Downloading debian via pseudo image kit ( working and polite way to download ) http://cdimage.debian.org 0. download the pseudo kit its README file has a comprehensive manual about this procedure (mirror informations etc) 1. get binary-i386-1.list from http://cdimage.debian.org/cd-images/2.2_rev0/i386/ 2. ./kit/make-pseudo-image binary-i386-1.list ftp://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian 3. rsync --verbose --progress --stats --block-size=8192 ftp.eecs.umich.edu::debian-cd/2.2_rev0/i386/binary-i386-1.iso . NOTES 1. I renamed the pseudo-kit directory to kit after extract 2. pakage mirrors can be found http://www.debian.org/distrib/ftplist 3. rsync mirrors can be found http://cdimage.debian.org/rsync-mirrors.html 4. You can get MD5SUMS for the CD image from http://cdimage.debian.org/cd-images/ 5. MD5SUMS is signed so you can check it aganist debian-keyring.deb #trick how to compile your own stuff on debian from source debian package No need to be, here is a quick trick how to get, atleast some, of the software that is new or upgraded in woody. you start by adding a new source to your apt (/etc/apt/sources.list).. deb-src ftp://ftp.fi.debian.org/debian woody main contrib non-free You should ofcourse use your own closest mirror. then we update the sources, with apt-get update. next step would be to download the source package. ressu@stradivarius:/usr/src/tmp $ apt-get source nmap Reading Package Lists... Building Dependency Tree... Need to get 589kB of source archives. Get:1 ftp://ftp.fi.debian.org woody/main nmap 2.53-5 (dsc) [624B] Get:2 ftp://ftp.fi.debian.org woody/main nmap 2.53-5 (tar) [584kB] Get:3 ftp://ftp.fi.debian.org woody/main nmap 2.53-5 (diff) [3667B] Fetched 589kB in 1m21s (7233B/s) dpkg-source: extracting nmap in nmap-2.53 We change to the directory and build the package... ressu@stradivarius:/usr/src/tmp $ cd nmap-2.53/ ressu@stradivarius:/usr/src/tmp/nmap-2.53 $ debuild (or sudo dpkg-buildpackage) ..... That should build the package, or as in my case.. fail.. if you are lucky enough to get it compiled (please, do try a few times.. try to resolve some of the problems that come up) you will end up with nice clean debs for your potato. usually the package will compile clean. you should watch out for things that are depending on packages in woody, you will need to compile some of those packages too.. and if you dig up too far, you will end up compiling so much, that you would have been better of to just upgrade. Packages for the programs are... debuild: devscripts dpkg-buildpackage: dpkg-dev apt-get: apt sudo: sudo Update: As pointed out by yann * not changing the version number may cause official packages not to be installed if the version you recompiled end up being the one shipped in next stable release. Usually I add a new entry with lesser debian revision and local ID in debien/changelog to avoid this (eg: 1.2.3-4yann1 if the version I got was 1.2.3-5 ). Also listing in the changelog entry what you needed to change to make it work will help you upgrading to subsequent releases. package build stuff dh_make to debianize a package dpkg-buildpackage -b -rfakeroot to build a binary only package dpkg-deb --info to see pacakge description dpkg-deb --contents to see what is inside apt-get --reinstall install libc6-dev reinstalls corrupt package Alternatives: to show alternatives update-alternatives --list x-www-browser to see current selections update-alternatives --get-selections