Jessie installed from the 1st amd64 iso, on a USB drive.
Then, I tried apt-get install gpm, for the console mouse, but no packages could be found.
I mounted iso files 1 through 5, plus kde, in alphabetically named directories under /mnt.
(for example, mount -o loop -t iso9660 1.iso /mnt/i, snd
mount -o loop -t iso9660 kde.iso /mnt/k
and all the files appeared to be in their directories
)
and then typed
apt-get -m -d=/mnt/k add
which seemed to work for the kde iso and for isos 1-5.
Lines for deb cdrom: were added in /etc/apt/sources.list, which also had 2 lines written at the bottom:
deb file:mnt/i stable contrib non-free
and
deb src:mnt/i stable contrib non-free
I didn't type "apt-get update", but tried
apt-get install gpm
resulting in "package has no candidates".
I edited the last lines in sources.list to
deb file:/1.iso jessie main contrib
but that didn't seem to help.
Is there another way to point apt-get to all of the directories, which seem to have all of the CD files?
I transferred isos 6, 7, and 8 later from this machine, to the newly installed machine, which is resting peacefully now.
Thanks for your advice.

Do you have any network connection available? If so, why don't you let apt get gpm (and any package) from the online repos?
If there is no internet connection available, apt, as you have it confitgired now, can only use packages that are in the 1st iso. If you mount or copy any iso, you HAVE to run apt-get update so that apt sees the packages each iso contains.

Thanks, and I have an internet connection, but I just thought that I could get all the packages from the 9 isos. Tomorrow I'll try
"apt-get update"
with that installation and try for the console mouse and vim.
After the installation, apt-get did install xorg, but kde-base wasn't found, so 'startx' produced only 1 line, too small to read, in the monitor's upper left corner.
Could apt be configured to use packages on the other 8 isos I have copied into /?
Thanks again.

apt-get install was able to find and install vim, the General Purpose Mouse, and 4 large kde-base packages, after I repeated the mount -o loop -t iso9660 1.iso /media/cdrom
followed by
apt-cdrom -m -d=/media/cdrom add
and
apt-get update
with those 3 commands repeated for kde.iso and the other 7 iso files.
and 9 new lines, beginning with
deb cdrom:
were written into /etc/apt/sources.list
and apt-get install gpm instructed me to insert CD 4.
The machine has no CD reader, so I re-mounted 4.iso, and the gpm mouse installed on the next attempt.
One small hitch with the kde-base packages was when apt-get instructed me to remove the kde CD, and insert CD 1.
But that was only needed for kde-base-artwork.
And then with 'startx', the X server started briefly and stopped, so the installation has no desktop yet.

My source list looks as:
Never put the DVD's into it and using the packaging software can install everything.
Can't rembember if there was a question on it where to get the software source from DVD or internet????

Look further in the Debian manuals, like:
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/d...e/ch02.en.html

Thanks for your answer.
Because I'd already downloaded 9 iso files of ~650 megabytes each, the best economy of time and electricity seemed to be to use those iso files, which apt-get 'believes' are CDs, if they're mounted on /media/cdrom.
But it was a problem for me when apt-get said 'media change: please insert the CD named "......7.iso" into the drive and press 'enter', because the machine has no CD drive...nor CDs.
So I'm trying to learn how to put BASH processes into the background and retrieve them...but I was able to install packages without the internet connection.
The machine now is resting again, with a new problem, and I may need to start another thread if I can't fix the new problem soon.

+1 on useing the net as the packages will be up to date, good idea with a network connection and security.

Someone may know how to use the iso files like your thinking, my first thought was rip the archives apart to install individually or better yet somehow build your own repo?

Or, could you loop mount all the isos? http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-to...der-linux.html

Have fun!

One "hack" to reduce the downloads, is to unpack all the .deb files from the ISO files and put them in the /var/cache/apt/archives/ directory. Then those .deb files will not be downloaded, unless there are newer upgrades online. I did it many years ago - not sure if it workds with new Debian versions, but I think so.

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I mounted all 9 of them, 1 at a time, and found that /media/cdrom was the directory to mount them to, because that directory persuaded apt-get to believe that each iso file was a real plastic disk(CD, not DVD, because these isos are all less than 700 mB).
My problems were when apt-get wanted me to remove one disk and insert another, because the command line prompt stopped.
I used Alt+F4 to get a new bash prompt, from which I could mount the next requested CD's iso file equivalent.
And, in some cases, apt-get wouldn't work, and asked if another process was using the file!
So I need to learn how to move the apt-get process to the bash background, while I can use the mount command in the bash foreground, so I need more clues at the prompt.

Thanks for that, and I certainly will try that tomorrow.
All but 1 of the iso files were lost from that machine, because I got stuck with the wrong window manager, and the easiest fix was to re-install Jessie, from the kde iso on a 1 gB USB stick.
I used
dd if=/dev/sdb of=/k.iso to make that 1 iso from the USB stick contents, and to store it in /, and then to let the 'apt-cdrom' add function memorize all k.iso's packages.
I've been using an old 3.2 gB hard drive on a USB cable to move the files from this machine to the new machine, and I'll move the other iso files between machines tomorrow.

If you want to install from a local source, then you should build a debian mirror using the ftpsync scripts. You need about 800GB storage space to mirror x86 and amd64 architectures without sources. The ISOs expire too fast to be of any real use. You can update the mirror every day, so it won't expire.

The storage space now is one 40 gB SATA drive, with Debian Jessie and Windows 10 Pro each in half of that drive, and I think I still need Windows to use my old Photoshop 7.
At least the 9 .iso files did allow apt-cdrom to index all of the packages on all 9 pseudo-CDs into the apt-cache, which I can search to find packages I may need later.
I edited /etc/default/grub with minor changes, and also think it could be disturbing/frightening for new installers who may have only used Windows, to see the boot menu appear for less than 1 second, with text too small to read, before booting into Debian Jessie.
That machine is working OK, but needs more work, later.