Hello. I am setting up archbang on an old laptop that does not have internet access (the network card is broken on it). So, rather than using its package manager (pacman?) I'm hoping to download packages on another computer, and then save these to a usb-stick, and then transfer these and install them to this old laptop.

On Debian (which I'm familiar with) you use "dpkg -i" rather than synaptic or aptitude or apt-get. On Vector you use "installpkg" rather than Gslapt. What command do you use on Arch (or ArchBang, if it's different)?

I think you can simply tell pacman to use a local disk instead of an online repository. Try the arch wiki for the procedure.

Local disk would be good. On Debian there are disks that one can download, and then add via "apt-cdrom add". It would be good if Arch had a similar option.

pacman -U /full/path/to/package

pacman -Syu # Synchronize with repositories before upgrading packages that are out of date on the local system.
pacman -S # Install specific package(s) from the repositories
pacman -U # Install specific package not from the repositories but from a file
pacman -Sw # Download a package without installing it
pacman -R # Remove the specified package(s), retaining its configuration(s)and required dependencies
pacman -Rns # Remove the specified package(s), its configuration(s)and unneeded dependencies
pacman -Si # Display information about a given package in the repositories
pacman -Ss # Search for package(s) in the repositories
pacman -Qi # Display information about a given package in the local database
pacman -Qii # Also display the list of backup files and their modification states
pacman -Qs # Search for package(s) in the local database
pacman -Ql # Retrieve a list of the files installed by a package
pacman -Qdt # Show list of packages that are no longer needed
pacman -Qm # Show packages not in repo
pacman -Qo # Query the package which provides FILE
pacman -Sc # clears package cache of uninstalled packages
pacman -Scc # clear the package cache of all packages