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As we all know that Ubuntu Karmic/Jaunty and other versions come in a limited 700 mb CD, that means to have a computer running properly with Ubuntu requires an Internet connection. Sometimes, we come across hard-drive failures etc., so this creates a problem of downloading all the updates and applications again. Moreover, internet is not available everywhere. So, to solve this, we have an application that will do just fine. APTonCD is a tool with a graphical interface which allows us to create one or more CDs or DVDs with all of the packages we’ve downloaded via ‘apt-get’ , ‘synaptic package manager’, ‘ubuntu software center’ and ‘add/remove’, creating a removable repository that we can use on other computers also. APTonCD also allows you to automatically create media with all of the .deb packages located in one specific repository, so that we can install them into other computers without the need for an Internet connection’. It also serves as a backup to our installed applications, programs and updates.

Download:

all.deb : click here

tar.gz : click here

Installation:

Option 1) If you have downloaded the .deb file (recommended), you just need a double click to go . Easy, isn’t it

Option 2) For the second one, you can easily compile the downloaded source code (tar.gz file) using the following commands in terminal:-

$ tar -xvzf aptoncd-*.tar.gz
$ cd aptoncd/
$ sudo make install

How to Create an APTonCD image :

It creates an image of desired size from packages downloaded via Synaptic Package Manager / Apt-get. It requires Administrator privileges. Don’t worry, just type in the admin password and go.

Note: External packages that were not installed can also be put in the image file.

Steps to create APTonCD image:

1) Selecting installed packages:
By default, all the packages saved in /var/cache/apt/archives/ directory . We have the option to add/remove the packages for APTonCD media just checking/unchecking  them on the list. When we add/remove a package,the total file size is automatically updated.

2) Adding external packages:
We can also add those packages to the APTonCD image that weren’t installed on the system. There are two ways to do this: we can use the ‘Add Package’ button then find and open the .deb package to be added. The other way is simply drag-and-drog the package from hard-drive to APTonCD window.

3) Destination folder for image:
By default, the image generated by APTonCD is saved in /home/user/aptoncd directory . It can be changed by using the option ‘destination folder’ .

4) Burning Created Image:
When an APTonCD image is successfully created, we can burn it into CD/DVD

How to Restore APTonCD :

It restores an image from an already created APTonCD media and allows to select and install packages offline. This also requires Administrator privileges. Also, restoring a .ISO image created using APTonCD is also same.

Steps to restore a created image:

1) Open CD/DVD:-
Put the CD/DVD created by APTonCD in the drive.

2) Selecting packages to recover:-It shows a list with all packages available to restore. By default, all packages are checked, but you can just uncheck the packages at will.

3) Copying files to another system:-
The packages selected are copied from the APTonCD media to /var/cache/apt/archives/ directory.In this way,the packages are available and you can install them using apt-get or synaptic without need to download them.

It’s an easy way to get all the required softwares and packages to run Ubuntu just fine.

Note: By default, latest versions of all softwares are restored.

Njoy !!!