If you're like me then the main reason you use sites like GOG.com is to have more control over your software. It was this extra control that attracted me to Linux and while is is kind of there, it's been a steep learning curve nonetheless over the past few years. Anyway, all distributions of Linux that I have tried are cloud based needing a repository to install and update itsef. For the longest time though I wanted theses repositories on my hard drive so I have have local access to them and not have to reply on a cloud to get what I needed.

I found a method that works quite well for me and here's how I did it.

Auto-mount a ext4 partition with plenty of space

Create two folders on the partition each with another folder inside them named "partial"

Create a configuration text document in apt.conf.d and give it a high starting number.

Add the lines
dir::cache::archives /location/to/first/folder
dir::state::lists /location/to/second/folder

After that CD into your new cache directory and type apt-get download '*' if you're using 64Bit you'll also need to type apt-get download '*'i386

This will take a while. Be sure to make a backup of your sources.list.d as well.


If you've done this correctly you should have the entire repository saved to your hard drive. With or without internet you'll be able to install the latest programs and update. With internet your repo should update with general use and you shouldn't have to worry about writing a script. I've only tested this method with Linux Mint but feel free to try it with other Ubuntu based systems and let me know how it goes.

I prefer this method over rsync and apt-mirror since it's easier and more efficient.

Debian provides ISO images for each release, only 3 DVD's. Or 8-11 CD's, depending on whether or not you want to be able to choose the default desktop environment or are content with one (everything is available on the 8 discs, the extra 3 just set up different defaults).

I have no idea about mint but in debian you can use jigdo to download double layer blu ray disc images.
Than you can mount or extract them in to some directory and add an entry to sources.list file.

For example:
After donwloading images debian-8.6.0-amd64-DLBD-1.iso and debian-8.6.0-amd64-DLBD-2.iso you can mount or extract them to /mnt/D1 and /mnt/D2.
Add entrys in sources.list:
deb file:/mnt/D1 jessie main contrib
deb file:/mnt/D2 jessie main contrib

apt-get update
apt-get install some-super-cute-pony-foo-bar-package

Instead of iso images you can mirror an entire server tree for your current version and architecture :)

But, everytime you install something, you will get a warning message:
"WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!"

if it does not bother you than feel free to test it :)

With my method there is no warning because the lists and sorces have been backed up so have the authentications. Also the full repo is over 100 gigs in size wouldn't fit on a disk.

I'm going to try this when I have the time, this might be very helpful. It's one of the things that Linux is lacking the most, imo, an easy way to get reusable installers for the software that you are going to install again and again.

This is actually a bad idea. Using up bandwidth of linux mirrors just "for fun" isn't very nice :-(

Therefore, there are tools such as: apt-p2p or jigdo :)

what is the problem with downloading the software for install/update, if I may ask?
sure, if you want to install Linux on a PC somewhere far off from internet access, it may make sense to make a complete mirror of the repository. But just because you "don't want to talk with the internet"? nope, you'll only get the latest updates _with_ the internet.

I don't know about you, but 3 DVD's or 8-11 CD's sounds WAY too big to me.

Then again, the core OS can be done in something like 60MB, closer to 200MB with basic XWindows (DSL demonstrates this well), add other common utilities, and then programming tools takes up a large portion. I know some of the discs are just source code which you can ignore if you only want the binaries.

But it sounds way too big.

Then the community should design a better system ^^ Once you link the local repo to your OS and connect to the internet both the OS and your repo will be updated with use. That's what I was saying.

It is their entire software repository at the time of release though.

Actually, Debian Jessie (amd64) is at least 13 DVDs or 82 CDs.

The total size of a mirror for the amd64 architecture is 170 GB, with the "all" architecture taking up an additional 119 (I believe this includes all current branches). The total size is 1759.

You can find the size (which may change between this post and when you view them) at
https://www.debian.org/mirror/size