How to create a USB flash software repository?
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From: Stephen Horne on 18 Jan 2010 16:21 Is there a tool that can create a software repository on a USB flash drive, including all software currently installed on one machine, so that I can use that repository to install the same software on a non-networked machine? I have my desktop PC running Linux well enough, but I also have a laptop which hasn't been connected to any network for years. Running Windows, this was a policy thing - the machine slows down too much when running firewall, antivirus etc. On Linux, performance is fine, but I have completely failed to get the laptop to connect via my ethernet cable modem. This also fails in Windows - something to do with failing to acquire an IP address. I have also failed to get a WIFI network connection running between the laptop and desktop PCs. I have my doubts about whether the ethernet port is faulty, though I don't think I ever got that PCMCIA WIFI card to work. Anyway, this is 90% fine. The laptop has been doing non-internet duties for several years, and that's all I want it to do. The only trouble is getting software installed that isn't included on the OpenSUSE install DVD. With all the repositories currently available online, I'm guessing there are tools that can manage these repositories, that may be able to do what I want?
From: Mark S Bilk on 18 Jan 2010 19:10 On Jan 18, 1:21 pm, Stephen Horne <sh006d3...(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > Is there a tool that can create a software repository on a USB flash > drive, including all software currently installed on one machine, so > that I can use that repository to install the same software on a > non-networked machine? Repos contain rpm files, which include dependencies, etc. Doesn't seem like a tool could generate those just by looking at your installed software. But maybe you could download the repositories using wget on your desktop, copy them to the flash drive, mount it on the laptop, and tell yast where it is (like yast's repo entry for the DVD). Or maybe you could just copy the executables, .so's, and config files from the desktop system directories to the flash drive and copy them to the laptop system directories without using yast. You'd have to recreate the linker cache. If you can get yast to install one program from the DVD it would do that. Try it with just a couple of programs and see if the laptop will run them. A disadvantage would be that the software control system on the laptop wouldn't know about the added programs. Another approach would be to take the laptop to the installfest at your nearest Linux User Group and see if they can figure out what's wrong with the ethernet port and/or the wifi card. If they can you'd have a better computer and full normal access to all software.
From: Stephen Horne on 18 Jan 2010 20:16 On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:10:34 -0800 (PST), Mark S Bilk <mark(a)cosmicpenguin.com> wrote: >On Jan 18, 1:21 pm, Stephen Horne <sh006d3...(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: >> Is there a tool that can create a software repository on a USB flash >> drive, including all software currently installed on one machine, so >> that I can use that repository to install the same software on a >> non-networked machine? > >Repos contain rpm files, which include dependencies, etc. >Doesn't seem like a tool could generate those just by looking >at your installed software. The software management thing can generate an XML list of current packages installed. Ideally, a tool would find that data wherever the software management stuff stores it - alternatively, I can work from that XML. >But maybe you could download the repositories using wget on >your desktop, copy them to the flash drive, mount it on the >laptop, and tell yast where it is (like yast's repo entry for the >DVD). Dependency hassles. I won't want every package from the desktop PC (drivers etc would be inappropriate) but there will be dependencies that I do need that can't be sourced from the OpenSUSE DVD, and without a lot of manual work, I don't really know what those dependencies are. IIRC, the metadata for a repository is just a gzipped XML file, isn't it? > >Or maybe you could just copy the executables, .so's, and config >files... Not the way I'd prefer to go - last resort only. >Another approach would be to take the laptop to the installfest >at your nearest Linux User Group and see if they can figure out >what's wrong with the ethernet port and/or the wifi card. If >they can you'd have a better computer and full normal access >to all software. Hardly worth it wasting peoples time to fix features that I don't really want. If there's no tool currently to do this, it may be more worthwhile for me to write one. I'm guessing that the biggest problem I'd have would be the internet access stuff to download the metadata and rpms from the original repositories - I've managed to avoid doing any network stuff since working on a serial-port networking system at college for a project about 18 years ago. It was fun, but it wasn't HTTP or FTP or whatever. I'd still prefer an existing tool, but I doubt it'd be that hard as e.g. a Python script.
From: Vahis on 18 Jan 2010 23:18 On 2010-01-18, Stephen Horne <sh006d3592(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > > Is there a tool that can create a software repository on a USB flash > drive, including all software currently installed on one machine, so > that I can use that repository to install the same software on a > non-networked machine? You can rsync the wanted repos to your big enough stick. Then use that stick as a repo. You can choose to rsync only the parts you want, you obviously don't need everything. I have done that a lot in the past. I had a cron job running to do that. Google rsync opensuse repo, there's a lot. Here's one I came across quickly, I didn't read it: http://vavai.net/2008/10/28/making-a-local-copy-of-opensuse-repository-mirror-server/ Vahis -- "Sunrise 9:05am (EET), sunset 3:57pm (EET) at Espoo, FI (6:52 hours daylight)" http://waxborg.servepics.com Linux 2.6.25.20-0.5-default #1 SMP 2009-08-14 01:48:11 +0200 x86_64 6:12am up 80 days 11:13, 18 users, load average: 0.15, 0.29, 0.29
From: Mark S Bilk on 18 Jan 2010 23:41
On Jan 18, 5:16 pm, Stephen Horne <sh006d3...(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:10:34 -0800 (PST), Mark S Bilk > > <m...(a)cosmicpenguin.com> wrote: > >On Jan 18, 1:21 pm, Stephen Horne <sh006d3...(a)blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > >> Is there a tool that can create a software repository on a USB flash > >> drive, including all software currently installed on one machine, so > >> that I can use that repository to install the same software on a > >> non-networked machine? > > >Repos contain rpm files, which include dependencies, etc. > >Doesn't seem like a tool could generate those just by looking > >at your installed software. > > The software management thing can generate an XML list of current > packages installed. Ideally, a tool would find that data wherever the > software management stuff stores it - alternatively, I can work from > that XML. This is the kind of tedious thing you should get money to do. 8^) > >But maybe you could download the repositories using wget on > >your desktop, copy them to the flash drive, mount it on the > >laptop, and tell yast where it is (like yast's repo entry for the > >DVD). > > Dependency hassles. I won't want every package from the desktop PC > (drivers etc would be inappropriate) but there will be dependencies > that I do need that can't be sourced from the OpenSUSE DVD, and > without a lot of manual work, I don't really know what those > dependencies are. True, and I just tried downloading this repo (which I think is fairly small): http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/KDE4:/Playground/openSUSE_11.2/ using wget -m -np http:... but it turned out to be full of links, and actually downloaded the files into five subdirectories, each with the files from a different server: 130.57.19.201 download.opensuse.org ftp5.gwdg.de opensuse.ca.unixheads.org widehat.opensuse.org That format probably would not be acceptable to yast. > IIRC, the metadata for a repository is just a gzipped XML file, isn't it? Yes > >Another approach would be to take the laptop to the installfest > >at your nearest Linux User Group and see if they can figure out > >what's wrong with the ethernet port and/or the wifi card. If > >they can you'd have a better computer and full normal access > >to all software. > > Hardly worth it wasting peoples time to fix features that I don't > really want. I'll bet this is such a common situation that it would take no more than 30 minutes -- maybe a lot less -- for someone to fix, and all your problems would be solved, plus you'd have a network-enabled laptop! > If there's no tool currently to do this, it may be more > worthwhile for me to write one. I'm guessing that the biggest problem > I'd have would be the internet access stuff to download the metadata > and rpms from the original repositories - I've managed to avoid doing > any network stuff since working on a serial-port networking system at > college for a project about 18 years ago. It was fun, but it wasn't > HTTP or FTP or whatever. > I'd still prefer an existing tool, but I doubt it'd be that hard as > e.g. a Python script. How many hours or days do you think this would take you? If someone can fix your wifi card or ethernet port in a few minutes, they'll be happy that they could help you. That's _why_ they do installfests. They'll feel good, and you won't spend your time writing a program that won't be useful for any other situation, since all computers these days have ethernet and/or wifi. While you're there, you could probably help some other people, and thus repay your karmic debt! |