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Configuring the Package Manager

A project log for Hacking an Iris 3000 Videophone

This project is centered around repurposing the ACN Iris 3000 videophone, with an aim to unlock its full capabilities.

the-sycoraxThe Sycorax 01/19/2021 at 15:470 Comments

[Continued from previous log entry]

To download and install software on the phone I used the default package manager, APT, which already comes with Debian. However it must be configured first. APT relies on the file /etc/apt/sources.list to locate, retrieve, and obtain information about the desired repositories of software packages that are available on the internetThe repositories for Debian Squeeze that were originally included in it's sources.list file are no longer hosted on the internet, so therefore I had to find one that still is and then add it to it's sources.list file, in order to make use of APT for the retrieval and installation of software packages.

A few Google searches later and I was able to find a repository for Debian Squeeze that is still hosted (Included below).

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian squeeze main

This repository is the official archive for all of the software packages that are available for and compatible with Debian Squeeze.

To add the repository to sources.list I used "nano" to edit the file by issuing the following command:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

I commented out the already existing repositories and added the new one, as pictured below.

After that I saved the file and then issued the command "apt-get update" in order to download the package lists from the repository, and update them to get information on the newest available software for Debian Squeeze. After doing that, I was then able to get software downloaded and installed on the phone using "apt-get install".

If  "apt-get update" fails and you get an error that says "Temporary failure resolving 'archive.debian.org'" then run the command:

echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" | tee /etc/resolv.conf > /dev/null 

*This changes the DNS server that Debian uses to one that can resolve the IP address associated with the repository that we've added to the "sources.list" file. In this case, the DNS server we use is Google's. But you can use another one of your choosing.

After doing that , run the command "apt-get update" again and it should work.

[To be continued in next log entry...]

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