creating a local mirror at home computer

[Tapas Mishra]

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 12:51 AM, Alan Pope <popey at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On 17 March 2011 18:44, Tapas Mishra <mightydreams at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I am trying to debug a problem which necessarily needs a Ubuntu mirror
>> for  install (basically problem in creating guest OS on Xen with
>> virt-manager).
>> So I decided to setup a local mirror of Ubuntu in a USB hard disk that
>> I have of size 1TB.
>> I do not have such an internet bandwidth at my home computer that I do
>> an installation
>> pointing to a mirror from Ubuntu repos.So I decided to download Ubuntu DVD's.
>> Some where on internet I found it was mentioned this process needs 15
>> GB of space basically 4 DVDs.
>
> Eh? You don't have the bandwidth to download ~15GB of packages but you
> have the bandwidth to download around 15GB of DVDs?
What I mean to say is when I am doing an http install in virt-manager
it is not possible for me to have 700Mb
(which is size of ISO) get on an http connection.
Have a look at the snapshots here
http://bderzhavets.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/install-ubuntu-intrepid-server-pv-domu-at-xen-33-port-via-httpgetco-centos-52-dom0/
that is how it will be running inside the host OS but it is not
possible on my internet connection to be able to do this installation
over an http.
So I am making a mirror.

>> While searching for DVDs I got following link
>> http://ftp.acc.umu.se/mirror/cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/10.04.2/release/
>> where I am able to see only 1 DVD.
>> Since I do not have a high bandwidth downloading 4 DVDs for me can
>> take a week or more.
>> Where can I get link to remaining 3 DVDs?
>
> We only make one DVD image (with many flavours, i386, amd64 etc), we
> don't ship a 'set' of DVDs. So there are no remaining 3 DVDs. Other
> people might make them and allow you to download them, but the Ubuntu
> project doesn't officially make a 'full' set of DVDs containing the
> entire archive.
>
>> While searching how to create mirror I came across a tool known as
>> apt-mirror and debmirror
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Debmirror
>> http://www.howtoforge.com/local_debian_ubuntu_mirror
>
> They do different things, but achieve much the same result. The other
> option would be rather than download everything, setup a proxy to
> cache the stuff you regularly get. So for a system where you're
> re-doing the install all the time, you're going to be getting the same
> packages over and over, and a caching proxy will help here.
>
> The absolute easiest way to do this is to just install
> "squid-deb-proxy" on a machine on your network, and
> "squid-deb-proxy-client" on the client machines.

That is not possible the host and guest are both my laptop and client
does not exists.
Since client is not existing to squid-deb-proxy-client can not be installed.
I am doing it from scratch.
Neither it is possible with any known method to make client and
proceed with what you mentioned.
The client (which does not exist) is my laptop the host which you want
to make server (is also my laptop).
I had discussed this question on virt-manager mailing list where I
came at this conclusion that I will need a mirror as
the virt-manager searches for an http mirror on the computers which do
not have inbuilt virtualization support,
and then it is possible only via an http sort of thing do do it.
I had tried other manual methods also but all of them have failed.
Have a look at snapshots here
http://bderzhavets.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/install-ubuntu-intrepid-server-pv-domu-at-xen-33-port-via-httpgetco-centos-52-dom0/

since my laptop does not support virtualization so it is not possible
to do install Ubuntu using a CD ISO,it
necessarily needs a mirror, and to have an internet install I do not
have the required bandwidth.
During the install the virt-manager searches for the mirror
It needs a URL of this sort
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/

>When any client wants
> to get packages, apt will go looking for a proxy automatically (via
> avahi) and find the machine running squid-deb-proxy. Squid-deb-proxy
> is setup to cache ubuntu packages well - whereas a standard install of
> squid doesn't really, although that could work also.
>
> When you do new installs and you get asked if you have a proxy, just
> point them at the box running squid-deb-proxy and you're done.
>
> I run a squid-deb-proxy on a machine at home because I have multiple
> computers running the same release of Ubuntu. They get their packages
> via that server which reduces my internet usage and doesn't require
> much in the way of admin.

I get your point but that will come into picture once client exists.
In this case I have do to it from scratch as if the client does not exist.
So I need to have a mirror,

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://mightydreams.blogspot.com