mkcd is a python script supplied by Mandrake to make ISO images from their FTP tree and then burn them to a CD or DVD. The default behaviour is to make ISO images that will fit on a CD, but you can override this by passing the appropriate flag. I only use it whenever a new release comes out from Mandrake so I don't remember the procedure off the top of my head. However, read the instructions that come with mkcd -- they're really easy to follow.

Whaaaa.... it automatically downloaded the files for an HDD install? I'll have to try that

[EDIT]

I read it wrong. Nevermind what I said.

I just downloaded mdk10 official to the hard drive and made the iso's from that, i made adirectory named 'mandrake10' in my home folder, this is the commands for mkcd i used

mkcd -t /home/myname -a -s /home/myname/mandrake10

and made 5 iso's, the first one is bootable. hope this helps someone.

I'm at 2GB and it seem very far from the end How many GB exactly the dir /i586/ is? if mkCD makes 5 ISO i guess it will be about 3 GB...

i586 is 3 gb

whenever i try to use the makcd script it gives an error

at the command prompt ive got:

>perl g:\mandrake\misc\makecd -t \iso\ -a -s \mandrake\

and it gives me an error saying Can't exec /bin/sh at line 1

anyone know how to resolve this?

That's impossible: I'm just at 3.25 GB and still are thousands of files

There's a problem: as I'm downloading under Win the program I'm using can't create the dir /i586/Mandrake/RPMS.cooker because the OS don't accept the "." in the dir names how can I resolve ?

The full package tree comes in at over 5GB - downloaded it last week.

Mine came from some mandrakesoft ftp site, one of the mirrors, it was only 3 gb for the i586 folder. All the other files came to about a 100 mb or so. I must have a incomplete tree. I did get a few errors while making the iso's, maybe thats why i have no mandrake control center even though rpmdrake is installed.

Well, the RPMS folder is about 2.8GB, RPMS2 is about 3.2GB, and RPMS3 is maybe 330MB, so perhaps I was being a bit conservative. You don't actually need anything other than RPMS in order to install; you can always point your sources manager to an FTP repository of the other directories anyway.

As to not having any control center, does typing

or

do anything for you?

Wait, wait, so all I need to download is


pub/linux/mandrake/Mandrakelinux/official/10.0/i586/Mandrake/RPMS/

...and then can I burn those files to CDs and do some command to install MDK10? My current Linux distro is...gone :P

Can I install MDK10 from nothing with these RPMs, or what?

The distro I'm downloading has also a RPMS.Cooker dir. Have you it on your mdk10? maybe it is the reason of the errors that someone has found during installation?

Well, I usually download from this mirror. If you look in the ./Mandrake/ directory you'll see the following directories

./Mandrake/RPMS/
./Mandrake/RMPS.cooker/
./Mandrake/RPMS2/
./Mandrake/RPMS3/

RPMS.cooker/ is actually a symlink to RPMS, so there's no need to download RPMS.cooker. All you really need is to ensure that you've got the RPMS directory. After you have installed, you can always go to Software Sources in Mandrake Control Center and add a link to the RPMS.cooker directory on the FTP server. That way, you'll have the option of getting access to cooker for all your new packages. (You should also include links to RPMS2 and RPMS3.)


You basically need to download everything under /pub/linux/mandrake/Mandrakelinux/official/10.0/i586/. The important thing to note, however, is that you have a choice when it comes to the ./i586/Mandrake/ directory. If you don't want to waste a lot of bandwidth then download the following directories only:

./Mandrake/base/
./Mandrake/mdkinst/
./Mandrake/RPMS/
./Mandrake/share/
./Mandrake/descriptions

i.e, you can leave out the RPMS.cooker, RPMS2, and RPMS3 directories. Burn that to a CD (make sure you make the CD bootable) and you'll then be able to install Mandrake. Once you've gotten it installed, you can go to the Software Sources manager in Mandrake Control Center and point it to the RPMS.cooker, RPMS2 and RPMS3 directories on a mirror.

If people are really having difficulty with this, let me know and I'll write up some detailed instructions on how to download and install Mandrake 10 Official from an FTP server. It might take a day or so though because I'm snowed under with work.

i586 + RPMS + RPMS2 = 6.7GB


JOsh

I have already downloaded RPMS.cooker (aaargh 2,80 GB ) but the RPMS dir is still incomplete... do you think I can rename it RPMS and discard the real RPMS directory download?