How to mirror Mint repos on an external HD

[josefg]

Hi,

I would like to download a copy of the entire Mint 13 repos (both ubuntu-supplied packages and mint additions) to an externlal USB drive. This to help me make offline installations when I am in Niger Republic, where internet connections are poor.

Does anyone have good advice on an easy way to set this up?

TIA

[xenopeek]

I have no experience with this, but basically you are wanting to run a local mirror for the repositories. apt-mirror is the program you want to look into; it allows you to set up a local mirror.

[josefg]

Between apt-mirror and debmirror, which tool is best?

[xenopeek]

apt-mirror sounds very easy from this: http://apt-mirror.sourceforge.net/. debmirror on the other hand, looks complicated but perhaps that is just this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Debmirror.

Regardless of which one you are going to use, be aware that the repository is tens of gigabytes big. A few years ago the repository was well over 27 GiB, and it will only have gotten to be bigger.