[Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

Fade · 2008-06-27 02:10:46

Hello all,

I'm very interested in using Arch and had a few queries that I couldn't quite find a clear answer to in my searchings. I have been computer-less for a year and now that I have a new one, I decided that I don't want to go through another Gentoo install if I can avoid it.

So here is my dilemma, the computer I want to install Arch on does not have a network connection and is unlikely to get one in the near future. I'm also not keen on moving computers around each time I want to update the GIMP. A second computer in the house (running windows xp) does have a network connection. While using gentoo, I would do

emerge -pretend -verbose <package name>

Then I would write down all the packages, download them from the windows computer-->USB drive-->copy to gentoo computer, then install the packages. A little time consuming, but it was less hassle than moving computers around. This also enabled me to get a copy of the latest portage tree as the entire tree can be downloaded in tarballed form (instead of doing an emerge -sync).

So my question would be, is it possible to do something similar on Arch? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by Fade (2008-06-27 21:25:39)

slackhack · 2008-06-27 03:04:41

doesn't windoze have connection sharing? i mean, how much trouble would it be just to get a couple of $5 network cards and use the xp machine as a gateway, or however ICS handles it? edit: or just go through a cheap router.

if expense is an issue, I have a couple of old pci 3com cards that I could give you for just a couple bucks each, as long as you don't mind paying the shipping. for probably under $10 (if you live in the states) you could have internet access on your linux box through XP and not even have to worry about it anymore.

Last edited by slackhack (2008-06-27 03:05:37)

Fade · 2008-06-27 05:42:51

Thanks for the reply slackhack and the very generous offer of cheap pci cards. I considered ICS, but the two computers are too far apart physically (opposite ends of the house and on different floors) for me to cable them together. The lack of network connection also has more to do with the phone lines in that part of the house than ports on the computer. I probably should have made this clearer in my original post. I know I could use a wireless router, but wanted to avoid that purchase as I don't need internet access to the linux box that often to really justify the cost.

After a bit more searching I think that "pacman -U <package> would get me the list of dependencies etc, and I could just say No when asked if I want to install. Would this be correct?

I still haven't found a way to get a copy of the newest package list (or am I missing some embarrassingly obvious link?)

Purch · 2008-06-27 06:16:22

One would be to install arch in a virtualbox or vmware in the XP. Install same packages to it and use USB stick/hd to transfer pacman package cache to your real arch box.

slackhack · 2008-06-27 12:43:04

Purch wrote:

One would be to install arch in a virtualbox or vmware in the XP. Install same packages to it and use USB stick/hd to transfer pacman package cache to your real arch box.

I was going to say virtualbox on the windows PC, too. I just wonder if any hardware differences between the two PCs would screw something up anywhere. I guess it would be okay, though, since you would only be copying packages to the other computer to install locally.

I've never used rsync, does anything like that offer any possibilities here? maybe there's a way to sync a mirror on the windows pc (if you had the diskspace), which would then be up to date. I guess you could also just ftp a base system and then the directories you needed to XP, and take them off of that. all those would probably require more disk space though, so the better way between these two approaches would probably be using virtualbox.

mcmillan · 2008-06-27 19:47:37

I don't think pacman -U pulls in dependencies but I'm not certain and can't really test it right now. pacman -S would do what I think you were trying even without the internet connection, it will just read your file list that's stored locally. You can get this from the repository file current.db.tar.gz which gets extracted and renamed to /var/lib/pacman/sync/$REPO. I don't know if there's some trickery needed to get pacman to know if this directory has changed or not.

fwojciec · 2008-06-27 20:09:21

mcmillan wrote:

I don't think pacman -U pulls in dependencies

It doesn't.

@Fade: I think that the best solution would be to put all the packages into a local repo (which is easy to set up) and just remove the remote repos from pacman.conf. See this wiki article for more info: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cus … repository

Fade · 2008-06-27 21:25:03

Thank you all very much for your help, the custom local repository looks like the way to go. Much appreciated everyone.

lilsirecho · 2008-06-27 22:33:58

Perhaps you can use USB flash devices to transfer between computers.

I use..... pacman --cachedir /mnt/md/upgrade..... a raid0 array which is transferrable between computers. I have Compact Flash devices provided in that setup. The upgrade data is written into new cells..the old data remains so that rewrite to the same cell doesn't occur. I have two 8GB devices providing 15GB+ of storage.

Pacman -U can be used to install from that cache, I have grouped the packages with their dependencies to provide assurance that they are installed.

I use ....pacman --cachedir /mnt/md/upgrade -Syuw.... to upgrade the contents of the cache and it functions well.

The reason for all this is to provide a means of controlling the size of overlays in Faunos by using a fast install to ram thru aufs of the desired packages. These packages are retained in my system only if saved upon reboot.

It works!

nj · 2008-06-27 23:11:25

I used the custom repo option a week ago to install programs on a pc that did not have net access. It was a bit tedious, but it worked. Here are the steps I did:

1. Download core.db.tar.gz and extra.db.tar.gz from the mirror you use.
2. Transfer to the linux machine and extract in /var/lib/pacman/sync/{core,extra}
3. Run 'pacman -Sp package > pkgs.list'. This will place the urls for the package and all of its dependencies in a text file.
4. Transfer the list to the windows machine and run 'wget -i pkgs.list'. This will download all the packages. You will need to download wget for windows.
5. Transfer everything back to the linux machine, run 'repo-add custom.db.tar.gz *.pkg.tar.gz' to create the repo.
6. Add to pacman.conf, changing the path:
[custom]
Server = file:///media/usb/pkgs/
7. pacman -Sy package

I have not tried it, but you can probably skip steps 5 and 6 if you use --cachedir like lilsirecho says.
pacman --cachedir /media/usb/pkgs/ -Sy package

Arch Linux

#1 2008-06-27 02:10:46

[Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

#2 2008-06-27 03:04:41

Re: [Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

#3 2008-06-27 05:42:51

Re: [Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

#4 2008-06-27 06:16:22

Re: [Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

#5 2008-06-27 12:43:04

Re: [Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

#6 2008-06-27 19:47:37

Re: [Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

#7 2008-06-27 20:09:21

Re: [Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

#8 2008-06-27 21:25:03

Re: [Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

#9 2008-06-27 22:33:58

Re: [Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

#10 2008-06-27 23:11:25

Re: [Solved] Keeping Arch updated with no network connection

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