Install Packages in Linux without an internet connection

Yup, you read it right. It’s possible to install various packages in Linux even when you don’t have an internet connection on the computer.

I had trashed my Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron LTS and installed a fresh copy of 8.10 Intrepid Ibex over the same drive recently. But the following option helped me get all my favorite applications in the new system with just a few clicks. Applications can be installed from the following sources:

1> From Live CDs.
This method requires the installation cds of any distro of linux (not necessarily ubuntu). Click here for step by step procedure on how to do so.

2> From other CDs that can be used to install packages. These can be enabled as follows.

To enable Synaptic and other package managers to install software from CDs which contain packages in Ubuntu:

1.Press System → Administration → Software Sources.
2.Go to the Third Party Software tab and click on the Add CD-ROM button.
3.Insert the CD.

The packages should then be listed. To have Synaptic only list packages from the CD, click the Origin button on the lower left corner of Synaptic Package Manager, then find the name of the CD on the list in the upper left corner of Synaptic.

3> And now my favorite. From a computer already having these applications installed (Works great if the version of linux on both the PCs is the same).

Here you’ll need a package called APTonCD installed in this case (More details here). It’s freely available here. It can be directly installed from the terminal using the following command.

$ sudo apt-get install aptoncd

We’ll need a cd for the transfer of this program. But if you don’t want to waste one or want to copy it on a usb drive or hard disk, you’ll need a .iso image mounting program. I used GMount ISO (More details here). It can be directly installed from the terminal using the following command.

$ sudo apt-get install gmountiso

You’ll also need a .deb installer. For Ubuntu, GDebi Package Installer is installed by default, so don’t worry if you have Ubuntu or Kubuntu.

Working:

APTonCD is a tool with a graphical interface which allows you to create one or more CDs or DVDs with all of the packages you’ve downloaded via APT-GET or APTITUDE (or even Synaptic), creating a removable repository that you can use on other computers. APTonCD will also allow you to automatically create media with all of your .deb packages located in one especific repository.

From the source computer, open the APTonCD application (I’m using version 0.1.98-0) and choose the option to Create an installation disk. On the next menu, you’re asked to choose the various packages you want to create a backup of. You can uncheck the packages that you don’t want to transfer. It’s usually not recommended to deselect library packages. Shared libraries are needed by some program or the other. You can use the Add option to add other .deb packages or folders. Save the .iso image to a desired location on your computer or burnt (written) over the cd.

Great, how you are halfway. Go to the computer where you want the program installed. We’ll now need the cd or the .iso image. We need to mount the image using GMount ISO. Just mount the image in a free folder. You’ll see that the virtual folder now contains another folder named packages. Same is true with the cd. This folder packages contains the .deb files that are used to installed a program. Now just doubleclick on the .deb file of the program that you want to install. You may get errors regarding installation of dependencies. Don’t worry, you’ll find all the dependencies as .deb files in the same folder. Once the dependencies are all satisfied, you can install the program.

Kewl! Isn’t it?

I actually copied all applications and games worth 2.8 Gb from a friend of mine without downloading a single file from the net. And it took me a fraction of the time it would have taken me had I downloaded them (thanks to my pathetic download speed)!

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