On 15-Dec-2013 3:07 AM, "Kevin Kofler" <kevin.kofler(a)chello.at> wrote:
Syam Krishnan wrote:
> The DVD is extremely important for people who don't have cheap and fast
> internet available to download RPMs post installation. Without such a
> connection, the live CDs have limited utility.
It's easier (a smaller download) to download a live image with only the
necessary parts and then install only the packages you actually need
rather
than downloading an installer DVD of which you will be installing
only
half
the packages. (This is one reason why I fought hard to keep CD size
as
long
as possible, but unfortunately, I lost that battle to creeping bloat
and
to
useless size-increasing "features" such as
"Mini"DebugInfo.)
In addition, unless you install right on release day, many of the packages
you install from that DVD will be updated on your first "yum update"
anyway.
In contrast, post-installed packages are pulled directly from updates
where
applicable.
But what about installing on machines that don't have internet connection?
Or at least not a good connection that's useful for yum?
The DVD allows for 'download once from anywhere and install multiple times
anywhere'. Then there's no need for yum installing packages everywhere. The
only not so simple alternative is to install from cd on the download
machine (or a virtual machine), then yum install the rest with all packages
cached and then copy off these rpms to other machines. Not a simple
solution, you should agree.
P.S. I think there's a need for an application that can use installed rpmdb
info from one computer and download required packages (including deps) from
another internet enabled computer (that's running any Linux or even
Windows). I think I'll start working on that with a bit of help from you
guys.
Syam