How to make your own package CD for offline use

If you can't use the DVD images for some reason or want to help a friend with low internet bandwidth, here's a quick'n'dirty way to make your own transportable package CD:

1. Download all needed packages.
2. Put them all in one directory.
3. Open a terminal window, cd to the directory.
4. Enter the following command :
   

   $ dpkg-scanpackages . /dev/null | gzip > Packages.gz

5. Burn the directory on CD.
   

You can later add the CD as a package source with the command:

$ sudo apt-cdrom add

The 'add' option is used to add a new disc to the source list. It will unmount the CDROM device, prompt for a disk to be inserted and then proceed to scan it and copy the index files. If the disk does not have a proper disk directory structure, you will be prompted for a descriptive title. APT uses a CDROM ID to track which disc is currently in the drive and maintains a database of these IDs in /var/lib/apt/cdroms.list .

Note: This tip is specific to Ubuntu Linux but can be used for other debian based distros too.