Don't Skimp on OS Downloads

In the world of OSS I often do network installs. When I'm downloading a CD I often reason that I shouldn't download the things that I don't need, so I usually chose the minimal net-install CD. With Debian that means I choose the netinst image, and for OpenBSD I chose the cdxx.iso. One problem I've been running into is the availability of those remote repositories.

Today I went to install an OpenBSD 3.9 system to replace a production system. I stepped through the installer with the same options as before, it being a standard install for us. I was hitting my enter key liberally when suddenly I got a prompt I didn't expect. It had turned out that the mirror I had been using suddenly wasn't accepting anonymous logins. I tried a few other listed mirrors and struck out on three in a row with an invalid directory error. I logged into them via ftp from my laptop and found they only had 4.0 and 4.1 repositories. 3.9 was nowhere to be seen. I did a little hunting and finally found a mirror in the US that had 3.9, but it shook me. I had come to expect repositories to be available on the internet for quite some time. 3.9 was only released May 2006--only a year ago--yet it was already being taken off major mirrors.

This incident reminds me how important it can be to download all your packages and keep a stable repository around. If the CD isn't handy with the whole OS, a local repository should be, at least on any system that has a large number of installs.

I'm glad it was a simple one to fix, but it would be much easier--and I would rest easier--knowing that we have all our packages on hand.