[tex-live] TeXLive-CD/DVD (Installation)

[Harald Koenig]

On Sep 08, Karl Berry wrote:

> Hi Harald,
> 
>     you did it again (and this time even worse): 
> 
> "We" are volunteers, just like you.  Time is always limited.

agreed, I know! sorry if that may have sounded too negative or harsh, 
that wasn't my intention...

> I sent out a message towards the end of the release process, asking if
> anyone wanted to optimize the ISO, even providing pointers.  No takers.
> So it is what it is.

I know:-(  
I only managed to download/burn a testint DVD, but I ever had a look at it
and never did any test installation -- sorry about that. 

so: _I_ did it again, too;-))

>     and does not (additionally) provide zip files for fast installation.
> 
> There was not enough room on the physical DVD.

that's strange. the iso image is 2.5 GB (2617149440 bytes) right now, and

       ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/tex/CTAN/systems/texlive/tlnet/2008/archive/

is ~1 GB (540272 sectors == 1106477056 bytes when creating an ISO image of these files),
so with compressed CTAN packages there still should almost 1 GB left.
that way the installer could read 1762 tar files from DVD for my full installation 
instead of ~65k files...  (no idea if this will give a big benefit, I'll try to test...)


I'll think about hacking the net-installation to use local *.tar.lzma files
for an installation from usb stick for testing.  

if that works, I'll try to run that installation from a real DVD and will report performace...


>     - creating a DVD-size iso image with zip files ?
>     - creating a DVD image with both live tree and additional zip files ?
>     the current situation is _very_ suboptimal IMHO...
> 
> Since it is suboptimal for you, maybe you would like to help.  If you
> make a better optimized ISO, or a DVD image with the zip files (actually
> lzma), then I will certainly be very happy to prominently mention it on
> the TL web pages / documentation.

I won't promise anything, but I'll try and play a bit (as always, time permitting;)


thanks,

Harald
-- 
"I hope to die                                      ___       _____
before I *have* to use Microsoft Word.",           0--,|    /OOOOOOO\
Donald E. Knuth, 02-Oct-2001 in Tuebingen.        <_/  /  /OOOOOOOOOOO\
                                                    \  \/OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO\
                                                      \ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO|//
                                                       \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Harald Koenig                                           //  /     \\  \
koenig at tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de                     ^^^^^       ^^^^^