Offline program repository

PhantomShadow

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I had a question for people that know stuff

We all love Linux based systems and distros but one of the biggest problems with linux is the dependency for many system repairs or software installation on internet connection.

Yes, you could argue that's the only way for the linux community to contribute and maintain a general sense of trust and stability for software across the board..............

Yes, you can argue there are methods to mirror or clone your hard drive SSD whatever, but most of these methods require a medium level of familiarity with terminal which many people simply don't have the time or motivation to spend the time to learn.......

That being said I have had a number of friends that refuse to use linux because of the unreliability of their internet access or even being blocked from the distro accessing the right files in other countries where the internet is censored or limited such as Afghanistan (technology access is limited as well as education in general), China(look up the great firewall of China), Canada (at times.... tyrannical governments always have a problem with things they cannot control), and so on......

lets also not forget even with the LTS releases if you don't update constantly they can eventually become unstable as is the nature of software over time because of the degradation of files after repetitive use over time.

Is there a way to create a OFFLINE INSTALL repository of all the major programs you may need on a flash drive or burned DVD so you can install anything you may need (video codecs, ebook formats and so on) without much headache or carpel tunnel after performing?
 


An offline mirror tool here:

My Linux friends @wizardfromoz, @KGIII, and @dos2unix may have other ideas.

The concern for me would be that over time (a year or 2) that the libraries (engines) of the pkg's to the programs would be old. Thus the programs wouldn't get upgraded.
 
One of the options you might consider is running MX-Linux.

It includes both an option to take a snapshot, and also, to generate an .iso of your current system state to a USB stick or similar medium.

Then there is Timeshift, which can restore your last known working system state, including Home if set up correctly. Snapshots should be stored in a dedicated EXT4 partition on an external hard drive, in case of hard drive failure.

There are a number of backup and image-making apps available, you just need to search them in a search engine.

Most if not all of the above can be used offline.

Wizard
 
Yes, you can argue there are methods to mirror or clone your hard drive SSD whatever, but most of these methods require a medium level of familiarity with terminal which many people simply don't have the time or motivation to spend the time to learn.......
There's options that don't require you to use the terminal.
lets also not forget even with the LTS releases if you don't update constantly they can eventually become unstable as is the nature of software over time because of the degradation of files after repetitive use over time.
I think you mean rolling release distributions? I've seen systems that only got updates once every 6 months and they run fine and I've seen topics of people running Arch Linux who haven't updated in a long time and when they do all was good. So not sure what you are talking about.

Is there a way to create a OFFLINE INSTALL repository of all the major programs you may need on a flash drive or burned DVD so you can install anything you may need (video codecs, ebook formats and so on) without much headache or carpel tunnel after performing?
I think if you download the full Debian dvd you can configure the sources to look for the packages from the mounted dvd, downloading a new dvd every 6 months or so it would probably work with updating as well.
And there's also apt-offline.
 
There's something I don't get when most people ask this question. There are times and places where reasonable internet is not available, and where some parts of the internet aren't available due to restrictions.

From what I've witnessed, those people are in the minority. (That could be easily explained by the reality that they may just not be allowed to access this site, or similar sites.) The people who usually want to do this are those who have a spotty internet connection and stuff like that.

If you download the whole repository, you're looking at downloading (and then regularly syncing) tons of data.

Google tells me that just the Ubuntu repositories are ~3.8 TB in size.

Whereas, if you update your distro on a regular basis, you're downloading a few hundred megabytes. You don't save data by downloading the entire repository's worth of data.

If you have a spotty internet problem, it doesn't make much sense to download (and then keep synced) a bunch of files you don't actually need. The software in the repositories is constantly changing. Given the way it works, you'd have to sync the thing every day, if not more often, just to stay sort-of current.
 
Linux is no different than Windows or MacOS in needing internet access. Once installed internet access is entirely optional for Linux. Yes, updating is desirable and that requires internet, but it's not absolutely necessary. Windows needs updating rather often, but it still runs even without the updates. I have no idea where anyone got the idea that Linux has to have constant internet access.
 


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