info: 120 items/139 MB of updates...dialup 56K modem...Old Desktop PC

this will take hours/days at dialup speeds, (my isp will drop me after 4 hours constant) how can i do updates? I have a minimal update list with only important security updates available.

I have been doing updates a few at a time, but it's getting old unchecking ALL those boxes manually, when I only need 4 - 10 to be updated at one time. As far as i can tell I have 2 options here:

OR
can I take my winxp laptop to a Wifi cafe and download all the updates at high speed, put the DL on flash drive and tranfer to linux desktop. (Ubuntu sees and mounts the flashdrive)

Thanks in advance.

Your idea of syncing a repository to a flash drive will work.

See if you can use this:
http://www.howtoforge.com/creating_a...ository_centos

Admiral Beotch, thanks for your reply, but way beyond my understanding.

I only know how to use Ubuntu and I am fairly new at it. I ask that all who reply please take those issues into consideration. Easy to understand answers will be the most helpful to me.

Some new related questions

Thanks in advance

I was in a similar situation a couple months ago. Actually, it was worse for me since I didn't even have a 56k modem. Downloading the updated packages on a separate computer and then transferring them with a flash drive to the computer I needed to update worked just fine. You can read about how I did that here. The method I used doesn't require a repository to be set up.

win32sux, Thank you for your reply

Right now I can't understamd what you did at all. I have had a very long day, so it's probably just tired brain syndrome. I will try to read it again tomorrow when I'm thinking better. If I still can't understand it, I will probably ask you to simplify further.

Thanks again

win32sux, Thank you for trying to help.

After reading your post and the link you pointed me to, I am just as lost as before. The longer I use Linux the more I feel that as much as I like it, I am really not smart enough to ever become an accomplished user.

If you have any way to explain to me how to do this step by step, then I will try it. Right now, I have no idea where to even begin.

Here's what I want to do:

1- get the Url for repositories
2- download the update files to my winxp laqptop using a fast connection
3- copy those files to a flashdrive
4- put the flashdrive in my Linux box and do the updated from there

And I need an ultra simple explanation on how to do that.

Thanks again

I don't know about pulling packages to XP - maybe under a VM.
But if you just want to get security packages on your dial-up, try setting the repositories for update. There is a GUI for this.
From the top task bar, System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager
Click the "Updates" tab; just have the security updates selected. Close it all down, and you should be set to go.

syg00, Please read my original post. I only have the updates set for "important security updates"; 120 updates, 138 Meg...this would take a very long time(many hours) using dialup.

Okay, my situation was mostly the same as you. I had a box with a fresh install of Ubuntu 8.10 on it, and I needed to update the packages on it without using the Internet. I'll provide you an overview of what I did, in order to help you understand the specifics I mention in the thread I linked:

1) On my own GNU/Linux box (in your case it would be a Windows box), I installed a copy of Ubuntu 8.10 inside a virtual machine. The virtual machine I used was VirtualBox but any would do just fine.

2) While inside the freshly installed Ubuntu 8.10 (in the virtual machine), I ran the command to update the packages, but I specified that instead of applying the updates, I just wanted the packages to be downloaded.

3) When the packages finished downloading, I copied them to a flash drive (or maybe it was a CD-ROM, I can't remember exactly but it doesn't matter - the point is I put the downloaded packages on removable media).

4) I took this removable media with me to the Ubuntu 8.10 box (the real one, with no Internet), mounted it, and proceeded to do the upgrade.

Like I said, this is just meant to give you the big picture of what I did (details are on the thread I linked). As for commands, it was basically just one to download the packages; one to copy the packages to the flash drive; and one to update the freshly installed system using the packages from the flash drive. Keep in mind that I'm not claiming this is the best way to do this. I'm just sharing the way which I found to be the simplest for me at the time.

I think that the solution given by win32sux sounds pretty good. I believe you could do the same thing without the VB installation. I think that you could boot your box with the live cd (assuming the wifi works).

In synaptic you can also get "aptoncd". You might want to check that.

I have DSL now but I ran on dialup for about 6 months. Could get about 10Mb per hour. Unchecking stuff does get old. You are running Intrepid, though, so the updates should not be too bad once you get the original updates taken care of. The 4 hour limit would really suck. I would set up an update session before I went out (ranch hand) and then check it at lunch and at the end of the day. Do what ever it was I wanted on the box for a couple hours and then set it up again when I went to bed.

I ordered my Live CDs online an had them shipped, wouldn't it be fun to try to download 690Mb on dialup? Looks like about 3 days assuming your connection held up.

Good Luck - HAVE FUN

win32sux, Your helpful reply is appreciated.

I am having a very bad technology moment. My windows laptop with the wifi connection now refuses to work, AND the hard drive in the Linux box is acting up and being noisy...it will probably fail soon.

For now, I need to concentrate on backing up the hard drive to another drive and start using that...If you have any knowledge on that I would appreciate hearing it. I am looking forwards to some tech linux fun. Linux, always difficult, but never boring.

as soon as I get that fixed( and that means ASAP) I will be back working on the update issue. Again, Thanks for your help.

widget,

excellent idea, thanks!