Simple way to update all packages after a fresh install with no network?

win32sux · 03-01-2009, 03:01 PM

I've been kind of spoiled by Slackware, where updating an installation without networking is just a matter of storing all the updated packages somewhere (directory, CD, USB, etc.) and doing a:

Code:

upgradepkg *.tgz

I'm trying to figure out how to achieve similar simplicity on Ubuntu (specifically, Ubuntu 8.10). I know how to update the packages on the live CD itself (and have done it several times), but in this particular case I need to install using the unedited, official CD.

I'm currently looking at this (and will set up a VirtualBox image to try it out), but it seems to me like the actual packages are never even mentioned in the article, only the meta-data. I need to be able to do an apt-get update/upgrade on this box and have it use the updated packages which I will have stored on a mounted filesystem. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

acid_kewpie · 03-01-2009, 03:25 PM

surely you can just use dpkg?

win32sux · 03-01-2009, 05:25 PM

Yeah, I guess you're right. Will the end result be equivalent? I've only used DPKG to do individual package installs, never for a crapload of packages such as this. I've got a fresh install going in VirtualBox. Right now I've got this running on it:

Code:

sudo apt-get --download-only dist-upgrade

I'm thinking this will give me all the packages I need in /var/cache/apt/ for the next step, right?

win32sux · 03-02-2009, 01:51 AM

My test in VirtualBox went really well AFAICT.

After the command above, I took all the .deb files from /var/cache/apt/archives and did a:

Code:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

When the smoke cleared, everything seemed in order, except for a few broken dependencies (one was libc6 and the rest were OpenOffice.org-related). I took care of those with a:

Code:

sudo apt-get -f upgrade

They were fixed from the cache (apt-get didn't download anything), so I should be good when I do this on the real system. I'm gonna do a few more tests in VirtualBox to make sure everything is fine, and if so then I'm all set to do this for real.

Thanks for the tip, acid_kewpie. I would have wasted a lot of time if you hadn't nudged me in the right direction. Doing this with DPKG is kinda cool, felt like I was on Slackware for a minute. Of course, I wouldn't have had these broken dependencies on Slackware!

win32sux · 03-03-2009, 02:01 PM

It went great, "the user is pleased and there exists harmony in the world". I'm just posting a note to say that I should have known I wouldn't be able to do a "sudo apt-get -f upgrade" at the location, since there was no Internet to first do the "sudo apt-get update". So I instead re-did a "dpkg -i" on the packages which were reported as broken and then it was all good.