Beating a dead horse (apt-get source list) Questions

[Cuddles]

Ok, I have been seriously trying to get my source.list down to an acceptable listing, I have installed apt-spy, and gone through the "north-america" area, on "stable", "unstable", and "testing" - getting the best benchmarks on the sites...

Funny thing is that for all three of these distributions, I come up with a single site to go after...

Now the questions:
(1) Should I be going after all three of these in my source list? (or should I just go after a single one?)

(2) I am guessing I want to do a "apt-get update" before I make the source.list changes, and should "probably" do one AFTER I make the changes, am I missing something???

(3) I am interested in finding out "exactly" where this site that has come up with higher through-put is actually at... Where would I go to find out where a site is at??? The site that had the best benchmark was ftp.egr.msu.edu -=- I am guessing that this is a Univeristy, signified by the msU, and that it fits with the "edu" for an EDUcational facility... I recall that someplace had a listing of "apt-get" sites, times and days and requirements for the site access, etc... But, apt-get.com doesn't appear to be it...

Any help, and I think I can put the beaten to death horse (apt-get) into the grave (finally)...
Cuddles

[Markus]

1) I don't think the speed will be that much different if you use the best one you got for unstable also for testing and stable, don't pick the one with the best speed for stable though as you probably won't get that many packages for it. All in all, I still use the german servers although they have a finnish server 2 km from where I live, haven't had a need to change as I still get packages from germany as fast as my adsl can receive them.

2) You should update after changing the sources.list

3) Don't know what the egr bit stands for but cutting it off you can do "whois msu.edu" which gets Michigan State University.

[Cuddles]

Ok,

Lets say I stick with my "default" sources.list, and scrub the site I found with apt-spy... Assumption is, that the site that I appear to be getting my packages, and updates, from, I think it has been something like this: ftp2.debian.de.xxxxxxxxxx -=- is giving me all the packages that are available.

I have been (trying) to get everything I "used to have" before I had to re-install, back, and I have been having a major problem finding one game... The title for this game was "Rocks and Diamonds", or a variation of this with a "n" instead of "and", I can't find it... I've done apt-cache search for anything, and scrolled through tons of screenfulls trying to find it. My assumption was, my old sources.list was pointing to a site that had it, and now, with this "unchanged" sources.list, I am not.

How does one search a "package" for what "files" are found in it??? Worse yet, apt-cache search appears to not (usually) care what you enter to search for, and returns packages that don't have anything to do with the search you asked for.

From a person with a long standing "Windows" background, this whole "apt-get" thing, is completely foriegn to me, I just don't get it. It (mostly) works, but, like I have found out, the "upgrade" has gotten me into more trouble than anything I could have ever done in "Windows".

I did find "xdigger", which is close to what I am looking for, but it is not the Rocks and Diamonds that I remember I had installed before the re-install.

Thanks for any, and all, assistance,
Cuddles

[Markus]

markus@fujibox:/# apt-cache search rocks-n
rocks-n-diamonds - Boulderdash-like game

You can type "apt-cache policy rock" and press <tab> twice.

[Cuddles]

I tried the "exact" same command, I get nothing...

So, I take it, I am missing "some" entry in my sources.list file, that you appear to have, am I right???

Can you provide a output of your listing, or are you able to find out "where" this package is coming from, and just provide that entry for me???

(I knew I had something wrong here)
Thanks Markus,
Cuddles

[Markus]

This is basically all I have at the moment that isn't commented out. Not sure but I would expect you to need the Unstable lines, allthough I don't know if non-US should be used in the US.

## Security updates for "stable"
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org testing/updates main contrib non-free

## Stable
deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free

## Testing
# deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian testing main contrib non-free
# deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/pub/debian-non-US testing/non-US main contrib non-free

## Unstable
deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free

## Various multimedia applications
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main

[Cuddles]

I don't get it, I checked your entries to mine, (mostly) being identical, I had "source" still uncommented out. I even copied/pasted your entries into my sources.list and verified character for character, and then saved, did a apt-get update, and then the apt-cache search, and STILL no luck finding the package... What gives? What am I doing wrong? Where (other than sources.list) can apt-get not find this installable package???

Any ideas, clues, I'm about to start yanking out my hair on this one...
Cuddles

[Cuddles]

Hey Markus, got any ideas on this one?????

root@Polaris:/etc/apt# apt-cache policy rock
rockdodger rocketworkbench rocks rocks-n-diamonds
root@Polaris:/etc/apt# apt-cache policy rocks-n-diamonds
rocks-n-diamonds:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: (none)
Version Table:
root@Polaris:/etc/apt# apt-get -u install rocks-n-diamonds
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Package rocks-n-diamonds is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package rocks-n-diamonds has no installation candidate


Anyone else want to point me to where I may be able to find this? It appears that I need another source in my list to get this package???

Cuddles

[Markus]

Hmm, what do you have in /etc/apt/apt.conf: testing, unstable???
Try this: apt-get -s -t unstable install rocks-n-diamonds

EDIT: It looks like it's removed: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=201411
You can still get it from: http://www.artsoft.org/rocksndiamonds/
Or just do a google/linux on "rocks-n-diamonds"

[Cuddles]

OMG, thank you Markus, especially for all the "groundwork" and research on this...

I wish I had not made it "such" and issue, I feel so bad, (that you even took that much time to locate an answer), it really wasn't that important (for the amount of time taken on it)

I looked at the "bug report", I don't think I'm going to be seeing this game any time soon, considering that "Debian" has closed it down, and all "report" trails of it...

I guess I'm going to have to live with the xdigger game now :(

Oh well... Thanks again Markus for all the help, I really appreciate it :D
Cuddles

[Markus]

Don't worry about it, I'm down with a fever -> nothing to do :D

[Cuddles]

Markus, I need some help here...

I was able to download the source/binary from the creators of "rocks-n-diamonds" - and I now have the "binary" program, and its source, and all of its support files, etc...

Problem, the only way I can run the game is from a konsole shell, and I have to be in the "folder" it is in, and I have to run it with the [dot][slash] in front of it...

i.e. prompt: ./rocksndiamonds

How can I run a bianry program within a menu entry, or create a icon for it, when I have to be in the same directory as the program, and I have to preceed the program name with the dot-slash ????

Any ideas? I hate having to run it from the konsole, I like to have it where it can be run easier, like adding it into the games menu, kinda thing....

Thanks in advance,
Cuddles

[OErjan]

a regular searchpath should work. that is:
/home/mydir/rocks-n-diamonds/rocksndiamonds
that should start the game. make a symlink in /usr/bin to the binary, now you just have to type the name. or make a desktop starter, or add it in te menu...

[Markus]

Hmm, sorry for not answering before though you asked me but I think that OErjan said it all.
As he said make a symlink in /usr/bin and run it with rocksndiamonds in the command part of a shortcut.