Updating without live internet connection

[PiMinto]

I have Mint 13 installed on a machine without a connection, and it's unlikely to get one any time soon. Would really like to apply updates, and especially the Nadia backport - is there somewhere to download a batch of updates or any other way to achieve this?

[stratus_ss]

You can pull down everything you need on another computer. Everything that gets downloaded will be stored in /var/cache/apt/archives.

You can move those packages to the other computer and install them with the dpkg command.

[PiMinto]

Great, thanks.

[ChinaJ]

Be careful to make sure you have the same architecture on your computer and on your friend's (i.e. 32-bit or 64-bit).

There's some good help here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/974/how-can-i-install-software-or-packages-without-internet-offline

Look a few answers down (ignore the first one about Keryx... too complicated IMHO and unsupported). I did the USB Repository using apt-mirror. It does take a while (depending on your D/L speed), so be patient. Stratus's idea about the /var/cache/apt/archives hack is a good one, but only works if the other system doesn't delete the packages after install/reboot.

There's also a reference to the How To on making your own DVD repositories here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=352460

It's a bit involved from what I can see, but then you have a DVD copy, albeit outdated pretty quickly, and therefore possibly a waste of time AND money.

Either way, you'll need this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Offline/Repository information to make sure you set up the repository info in your Software Sources correctly.

[PiMinto]

I broke it I copied /var/cache/apt/archives and ran "sudo dpkg -i *.deb". It ran through unpacking and seemed okay, but then errors started coming up and it eventually halted from it. Right away the desktop environment started crumbling, panel disappeared, menubar disappeared from terminal. I rebooted and it re-appeared in the same state - desktop with files appears, but no panel. How do I go about fixing this? Is there a way to undo last updates?

[PiMinto]

Be careful to make sure you have the same architecture on your computer and on your friend's (i.e. 32-bit or 64-bit).

There's some good help here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/974/how-can-i-install-software-or-packages-without-internet-offline

Look a few answers down (ignore the first one about Keryx... too complicated IMHO and unsupported). I did the USB Repository using apt-mirror. It does take a while (depending on your D/L speed), so be patient. Stratus's idea about the /var/cache/apt/archives hack is a good one, but only works if the other system doesn't delete the packages after install/reboot.

There's also a reference to the How To on making your own DVD repositories here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=352460

It's a bit involved from what I can see, but then you have a DVD copy, albeit outdated pretty quickly, and therefore possibly a waste of time AND money.

Either way, you'll need this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Offline/Repository information to make sure you set up the repository info in your Software Sources correctly.

I wish I'd seen your post earlier... maybe synaptic would've handled it better...

[PiMinto]

okay, I did a recovery mode repair from grub and system is back together again. I guess next time I'll try synaptic

[flashbuddy56]

All updates should be offline for security and piracy reasons as far as im censored and any change made has to be approved by the admin of the computer first and tested for malware