Manually installing packages for an offline pc

[spidamang]

Good day. Forgive the long post.

I've been toying around with linux for a few months. I first started with Knoppix, then Ubuntu and finally to Linux Mint. My biggest hurdle with using Linux was that the pc I installed it on has no internet connection. Let's just say I temporarily rent a small room and getting a dsl line with a required 1 year lock on period is presently impractical.
Anyway, that little setback wasn't really a problem as I had a pretty decent connection at work and I could bum some large downloads from my best friend's broadband connection(where I get most of my iso images ) and just transfer them to my offline pc via a 2gig USB drive. Sadly this is kind of awkward and at times very difficult to do in Linux for me. When I was using ubuntu this howto really helped a lot and it worked for me to a degree. But the problem was that when I tried to manually install proprietary codecs, I didn't know where to start and frankly it was a bit overwhelming with the dependencies and all. So I thought it was easier to just look for a distro that had codecs out of the box.
That's how I found out about Linux Mint. I've installed and have been using cassandra for more than a month now and I am very happy with it. I have succesfully installed Kompozer through a deb package I manually downloaded. Installing the themes were ok too as it was just click and drag. But when I tried to install gnochmto read my ebooks in chm format, I couldn't. The file I downloaded was in .tar.gz format. When I followed the instructions given in this howto, the error message, "c could not make executable files" (or something to that effect. I forgot to record the log) came out after I typed ./configure. When I tried sudo make install, nothing happened.
For some reason I thought I just needed a c compiler, so I used my ubuntu feisty cd as a repository and installed gcc. But still nothing happened.
My question is, What did I do wrong, and what should I do so I could manually compile packages from the source?.
I've read this other thread but I'm not really interested about code optimizations and other technical stuff that the thread discussed. I just want to learn how to install packages I downloaded somewhere else.
Thank you for taking the time to read and for any help you could give me. I like linux mint. It has been a big help with my writing as it offers no distractions compared to windows. It just works. Now I want to learn to make it work more.
Cheers

[Husse]

Take a look at APTonCD - google for it and you find what you need
of course you need some computer somewhere with internet to make the CD

[spidamang]

Thanks for the tip . I'll put it down on my list of options to try.

Right now I'm trying to figure out why the ./configure,sudo make install method for tar.gz files isn't working in mint. It worked ok with Ubuntu out of the box. Is the method different in mint?

Thanks again. cheers.

[scorp123]

I work for a large (2000+ employees) company that blocks any non cookie-authenticated links via HTTP to port 80. In other words, if anything other than a browser is trying to connect to port 80, it blocks it. From what I have been able to gather, this is how Mint gets its updates - but since update manager is not a browser and is not "cookie authenticated", the company blocks its communication.

Stupid question: Are you even allowed to install your own OS? e.g. Linux Mint? If not: Stuff like that can get you fired. Most companies I know (and I know many!) only allow certain "pre-approved" OS'es to be installed on their property. Installing stuff your own IT department didn't allow you to install can get you into *SERIOUS* trouble. Unless you're part of the IT department ... then you can get away with excuses like "ahemm ... I am evaluating new stuff, and now mind your own business ... " ... But: If you are part of the IT deparment then it should be no problem for you to have the firewalls adjusted so that your update traffic can get out ... But your thread here kinda demonstrates that this isn't the case? I am not your Mom, I am not your Dad ... I suppose you're old enough to know what you do. You better check your company's rules before your enthusiasm for Mint gets you fired.

Is using APT to CD the best workaround for me?

In that case, yes. But see above. Doing such things can get you into serious trouble.

I know my company has RedHat servers that they keep up to date with "up2date" and this seems to work fine for them.

"Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi." == What Father-God Jupiter is allowed to do, doesn't mean that every stupid cow is allowed to do it too. In other words: Their Red Hat servers are probably in a different subnet, and probably have special rulesets on the company's firewall which would allow Red Hat update-related traffic to pass through. Your machine is probably in the same subnet with the other desktop machines, and it probably doesn't enjoy any special priviledges.

I guess I could pack up my desktop in the car and take it home

And if someone sees you he will report you to your superiors for stealing a PC ... and before you know it you'll have the cops knocking on your door. Taking company property home is a perfect way to lose your job more or less instantly and ask for a lot of trouble. My suggestion: Don't even think about doing this!! You're asking for a hell lot of more trouble than you'd be able to handle!

[spidamang]

Finally found a work around.

I googled around for an ubuntu add on cd to use as a repository and found this My nvidia card was recognized. so the cd was pretty much what I was looking for.

Here's the listof the add on cd contents.