Howto: NoNetDebs - upgrade Ubuntu without Internet (or with low-bandwidth connection)

[ruibernardo]

thanks for that useful tool (website).

I would like to ask if it is possible to add repositories by hand? for example is there any way to add "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu gutsy main" to your list of repositories. It can be useful, for example to try testing kde 4 rc 2.

Best wishes.

I see. That would be a nice feature.

After tracking those "more downloads" packages and making the user interface more easy to use I'll try to add this feature and maybe enable the user to completely edit the sources.list file to use. The only problem would be to add the gpg keys of those repositories in the chroot, if the repository have one.

Thanks you for the idea, mathutu.

[astadolfo3]

Is there a simple package to download and install to complete the upgrade?

at the bottom of the the upgrade page: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading

it states: "Download and burn the alternate installation CD."

what installation CD? This is not the bootable CD since it does not have the directory /cdrom/cdromupgrade indicated in the instructions.

where is this upgrade installation CD? Why not put a link in the upgrade page? Why not make it simple?

BTW, I tried the online upgrade since I do have a good internet connection, but it keeps failing.

[ruibernardo]

Hi astadolfo3,

sorry for the late reply. Can you post what was the error you got?

Another thing: upgrading from a cd is not the same as running "sudo apt-get upgrade" <- this is what "Upgrade" is on the website (man apt-get).

For a real dist-upgrade (moving from feity to gutsy), use the bash script from the first post, use aptoncd to make all the packages available to the update-manager. For the record: I never enable this (dist-upgrade) in the website.

[gary4gar]

suggestion, can you upload a default gutsy install status file on site, will be helpfully for new users

default means, no other packages are installed except the one installed by the ubiquity

[thenailedone]

Wow... I think my prayers have been answered!

I will give this a go ASAP and report back (but I can't for see any problems )

edit: Well I have now used nonetdebs... and I have to say that it was slightly puzzling at first but I got the hang of it eventually...

I was expecting a more automated download but it still much easier and convenient than trying to make sure you got the package you wanted and all of the dependencies (without downloading packages you already have...)

I would seriously give nonetdebs a 8/10 score and will continue to use... but I am sure it can be even better (much better)...

[clockb0x]

I'm in an interesting situation where my target Ubuntu system has no internet access, but my machine with internet access can only run Windows. The IT folks have things locked down such that I cannot boot a live CD. Our internet filtering also blocks the website version of NoNetDebs.

I am able to SSH into an offsite linux machine and was able to get the list of packages. I then downloaded those packages using my Windows system and transferred them to the Ubuntu machine. I tried installing them by using

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Then I issued

sudo apt-get install -f

which proceeded to remove a ton of stuff and left my machine in an inoperable state. This is not a big deal since it was a clean install and I can just do it again. My question is, where did I go wrong? My guess is that apt-get doesn't know what it's doing since I can't do an

apt-get update

[jenkinbr]

Just to warn everybody, I have had issues in the past with the shell script generated by the website version of nonetdebs. Specifically, the script is often generated in a way that some of the lines are generated as

dpkg -i ./
dpkg -i ./
dpkg -i ./
dpkg -i ./

Fixing it is a simple matter of locating the links and coping the file name after the ./ . However, this can cause problems if you don't notice in time to fix it.

Yes, I know (and do) use apt-on-cd, but I still think this should be noted.

@ clockb0x
I know this is a really late reply, but could changing your command from

dpkg -i *.deb

to

dpkg -i ./*.deb

solve your problem?

[ruibernardo]

Hi everyone and thanks for finding NoNetDebs in some way useful.

I've been "offline" because of some problems took my time in the last couple of months. Now I hope I can develop a little more this website (no fancy things, just to get it working good and make it more useful).

@gary4gar - "can you upload a default gutsy install status file on site, will be helpfully for new users". I could, but IMHO it would bring more complications than would help. There is Dapper 6.06, Dapper 6.06.1, Dapper 6.06.2, Edgy, Feisty, Gutsy and now Hardy, each one of this releases have different architectures (i386, amd64, PPC). All this different releases/versions/architectures have a different status file. I only have a Gutsy i386 here... I would suggest users to save a clean (fresh install) status file in some copy/paste website and post a link here in this thread.

@thenailedone - Thank you for finding the website so good. No fireworks - a plain drupal5 website - but I think it's more important that it works well. I'm looking forward for suggestions.

@clockb0x - Sorry to hear that. I should remove the script from the website. I put it there to make things easy to who don't have aptoncd installed. I've saied it before, aptoncd creates and deals very well with packages - it s the best method to install packages.

Also be careful about packages that make more downloads when they are installed on the offline target (use vlc or mplayer for codecs) because some packages will be broken (they didn't download anything, so they are not completely installed, so the are broken) and removing them may force you to remove all packages that depend on "ubuntu-desktop" package - this issue only happens with propriety software, don't use them - use gnash for flash, don't install "ubuntu-restricted-extras" nor Sun Java nor mscorefonts - they can't be redistributed, so a download from their site have to be done when you install the package.

@jenkinbr - I recently found that problem (like white empty "dpkg -i " lines. I found later that resizing the browser so the lines can be fully displayed solves that.

Thank you all for your comments and help.

[ruibernardo]

After being away from the computer for the last couple of months, I've made today some improvements:

- Additional APT line (sources.list):

I would like to ask if it is possible to add repositories by hand? for example is there any way to add "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubuntu gutsy main" to your list of repositories. It can be useful, for example to try testing kde 4 rc 2.

Very very late (sorry), but now it's done. On the repositories tab of the accounts settings there is a text line. You can add the APT line there, it will be pasted on sources.list (no gpg key, so apt-get will report missing key if the repository have one).

- Hardy repositories added.

- Backports repositories for all Ubuntu releases (to be used only if you know what you are doing).

I hope this changes don't break anything. Please report potential problems here in this thread or in the website.

[ruibernardo]

Hi people, to get "ubuntu-restricted-extras" installed offline without getting broken packages: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...38&postcount=4