0

I am an inexperienced Ubuntu user who works at a hospital. This hospital has a protected network which somehow does not allow access to the Ubuntu download pages.

When my Ubuntu still worked, I worked around this by using a vpn-connector (CISCO or SAMBA) to connect to our university network. Then it worked sporadically with brief periods of internet connection.

Now that I damaged my ubuntu system, I cannot boot into ubuntu-desktop anymore, and cisco does not seem to work via command line: 

>>the VPN service is not available exiting

So no internet connection.

I downloaded ubuntu-desktop:i386.deb, connected it with usb, mounted the usb, and got a cascade of dependency-related errors.

Is there any way:

  • to work around the connection problems (the connection also depends on a specific proxy address, could that be the issue?), and install via internet

  • to download ubuntu-desktop_1.267_i386 online on another machine, including all its dependencies, and then install it on the offline machine?

I read something about pairing an online and offline machine, but I think that is limited to two ubuntu machines. Can I do something like that with my Macbook, Does anybody know how?

Hopefully someone can help me? I know the whole problem has stupid decisions as origin, and I will learn from it, but I am looking for a solution for my stupidity-caused problem.

Peter

Edit: I am sorry, I currently do not have access to the exact wording of the errors. Wednesday I will try to specify further. The answer to the linked question may answer the question, but in this situation there seem to be a few additional problems, that it might not solve. Namely:

  • my Ubuntu desktop is broken, so I only have access to command line, perhaps using Keryx will be as simple as using ./Keryx in USB flash drive though
  • the wxwidgets is a potential problem to me. I am not sure if i will succeed in installing it, but there are instructions by linking through more than once, which I will look into for its installation.
  • the trying to install Ubuntu anew may be a good idea, but for now I want to postpone it a few hours of work on it to the future, because I wish to give it another shot with Keryx
  • the quick hack suggested in the answers to the linked questions will only work if my Ubuntu is not by default set to delete installed packages, but I will look into that too

Alternatively, we can delete this post/ consider this post solved, and I will ask questions about additional issues when they come up.

Peter de Best
  • 1
  • post any error messages you get into your post. – George Udosen Dec 09 '16 at 04:59
  • If the problems with your Ubuntu installation are too complex and multi-faceted it might be very cumbersome to fix without an internet connection. In that case it may be easier to reinstall Ubuntu while keeping your data and configuration files. – David Foerster Dec 09 '16 at 08:39

1 Answers1

2

This answer explain a lot of ways to install packages offline! This was the best to me (credits to @Javier Rivera) Check out Keryx, it's an offline repository manager.

How does it work? It lets you download updates and new programs (with dependencies) to your flash drive.

Its interface is similar to synaptic but it works from a pendrive (it doesn't need installation). Unfortunately, the GUI needs wxwidgets, which don't come preinstalled on Ubuntu (they're cross-platform and installable from here and ubuntu repository here). It can only install software in a Ubuntu system, but you can download the updates or new packages in any Linux, Windows or OS/X.

Here you can find a tutorial.

Another detailed step-by-step tutorial in this answer.

Launchpad also hosts downloadable files.

A screenshot:

screen-shoot

Community
  • 1
Cirelli94
  • 616
  • Thank you both very much. It seems like this is a great help. I had actually seen that answer already (I think), quickly scanned over it, and assumed that it would only work in Desktop Ubuntu. But now I understand (I think?) that the possibility here is to install wxwidgets and the program on my macbook, then use it to download the .deb file and underlying dependencies. I already found out how to install a .deb file from a download : dpkg -i xxx.deb. If dpkg has the dependency files available, will it automatically install them. Do I need to put them in a certain directory structure on my USB? – Peter de Best Dec 09 '16 at 18:32
  • additionally: you (and Mr. Rivera) say I can run it from an USB pendrive. First of all that's fantastic. However: I have had previous trouble with installing the wxwidgets on my desktop (and then I could use apt-get), not sure if it already works. I will browse/surf the instructions given when I have the time. For now though: how do I run Keryx from the pendrive? Just browse to the directory containing it, and use something like ./Keryx and I will get a GUI straight from command line? – Peter de Best Dec 09 '16 at 18:39
  • finally, apologies for double posts, and: how do I add enters in my comments? Or is a comment not okay as a reply. Also @George thanks for making the question more readable. Appreciate it. Next time I will include the errors. Right now it simply said something like 'not configured, dependencies missing'. I will try the solutions and let you both know whether it worked on Wednesday (then I have access to the computer again). – Peter de Best Dec 09 '16 at 18:43