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I have a new installation that has no chance of an internet connection.

Since I want to add a few development software packages, I downloaded a few *.deb files. The problem is that for every package I try to install I get the same error:

"Dependency not satisfiable...."

Also downloaded other versions of that software (the deb files) but it didn't work.
I've researched other questions in here and Google and I haven't been able to solve this yet.

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  • Internet connection is required for updating system components and additional libraries. As you have no internet connection, it is very hard to install packages as you have no way to immediately install dependency packages. You will have to note the dependent software and download it also (with the possibility that that software may also have dependency issues).
    – VedVals
    Nov 13, 2012 at 16:54
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    You should note that Mint is not supported here because it is not Ubuntu. This question is generic enough to not offend anybody but in the future, you'll want to use unix.stackexchange.com
    – Oli
    Nov 13, 2012 at 16:56

3 Answers 3

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Synaptic has a useful feature that generates a script to download all required .deb files. Unfortunately, Synaptic is not installed by default in Ubuntu any more, so my answer will have two parts.

How to install Synaptic on an offline computer:

You will need to download these packages on a connected computer:

  • synaptic
  • libept1.4.12
  • libvte-common
  • libvte9

To do this, open a browser to http://packages.ubuntu.com. Search for the package name for your Ubuntu release, click on the relevant search result, click on your architecture (i386 for 32 bit and amd64 for 64-bit) and choose a mirror. Repeat for each required package.

Once you've saved all the .deb files, move the files over to the offline computer and install them one by one in reverse order by opening them in Ubuntu Software Centre.

If you look at synaptic dependencies, you'll notice that it has more dependencies than the ones I've listed. I've only listed the ones that will be missing from a typical Ubuntu 12.10 desktop install.

How to install a particular package on an offline computer:

At this point, you have Synaptic installed on both your online and offline machines.

  1. In the offline computer:

    1. Open Synaptic.
    2. Find the package you want to install, and tick the box. If Synaptic asks you to confirm whether you want to install dependencies as well, accept the confirmation.
    3. Click "File", "Generate package download script".
    4. Save the script on a USB stick.
  2. Take the USB stick to an online computer running Ubuntu. On the online computer:

    1. Open a terminal, and navigate to the USB stick directory.
    2. Run the script. It will download all the required .deb files to the USB stick.
    3. Eject the USB stick safely.
  3. On the offline computer, plug in the USB stick.

    1. Open Synaptic.
    2. Click "File", "Add downloaded packages".
    3. Navigate to the USB stick.
    4. Click "Apply".

(This presumes that you want to install a package that's in the "main" repo. If your package is in the "universe" repo, you will need to have run sudo apt-get update while connected to the Internet some point in the past. The installer will do this for you automatically.)

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I know you can install apps on another computer and then copy all the deb packages over to the computer without internet access. the debs are normally found in '/var/cache/apt/archives'

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  • @Oli - I apologize. I didn't know there was a Mint forum. I asked here only because Mint is partially related to Ubuntu, no? That's what I thought. TO ved2254 - Is there any way to download an application *.deb file with all the dependencies included? TO The Doctor - I have a wifi connection on my 512Mb ram Windows XP laptop. I tried the site apps.ubuntu.com/cat hoping I could download the complete *.deb file for each application but only if I had Linux installed, and I can't.
    – catia
    Nov 13, 2012 at 17:05
  • Nevermind...If I install it on the live usb I'll just have to copy the files like 'The Doctor' suggested. Right?
    – catia
    Nov 13, 2012 at 17:11
  • Easy solution: install ubuntu on the laptop! (: yes that should work..not that i have tried to install a program in a liveUSB environment. However I also found out that there its a windows version of the program wget ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=291071 I havent tried it, I just googled your problem for you.. Nov 13, 2012 at 17:15
  • Mint is a derivative built on top of Ubuntu but any problems with mint should be able to get answered on askUbuntu.com however there is a system set up specifically for Mint (Mint forums) its okay to ask here though. Nov 13, 2012 at 17:18
  • Sorry I forgot one important step You must use the scripts given on the following thread: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1100816 Nov 13, 2012 at 17:22
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Software packages can have dependencies on other packages. In order to install something by just providing a .deb package file, you also need to provide the packages it depends on (and the packages they depend on, etc).

So I would suggest that whatever you're trying to install has its own dependencies that you're not fulfilling. As far as I know there are only two solutions to this:

  • Keep going back to the internet connection, downloading each dependency one at a time, installing and trying again.

  • Just connect the computer to the internet and install the software in two minutes. You can complain that this is very hard, but trust me it's a lot easier than manually hunting down dependencies.

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  • What if i ran a live usb linux distro in the laptop, go to 'apps.ubuntu.com/cat' and download the package without installing. Then I'd copy what I downloaded to a usb and install it on the Desktop (pc with no internet)? I'm just not sure that I can download only the content from that app repository, without installing it.
    – catia
    Nov 13, 2012 at 17:09
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    Sad truth: Ubuntu is crap without internet connection, Offline installation is very complicated compared to windows
    – Tachyons
    Nov 13, 2012 at 17:27

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