Manual Install updates

[jhouse59]

I've installed Mint on my desktop. I'm thinking of installing it on my laptop. I've saved the updates from my desktop. How can I install them to another computer without re-downloading them? I'm just allowed so much download a month. Is it possible to do this without downloading the updates to another computer?
Thanks. Forgive me I'm new to Linux.

[Boo]

install APTonCD using synaptic or apt-get.

you then use aptoncd to put all your updates onto a CD that you then take over to your laptop and install.
aptoncd looks in /var/cache/apt/archive for the debs you have already downloaded, or you can use it to get more off the web.

[Ede]

Boo: The same thing can be done without APTonCD. I never liked APTonCD. It's for cd's. I don't have a cd-rom on my laptop. Anyway this method does exactly the same, just without a fancy gui.

Yes, everything you download with apt-get and updates is stored in /var/cache/apt/archives. Actually, I made a backup-script for that the other day.

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#!/bin/bash
clear
cd /var/cache/apt/archives/
tar -cvf ~/Debian_debs_backup.tar *.deb

Paste that into a new file and execute it. It will store every .deb in that cache-folder into a tar-file. When you later want to install everything from it again, simply unpack the tar into a folder, navigate into that folder and run this command from terminal;

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sudo dpkg -i *.deb

It's dirty, but it should work. :3

[jhouse59]

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
clear
cd /var/cache/apt/archives/
tar -cvf ~/Debian_debs_backup.tar *.deb

Paste that into a new file and execute it. It will store every .deb in that cache-folder into a tar-file. When you later want to install everything from it again, simply unpack the tar into a folder, navigate into that folder and run this command from terminal;

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

It's dirty, but it should work. :3

To paste that into a file. How can I do that? To make a file do I open up a terminal? Sorry if this sounds dumb. I'm trying to learn how to use Linux.

[Ede]

Open a text-editor, like gedit or nano, and paste inn the first code, then save the file. Name doesn't matter, I'we called mine .Debian-backups. (The . first in the name hides the file, I don't want to open it by a mistake, even if it only archives them.)

After you have created the script, right-click the file and go to the 'Permissions'-tab, and where it says "Execute", mark it.

Then, right-click the file and press open. It will ask you something, press either "Run in terminal" or "Run". That's it. =)

[donkey.pepe]

Hi. This topic is very interesting for me so I have two questions.

1. Contents of /var/cache/apt/archives/ are temporary or persistent?

perchance...

2. How often this folder is automatically clean up or how long this *.deb files are exist?

[Ede]

I'm not really sure, but this is where AptOnCD takes it's .debs I believe.

Apt-get downloads .deb's into that folder, then installs the .debs. So when you download an update to a program, it stores it there, and overwrites the old .debs that was downloaded, so it's kinda like both really.

As far as I can tell, they stay there untill you delete them. I'm sure it's safe to delete them, but they don't take that much space anyway. :3

[scorp123]

1. Contents of /var/cache/apt/archives/ are temporary or persistent?

They remain there until you execute a "sudo apt-get clean" or "sudo apt-get autoclean". Taken from the manual:

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clean - clean  clears  out  the local repository of retrieved package files. It removes everything but the lock file from /var/cache/apt/archives/ and /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/. When APT is used as a dselect(8) method, clean is run automatically. Those who do  not  use  dselect will likely want to run apt-get clean from time to time to free up disk space.

autoclean - Like  clean,  autoclean  clears  out the local repository of retrieved package files. The difference is that it only removes package files that can no longer be downloaded, and are largely useless. This allows a cache to be maintained over a long period without it growing  out of control. The configuration option APT::Clean-Installed will prevent installed packages from being erased if it is set to off.

[donkey.pepe]

now I understand it THX