LM12 and local repository

[unkilbeeg]

I posted this some time back in the "Installation and Boot" area -- guess that was the wrong section, since I got no responses...

I just installed Linux Mint 12 (64 bit) on a test machine with the intention of seeing if it might be suitable for our next update. We've been using Mint 10 and have been very happy with it.

Because we have around 120 linux machines, we've found it convenient to maintain a local repository for updates. Because we have only 64bit machines, we *don't* keep i386 packages. This has always worked well with all versions of Debian and Ubuntu, and works fine with Mint 10. However, I am having trouble doing updates on this Mint 12 machine. It complains when it can't find the i386 repositories.

Does LM12 require both? If so, why? If not, what am I likely doing wrong?

[mank_in]

Actually i use my own method for update my multiple LM12 machine.
I am doing an update in one machine, update manager will save downloaded file in folder /var/cache/apt/archives.
You can copy the folder to other computer . Open synaptic package manager , refresh the list ( or you can use command line in terminal : sudo apt-get update )
In synaptic click file, select install download file, point to your copied folder.

[unkilbeeg]

That's probably a pretty good solution for just updates, but less practical if I have a user come to me and say, "Could you install Ruby on Rails in the walkin lab?" It's much easier if I have a complete repository, including stuff that I haven't installed yet.

[mank_in]

Maybe this one helps you :
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Personal
http://www.packtpub.com/article/create- ... apt-cacher

[unkilbeeg]

Thanks. I've got working repositories for Ubuntu and Debian. To save space they're AMD64 only. At that, they're still pretty hefty -- my Debian repo is 274G and and the Ubuntu one is 239G.

My question is whether the i386 architecture files are required for Mint 12. I have Mint 10 set up on numerous systems, and they update very happily from my AMD64 only repositories. My test Mint 12 install barfs all over the missing i386 repos, even though it is a 64 bit install.

So my question is whether the requirements have changed, or whether I did something wrong with the way I set up that test Mint 12 installation.

[mank_in]

Actually i never try and using 64-bit version, but sometime software only available for 32-bit only. If you want using 32-bit application in 64-bit ubuntu system, you need ia32-libs package, and in ubuntu 11.10( LM12 base ) the package transform to ia32-libs-multiarch.

[unkilbeeg]

True, but we don't have any particular need for 32 bit applications.

My question is if *Mint 12* requires those repositories to be there. I certainly don't.

But it doesn't look like anybody here knows, so I suspect the answer is going to be to stay with Mint 10 for the forseeable future.