offline installation of ubuntu packages

[princemaozh]

1) I executed following commands on one online PC
sudo aptitude install <package1>
sudo aptitude install <package2>
...
sudo aptitude install <packagen>
during installation, all the required .deb files were downloaded in directory /var/cache/apt/archives/, which if fine.

2) then I copied those .deb files to the same directory (/var/cache/apt/archives/) on another OFFLINE PC. And I tried to run the same commands to do the offline installation.
sudo aptitude install <package1>
sudo aptitude install <package2>
...
sudo aptitude install <packagen>

The offline installation is failed with following error messages:
-----------
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "<package1>"
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "<package1>"
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.

...

-----------

My question is:
why the offline installation is failed? (all need .deb files are already there)
anything else needs to do besides copying all required *.deb files into /var/cache/apt/archives/ ?

[raja.genupula]

1) I executed following commands on one online PC
sudo aptitude install <package1>
sudo aptitude install <package2>
...
sudo aptitude install <packagen>
during installation, all the required .deb files were downloaded in directory /var/cache/apt/archives/, which if fine.

2) then I copied those .deb files to the same directory (/var/cache/apt/archives/) on another OFFLINE PC. And I tried to run the same commands to do the offline installation.
sudo aptitude install <package1>
sudo aptitude install <package2>
...
sudo aptitude install <packagen>

The offline installation is failed with following error messages:
-----------
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "<package1>"
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "<package1>"
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.

...

-----------

My question is:
why the offline installation is failed? (all need .deb files are already there)
anything else needs to do besides copying all required *.deb files into /var/cache/apt/archives/ ?


HI man

you can install those packages with this command


sudo dpkg -i pkgname.deb

this will install the packages and make sure that while doing this process you should be in the directory where you have your deb pkg's. .

All the best.

[princemaozh]

Raja, thanks for you anwser.

"dpkg -i <pkg>.deb" will not take care of the package dependencies, while "apg-get install <pkg>" and "aptitude install <pkg>" will do. So i am worrying there might be some potential problems if we simply use "dpkg -i".

Anybody can explain why the error message "Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched <package1>" come? I have already copied those required .deb files to the directory /var/cache/apt/archives/, why "aptitude install" is failed?
(note: actually many forum threads suggested the offline installation by copying .deb files into directory /var/cache/apt/archives/)

[raja.genupula]

Raja, thanks for you anwser.

"dpkg -i <pkg>.deb" will not take care of the package dependencies, while "apg-get install <pkg>" and "aptitude install <pkg>" will do. So i am worrying there might be some potential problems if we simply use "dpkg -i".

Anybody can explain why the error message "Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched <package1>" come? I have already copied those required .deb files to the directory /var/cache/apt/archives/, why "aptitude install" is failed?
(note: actually many forum threads suggested the offline installation by copying .deb files into directory /var/cache/apt/archives/)

you mean are you doing as this sudo aptitude install <pkg>
If yes , then actually at that after install you should have to write that pkg name

for example if you wanna install firefox then this is the way

sudo aptitude install firefox

like this you have to do.
All the best .

[princemaozh]

raja, yes i did something like "sudo aptitude install firefox" (use package name instead of .deb file name).

since all the required .deb files are available in /var/cache/apt/archives/, my expectation is that the offline installation should be successful after executing "sudo aptitude install <pgkname>", as if I do the installation on an online machine.

I do not know the reason of failure. I guess maybe something else should be configured for offline installation. (after googling, no clear answer found)

[raja.genupula]

could you please paste as it as the terminal code what you have you typed .

we need to help you.

all the best,

[princemaozh]

I typed below command on an offline machine:


(maoz@maoz-ws:~$)maoz@maoz-ws:~$ sudo aptitude install build-essentials
[sudo] password for maoz:
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "build-essentials"
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "build-essentials"
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.

(maoz@maoz-ws:~$)

[dino99]

if it cant find itself the real path, then give it, or move to that folder and run your command from there .

[princemaozh]

if it cant find itself the real path, then give it, or move to that folder and run your command from there .

I tried to execute command "sudo aptitude install build-essentials" in directory "/var/cache/apt/archives/" where the required .deb files reside, but it still does not work (with the same output messages).

dino99, do you mean that? anyway, thanks for your reply.