Hi,
I have an iomega nas which runs debian linux v5 (lenny). In their wisdom, iomega removes the files that dpk relies on for package management - ie status, available etc. I believe this is why apk-get is not working for me. I have read various threads on approaches to rebuilding these files so that new packages can be installed, but am unsure what the best way to proceed might be. Some people have suggested finding a copy of the distro img, and just copying the dpk files over from that, then using apk-get update afterwards.

Would this be safe?

I dont understand the point in iomega removing these files, seems totally pointless.

Thanks in advance

Hi robertoi,
Firstly the program is called apt-get and not apk-get. Lenny has passed its prime. Is there a reason why you don't run a more recent version? I could not even speculate why apt-get is not working for you since you give no information about the commands you issued and the response that those commands provoked.
jdk

Typically embedded devices are limited by the amount of flash storage and so can not install a full desktop system. Normally any updates are provided by Iomega and so would assume they deemed it as not required.


Reference http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ux-nas-904932/

Thanks for the somewhat sarcastic response jdkaye. I run Lenny because that is what the box has pre-installed on it. As far as I am aware people have had problems updating the distro on this NAS, as it frequently results in the DHCP functions stopping working. I bought the box simply for running Twonky (which is pre-installed), and to use as a print server. Unfortunately the print server functionality is simply broken as far as I can tell. From the various forums many people seem to have found it impossible getting the box to work with their printers.

This NAS stores its linux distro on the HDD, so there is not an issue with storage and flash memory capacity etc.

What I would like to do is install CUPS, and then install the linux driver for my printer on the NAS, and then share it via CUPS. I have managed to get apt-get to do something, by editing sources.list, to remove the mirror.kernel.org repository, which seems to be off line.

When I run apt-get -update, the command completes with no errors.

However, when I ran apt-get -install cups, I was told that linux would need to download over 256MB worth of packages, which seemed a bit excessive, and this included alot of packages which, as far as I could tell, were already installed. When I ran the command, it got to about the 10th package, and then just hung about 33% of the way through the download.

As I said in my original post, as I understand it, apt-get will not work properly unless there are the correct files and folders in /var/lib/dpkg, such as status. I have restored the correct directory structure in that folder as per some instructions I found on a forum, but the files were never there in the first place.

So - my question is basically, does apt-get definitely require these files, and is there any way they can be either re-built, or faked in some way.

As I said I am completely new to linux so please no more sarcy comments.

Since I was unaware of being sarcastic and don't know what "sarcy" means (some abbreviation for "sarcastic" perhaps?) I will refrain from further comments after this one.
jdk

I've just overcome this hurdle and trying to get over another at present. Given your post is a few months ago now I trust you either sorted it or got fed up and threw the NAS in the bin, but for anyone else trying - go to iomega.nas-central.org/wiki/Getting_apt-get_to_work and if you have a problem with keys on running apt-get update, read to the bottom of the page on how to install the keys.