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I have installed Debian on my pc, but the problem is that at the moment I have no Internet connection to this pc. So, to install a program I have to manually downloaded from a pc with internet and then install it to the linux-debian computer.

The question is this: Is there a standard way to make the installation manually? Note that when I connect a usb flash with the program I want to install(that is: cdparanoia_3.10.2+debian-10.1_i386.deb) and I try opening it I get the message:

Failed to execute child process “ar” no file or directory.

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You don't want to manually open it and copy the files. You want to run apt so that it installs the local file without trying to fetch from repositories. –  HalosGhost May 15 at 16:28
1  
Did you use sudo dpkg -i DEB_PACKAGE to install the package? –  Saul Ortega May 15 at 16:29
    
Hi. Could you elaborate on how to do this(I have the installation archive in a usb flash)? –  Constantine Black May 15 at 16:29
    
@Victor Do I just use this command in the terminal while I have the installation archive where? –  Constantine Black May 15 at 16:31
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@ConstantineBlack I don't have any specific recommendation, except that I think apt-offline might work for you. But I have never used it. I have no opinion about the GUI programs. See also debian-administration.org/article/648/… –  Faheem Mitha May 15 at 16:45

1 Answer 1

up vote 2 down vote accepted

If you have a .deb file, you can install it from the command line with the dpkg command. This is the single program that can install a deb package: all others (such as the APT family) are frontends that call dpkg under the hood.

dpkg -i cdparanoia_3.10.2+debian-10.1_i386.deb

You need to run this command as root, e.g. su -c 'dpkg -i …' or sudo dpkg -i ….

If your file manager complains about ar, that means it hasn't been configured to understand deb packages. Technically, deb packages are ar archives, but treating them as such isn't useful. Configure your package manager to associate .deb files with something that understands deb packages, such as dpkg -i (to install them, needs to be executed as root in a terminal), or /usr/lib/mime/debian-view (which needs to be executed in a terminal), or gdebi-gtk from the gdebi package.

If you're going to do this often, apt-offline will help you. It isn't part of the default installation, so you'll need to install it manually (by downloading/USB/dpkg) before getting any benefit from it.

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Thank you. Your answer has been the most helpful. The commant dpkg works just fine. The problem is that after installin apt-offline(versions 1.2 up to 1.6.1) I get from all-when executing them- the same error message: """"kwstas@debian:~$ su -c 'apt-offline set /tmp/apt-offline.sig' Password: Generating database of files that are needed for an update. Generating database of files that are needed for an upgrade. E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f. ERROR: FATAL: Something is wrong with the apt system."""". Any thoughts? Maybe post a different question? Thanks. –  Constantine Black May 16 at 10:03
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@ConstantineBlack I think this means that there are unresolved dependencies on your system: you've installed a package A that depends on a package B but B isn't installed. dpkg can let you get away with this but APT tools don't cope so well. Run apt-get -f install and see what it tells you. You may need to install additional packages before apt-offline starts working. Once you get it working, it'll take care of dependencies. –  Gilles May 16 at 11:28
    
You are correct. The problem is there are a lot of dependencies. I 've tried installing some but now it seems there are even more. Is there a way to get rid of them or should I kill(sorry for the expression ) my entire afternoon installing manually all those packages? –  Constantine Black May 16 at 15:17
    
Thank you. Your answer was the most insightful and useful. Forget my last comment. I see that to fix these dependencies I need an internet connection. I will find a connection to fix them and then I will start using apt-offline. Thanks again. –  Constantine Black May 16 at 16:13
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@ConstantineBlack I don't know if apt-offline can help you if you start from a system with unresolved dependencies, check the documentation. If it doesn't help, you can use a manual approach to get the system to a good state. Run dpkg --get-selections on your offline machine to get a list of installed packages. On a machine connected to the internet, use debootstrap to start a minimal installation in a chroot, then dpkg --set-selections and apt-get -f install to install all the missing packages. Once you have a good installation, copy /var/lib/apt/archives to your offline machine. –  Gilles May 17 at 10:31

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