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Software - Support => Installing Linux Lite => Topic started by: morti on June 24, 2015, 09:38:33 PM

Title: updating more than one pc
Post by: morti on June 24, 2015, 09:38:33 PM

is there a way to update more than one lite pc?
I update a netbook...but then would like to use the updated files from the netbook on my desktop..both running LiteOS..rather than downloading the desktop. files again on the

Title: Re: updating more than one pc
Post by: riser on June 24, 2015, 09:52:36 PM

It is possible to use one central machine as a server to create your own"repo" (repository).


The benefits are that you can download the files once, and update multiple machines on the local network.


The disadvantages, though, are several:
- You need to install additional software of the server (PC used to cache the packages) and have it running during the update
- You need to download all packages (no easy way to cache just those on one of the PCs) which can consume quite a bit of space
- You need one repo per version of OS


I have 5 machines running various flavors of LL (from 1.0.6 on my PC to 2.4 on my son's), and I still update them individually directly from the internet.  The update sizes are generally small enough that downloading them is not an issue.  I have a linux server (Ubuntu 12.04) running quite a few services, but decided that caching packages was not worth the hassle.

Title: Re: updating more than one pc
Post by: morti on June 24, 2015, 11:16:07 PM

thanks for that Riser. In my case Im on dial up. So thought I could take my netbook to a free wifi site.
Im using 2.4 on a couple of imacs and a couple of old wins PCs.

though with the same version on all I could just copy the update files..but may be not.

Title: Re: updating more than one pc
Post by: LL-user on June 25, 2015, 05:59:59 PM

Hi morti,

There are a few additional solutions available beside mirroring the full repos:

apt-catcher-ng
Here you can find an article about it: http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-54/ (http://fullcirclemagazine.org/issue-54/)

Camicri Cube
https://launchpad.net/cube-server (https://launchpad.net/cube-server)
http://www.unixmen.com/camicri-cube-server-an-offline-and-portable-package-manager-for-debian-ubuntu-and-linux-mint/ (http://www.unixmen.com/camicri-cube-server-an-offline-and-portable-package-manager-for-debian-ubuntu-and-linux-mint/)

And last but not least:
IF you have the same system architecture AND the same software selection on all computers then you could manually distribute the updates from one machine to the other.
When you run the normal update all packages that get upgraded will be downloaded to /var/cache/apt/archives/.
You could transfer these files to your other computer(s) and install via dpkg.
If this is of interest for you and you need more detailed help with commands and/or a concept, please let us know.

Hope that helps :)

Title: Re: updating more than one pc
Post by: morti on June 26, 2015, 07:41:41 AM

wow  LL-user - lots of good info there - thanks!!!
didn't know of the follicle mag..that looks rather good too.

Came across something that looks promising too - APTonCD
http://aptoncd.sourceforge.net

apparently backups all installed packages to an iso..
so now have lots of possibilities to look into..

ta lots folks.