apt-cdrom add, multiple drives at once
 

I'm using VirtualBox and need to perform a complete offline installation of older Debian versions for research, I also need to install several older packages.
Currently testing with Debian 9.0.0 . I use the Dual-layer BlueRay versions (two iso files).

Using "apt-cdrom add" works nicely with one DVD drive.
VirtualBox allows me to attache multiple drives.
It would be nice, for convenience, to be able to mount all the installation BR/DVDs at the same time.

apt-cdrom seems to require switching DVDs.

Is there a way making apt-cdrom mount multiple drives at once?,
so I can install packages without switching DVDs?

I tried adding multiple drives but apt-cdrom only searches the first drive.

"apt-cdrom" does not give me an option to specify devices like /dev/sr0 or /dev/sr1 .


Any help is greatly appreciated.

What host system are you using?

Do you have multiple cd/dvd drives? If not you may need to copy data from dvd so you can use one dvd and have data available from the other at the same time (in the copied directory)

It has been awhile since i used virtualbox - maybe someone can advise how to share host resources/directories with virtualbox

on linux host:

assuming /dev/sdX is whatever your system mount options mount the dvd as (i.e. sda sdc)
# sudo mkdir /mnt/dvd1
# sudo dd if=/dev/sdX of=/mnt/dvd1/dvd1.iso
Then attach /mnt/dvd1/dvd1.iso to virtual box similar to how you attached cd/dvd drive
or
# sudo mkdir /mnt/dvdmnt
# sudo mkdir /mnt/dvd1
# sudo mount /dev/sdX /mnt/dvdmnt
# sudo cp -R /mnt/dvdmnt /mnt/dvd1
# sudo umount /mnt/dvdmnt
remove cd/dvd and you should have all contents of dvd within /mnt/dvd1

Attach /mnt/dvd1 as a shared folder with virtualbox and when asked for disk1 point to /mnt/dvd1

Thanks, I will try that!