And… you can also convert the ISO files into an hosted repository in your network using Apache:

apt install apache2 build-essential mkdir /var/www/html/packages

Now, create additional directories under /var/www/html/packages/ to save packages depending upon your system’s architecture. For example, If you use 32 bit systems, create a directory called “i386″ or if you use 64 bit systems, create “amd64″ directory. You can keep both directories and serve packages to different architecture systems at the same time.

Here, I am using 64 bit systems in my LAN, so I am going to create a directory called “amd64″ under /var/www/html/packages/ directory.

mkdir /var/www/html/packages/amd64

Copying all DEB files from Debian installation media

Mount the first CD/DVD and copy all .deb packages to /var/www/packages/amd64/ directory from your CD/DVD.

mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

find /media/cdrom/pool/ -name “*.deb” -exec cp {} /var/www/html/packages/amd64 ;

After copying all deb files, unmount the first DVD using the following command.

umount /media/cdrom

Again mount all remaining CD/DVD one by one and copy the .deb files as shown above.

To verify the files, navigate to 192.168.1.150/packages/amd64/ from your browser. You will see all packages of your Debian DVD’s. Here 192.168.1.150 is my Debian 8 server’s IP address.

Index of -packages-amd64 - Google Chrome_002 Create Catalog file

Switch to your repository directory i.e /var/www/html/packages/amd64/ :

cd /var/www/html/packages/amd64/

and enter the following command to create a catalog file for APT use. You should run this command so that Synaptic Manager or APT will fetch the packages from our local repository. Otherwise the packages in your local repository will not be shown in Synaptic and APT.

dpkg-scanpackages . /dev/null | gzip -9c > Packages.gz

This command will scan all deb files and create the local repository in your Debian server. This may take a while depending upon the number of packages in your local repository folder. Be patient or grab a cup of coffee.

Sample output:

dpkg-scanpackages: warning: Packages in archive but missing from override file: dpkg-scanpackages: warning: accountsservice acl acpi acpi-support-base acpid adduser adwaita-icon-theme apache2-bin apg apt apt-listchanges apt-offline apt-utils aptitude aptitude-common aptitude-doc-en aspell aspell-en at at-spi2-core avahi-daemon

[…]

xserver-xorg-video-neomagic xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware xterm xwayland xz-utils yelp yelp-xsl zenity zenity-common zlib1g

dpkg-scanpackages: info: Wrote 1151 entries to output Packages file.

Please note that whenever you add a new deb file in this repository, you should run the above command to create catalog file.

Done! We created the catalog file. Configure Server sources list

After creating the catalog file, go to your server(local) system. Open /etc/apt/sources.list file.

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Comment out all lines and add your APT repository location as shown below.

deb file:/var/www/html/packages/amd64/ /

Here is my Debian 8 server (Repository server) /etc/apt/sources.list file contents.

cat /etc/apt/sources.list

Sample output:

deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.0.0 Jessie - Official amd64 CD Binary-1 20150425-12:54]/ jessie main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.0.0 Jessie - Official amd64 CD Binary-1 20150425-12:54]/ jessie main

#deb mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in/debian/ jessie main #deb-src mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in/debian/ jessie main

#deb security.debian.org jessie/updates main #deb-src security.debian.org jessie/updates main

jessie-updates, previously known as ‘volatile’

#deb mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in/debian/ jessie-updates main #deb-src mirror.cse.iitk.ac.in/debian/ jessie-updates main

#deb security.debian.org jessie/updates main contrib non-free #deb-src security.debian.org jessie/updates main contrib non-free #deb http.us.debian.org/debian jessie main contrib non-free

deb file:/var/www/html/packages/amd64/ /

Please note that I have disabled all external repository list in the above file except the local repository. Now update source list with following command:

apt-get update

Testing Repository

I am going to install vsftpd package from my local repository.

apt-get install vsftpd

Sample output:

Reading package lists… Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done The following NEW packages will be installed: vsftpd 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B/165 kB of archives. After this operation, 374 kB of additional disk space will be used. WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated! vsftpd Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y Preconfiguring packages … Selecting previously unselected package vsftpd. (Reading database … 40161 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking vsftpd (from …/amd64/./vsftpd_3.0.2-18_amd64.deb) … Processing triggers for man-db … Setting up vsftpd (3.0.2-18) … Starting FTP server: vsftpd.

As you seen in the above output, i will able to install vsftpd package from my local repository. Configure Clients

After creating the catalog file, go to your client systems. Open /etc/apt/sources.list file.

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the server repository location as shown below. Comment out all sources list except the local repository.

deb 192.168.1.150/packages/amd64/ /

For 32 bit systems:

deb 192.168.1.150/packages/i386/ /

Note: Put a space between deb and 192.168.1.150/packages/amd64/ and /.