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Merged DVD ISO images

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sriniv
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Merged DVD ISO images

#1 Post by sriniv »

Hello, Could any one tell me, why I need to have 3 DVDs with individually indexed files in each DVD ISO (1,2,3), rather than debian provide a single large ISO that any one can download. This big ISO can be written in any USB 3.1 SSD / thunderbolt drive and can be used to install the complete debian in no time at very high speed. I have tried many times to re-index the ISOs from each DVD using various online tools and tried my best to generate one big ISO that I wanted to put in my external HDD, but to no avail. Instead, I am still forced to rely on old DVD systems to write into, and then read back and keep changing DVDs to make a full / complete debian install -- taking a very long time. This takes at least 2 hours if things go well without my DVD reader /writer not throwing up some error. In the age of thunderbolt / USB-C compatible HDDs coupled to high speed internet available even in third world nations that exceed 100 MiB download speeds, we should have one large merged ISO (of all DVDs) available. If anyone is going to download all three DVD images, (s)he should have the option to download this one big ISO that indexes all these files correctly, rather than refer to another DVD. DVD era is also basically ending and we have the new age of USB-C / thunderbolt / SSDs on the anvil!

Thanks for providing me this opportunity to write to debian forum!

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GarryRicketson
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Re: Merged DVD ISO images

#2 Post by GarryRicketson »

You don't need 3 DVD's , all you need is the 1st DVD or CD image, to install a basic working system. After that if you want you can install more pacakages ,etc. as needed. Read the installation documentation for details.
There also is ISO images that can be put on a USB stick, if that is what you need.
See: https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#which-cd
Which of the numerous images should I download? Do I need all of them?

No. First, of course you only need to download CD or DVD or BD images - the three types of images contain the same packages.

Also, you only need the CD/DVD/BD images for your computer's architecture. The architecture is the type of hardware your computer uses. By far the most popular one is the Intel/AMD architecture, so most people will only want to get the images for i386. If your PC has a 64-bit AMD or Intel processor, you will most likely need the amd64 images (though i386 is also fine), the ia64 images will not work.

Furthermore, in most cases it is not necessary to download all of the images for your architecture. The packages are sorted by popularity: The first CD/DVD/BD contains the installation system and the most popular packages. The second one contains slightly less popular ones, the third one even less popular ones, etc. You will probably only need the first couple of DVDs (or the first few CDs) unless you have very special requirements. (And in case you happen to need a package later on which is not on one of the CDs/DVDs/BDs you downloaded, you can always install that package directly from the Internet.)
Last edited by GarryRicketson on 2018-08-05 03:45, edited 1 time in total.

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golinux
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Re: Merged DVD ISO images

#3 Post by golinux »

sriniv wrote:Hello, Could any one tell me, why I need to have 3 DVDs with individually indexed files in each DVD ISO (1,2,3), rather than debian provide a single large ISO that any one can download.
The size of an iso is limited to around 4 gb. Fat32 fs is limited to 2 gb.
May the FORK be with you!

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Re: Merged DVD ISO images

#4 Post by p.H »

sriniv wrote:Could any one tell me, why I need to have 3 DVDs
Only you can tell why.
Only the first DVD image is needed to install a standard system with the most common packages.
If you want the complete distribution, you need all the 14 DVD images, not 3.
sriniv wrote:rather than debian provide a single large ISO that any one can download
You can build a blu-ray image with jigdo.
sriniv wrote:In the age of thunderbolt / USB-C compatible HDDs coupled to high speed internet available even in third world nations that exceed 100 MiB download speeds, we should have one large merged ISO (of all DVDs) available
If you have such a fast internet connection, then you only need the small netinstall image, and download only the needed packages at install time instead of downloading a huge image that will be used only for a small portion of its contents.
Note : 100 MiB is not a speed.
golinux wrote:The size of an iso is limited to around 4 gb
This is so wrong.
golinux wrote: Fat32 fs is limited to 2 gb.
This is so wrong too.

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golinux
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Re: Merged DVD ISO images

#5 Post by golinux »

p.H wrote:
golinux wrote:The size of an iso is limited to around 4 gb
This is so wrong.
golinux wrote: Fat32 fs is limited to 2 gb.
This is so wrong too.
Huh? Care to 'splain? I've been burning isos for a very long time and those limits have always been troublesome.
May the FORK be with you!

jibberjabber
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Re: Merged DVD ISO images

#6 Post by jibberjabber »

Seems like both are right, to some extent :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9660
The 2/4 GiB file size limit[edit]
All numbers in ISO 9660 file systems except the single byte value used for the GMT offset are unsigned numbers. As the length of a file's extent on disk is stored in a 32 bit value,[7] it allows for a maximum length of just over 4.2 GB (more precisely, one byte less than 4 GiB). (Note: Some older operating systems may handle such values incorrectly (i.e., signed instead of unsigned), which would make it impossible to access files larger than 2 GB in size. The latter holds true also for operating systems without large file support.)

Based on this, it is often assumed that a file on an ISO 9660 formatted disc cannot be larger than 232-1 in size, as the file's size is stored in an unsigned 32 bit value, for which 232-1 is the maximum.
How ever :
It is, however, possible to circumvent this limitation by using the multi-extent (fragmentation) feature of ISO 9660 Level 3 to create ISO 9660 filesystems and single files up to 8 TB. With this, files larger than 4 GB can be split up into multiple extents (sequential series of sectors), each not exceeding the 4 GB limit. For example, the free software such as InfraRecorder, ImgBurn and mkisofs as well as Roxio Toast are able to create ISO 9660 filesystems that use multi-extent files to store files larger than 4 GB on appropriate media such as recordable DVDs.

Empirical tests with a 4.2 GB fragmented file on a DVD media have shown that Microsoft Windows XP supports this, while Mac OS X (as of 10.4.8) does not handle this case properly. In the case of Mac OS X, the driver appears not to support file fragmentation at all (i.e. it only supports ISO 9660 Level 2 but not Level 3). Linux supports multiple extents.[8] FreeBSD only shows and reads the last extent of a multi-extent file.
Instead of using a ISO, I use what is called a "raw disk image", example,

Code: Select all

freedos.img
kind: raw disk image
21.5 GB (21474836480 bytes)
This image has Freedos as the OS, and all of my dos programs, if I wanted to put it on a USB drive, :

Code: Select all

# dd if=/home/parrot/freedos.img of=/dev/sdX bs=1M 

Note: sdX would be what ever the drive is, Do NOT use the 'dd' command without reading

Code: Select all

man dd
and fully understanding how to use it,
dd stands for: "disk destroyer", for a reason, reason: If not run correctly, it will destroy what ever disk it was pointed to.

I have never heard of "thunderbolt" drives, but it would not be practical, at least for me, to have to download a huge img or iso file:
by sriniv » 2018-08-05 02:43

Hello, Could any one tell me, why I need to have 3 DVDs with individually indexed files in each DVD ISO (1,2,3), rather than debian provide a single large ISO that any one can download. This big ISO can be written in any USB 3.1 SSD / thunderbolt drive and can be used to install the complete debian ----snip---
The first CD, or DVD, is a complete Debian system, all the others are just packages, and programs that I do not need or use,
Besides all that, we are not the Debian developers, we are all just Debian users, if you really think a huge 21gb or + ISO or img would be useful and people would actually down load it, perhaps join the Debian team, and work with them to create this. My guess at the reason they don't offer such a huge ISO is nobody is interested in taking the time to make one, Any volunteers ?

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Re: Merged DVD ISO images

#7 Post by p.H »

golinux wrote:
p.H wrote:
golinux wrote:The size of an iso is limited to around 4 gb
This is so wrong.
golinux wrote: Fat32 fs is limited to 2 gb.
This is so wrong too.
Huh? Care to 'splain? I've been burning isos for a very long time and those limits have always been troublesome.
No need to explain. There are obvious counterexamples :
- Debian provides ISO images larger than 4 GB for DVDs and Blu-ray.
- USB flash drives larger than 2 GB are commonly formatted with FAT32.

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