Update Debian offline repository on FAI CD (or USB stick)

[Peter Bittner]

Hi,

I need to add a few Debian packages to the FAI CD (or USB stick first,
really) to have it available on the FAI server installing, which
typically has no Internet connection. I have read about mkdebmirror and
debmirror in the FAI documentation, but I have started to add the .deb
files by hand since I don't want to invest in rebuilding the whole
repository for 5 additional packages on the CD.

What I have started to do is simply create the additional directory
structure (in live/filesystem.dir/media/mirror/pool/main/...), download
the appropriate .deb files and copy them into their new directories. At
the end I add the package information for the added packages (updating
live/filesystem.dir/media/mirror/dists/lenny/main/binary-i386/Packages,
and re-packing the Packages file into Packages.gz). Finally, I will need
to update also the checksums for the two files Packages and Packages.gz
in live/filesystem.dir/media/mirror/dists/lenny/Release, I guess.

Now I'm just wondering whether there is a quicker, probably more
convenient and less error prone way  of doing this. - How would you guys
address this exercise?

Open for your suggestions and critics,
Peter