In these days of ever-on super-fast omnipresent internet connections the need for offline installation can seem largely irrelevant to many of us.
But for users stuck using dial-up, prey to intermittent or flaky connections or whose only access to the internet is in a location away from their own computer, offline updating constitutes an important aspect of the ‘Ubuntu’ experience.
There are many applications that attempt to provide assistance in these situations but none seem to wholly address the issue of
Thus Keryx came to be born.
What does it do?
The Keryx Project allows users with limited internet connectivity the ability to download and update packages for Ubuntu.
The real beauty of Keryx is that access to a Linux computer is not required to access and download updates as the application runs from a USB drive and works with Linux, OS X and, perhaps most vitally in many situations where internet access it limited, Windows.
How it works
To use Keryx you first have to create and save a “project” to your USB drive. This is simply a snapshot of your currently installed packages on Ubuntu computer.
Then, when somewhere with internet access, you plug in your USB key, load up your profile and click the ‘Get Updates’ button to download all available updates to your USB drive for installation back at home.
By being able to reference your systems’ package list – just as Synaptic/APT do – Keryx download anything you don’t need but does ensure all necessary dependencies are pulled in.
How do I get new applications?
Use the search bar to locate the application you want to install. Highlight it, right click on it and then choose’ Download’.
The package(s) will be downloaded to your device ready for installation back on your ‘buntu box.
Installing downloaded updates/applications
When back at home/your computer you just plug your USB drive in, load up Keryx and use the ‘Project > Install’ button to install and apply downloaded packages.
Download
Downloads can be found over @ keryxproject.org/download.
Help
The project has been in development for the last 3 years and the work so far is fantastic – but the team have plenty more ideas and features they would like to implement but not as much time or manpower to do it.
If you’d like to help lend a hand to such a worthwhile project head over to keryxproject.org/contribute/ and learn how you can get involved.