time is the problem.

Perhaps if you had a spare HD (if you're updating older hardware then an IDE disk vs. SATA probably) or if you have a large flashdisk (perhaps 1-2Gb) and the machine has USB ports you could just copy the /home/ftp from your "pattern" machine to the new install. Then run gslapt to load what you need. If you've already built simutrans it could also be on the media you use to transfer these packages to the new install.

The spare IDE would require putting it in the donated machine on a temporary basis to copy files. In the past I've done that when I wanted to move files quickly and other methods were not available.

HTH,
Mike

[nightflier]

The spare IDE would require putting it in the donated machine on a temporary basis to copy files.

I use an IDE-to-USB dongle. They're cheap (around 20 USD) and handy. Quickly converts any IDE or SATA drive to USB mass storage.

[sledgehammer]

Thanks nightflier and thanks for the order information (I just ordered one from newegg). 

[retired1af]

I snagged one of these a couple of months ago for less than 60 bucks. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822151033

They're out of stock right now, but for the notebook, it's been an absolute workhorse (all the distro's reside on it).

I'll most likely pull the trigger on a 1 or 2 TB drive soon and relegate the 320GB external to backup duties.

Also looking at one of these. The drool factor is almost too good to pass up! http://reviews.cnet.com/hard-drives/seagate-momentus-xt-250gb/4505-3186_7-34109212.html?tag=txt%3bpage