How to Install Packages In An Offline Ubuntu Machine

Install Packages In An Offline Ubuntu Machine

Linux has a very organized package management system. The whole system always stays up-to-date if it is online. But it makes it much difficult for an offline Linux machine to get the latest software or install desired packages. So users who don’t have a broadband connection(like me) always face problem. But if you use Ubuntu or any debian based distro. then you are lucky. Thanks to the Keryx Project. Keryx makes it easy to install packages in an offline Ubuntu machine by downloading the packages in a internet connected machine. It is cross platform and written in python. It includes all the necessary libraries with it making it fully portable. You can even use a Windows machine to download packages using Keryx and then install them in Linux.

How to Use Keryx

Keryx is fully portable. Just download the Keryx Archive and extract it to your pen drive. Then navigate to /keryx/linux/ and double click the “keryx” executable to start Keryx in your Linux system. When the Keryx UI appears, enter a project name and create new project. We named our project “lucid-32-bit”. After some time, the project will be created.

Then carry the pen drive to a machine with internet access. If it is a Linux machine, start the Keryx UI exactly as previous. If it is a Windows machine, navigate to /keryx/win32/ and double click on the keryx.exe file.

In the Keryx UI, select your project and click “Open Project”. Then a Synaptic like interface will appear. Click yes to download latest package info.

Now you can click “Get Updates” to update your machine(Note: you should have sufficient space on the pen drive). Or search for a package you want to download. Then right click the package and select “Download”.

The download should begin and you will notice a progress bar for the downloads. Don’t worry, it will take care of all dependencies like in Synaptic.

Now you can take it to the offline Linux machine and start the Keryx UI. Then open your project and select “Install Packages” from the “Project” menu. Then you can select which packages to install and click “Continue” to begin installation.

Conclusion

Keryx is a great way to get updates for your offline Linux machine. There are plans to add support for non-debian based systems in future. Have a better alternative? Then please share with us.