[SOLVED] offline install

Question

Hey fellow Archers.
I am attempting to install Archlinux onto my lappy so i can move that away from Xubuntu
point 1:
The reason for me doing this 'offline' is that i ONLY have a 3G connection to the internet & want to keep my bandwidth usage down to a total minimum so as to avoid astronomic bill (I live in South Afric & my provider is MTN = big bandwidth costs)
So i have a snapshot of my pacman cache from my Desktop which i have copied to my usb thumb drive.
I originally attempted this using the old media (CORE 2011.08.19) once i got that installed i faced some issue's with the initial update (using my cache), i followed the wikki & still faced problems so i jumped into the IRC channel requesting some small advice re the filesystem & glibc issue's  & was promptly told to get the new iso & read the wikki!!!!!!!! (did they not see the background i gave & that i stated i had read the wikki & still had issue's)
So now i have the latest media (downloaded in a quick 8 hours!!!) i am booted into it & now i am trying t use my pac cache (mounted as /mnt2)
my target for this install is
/dev/sdb8 mounted at /mnt
the commands i have tried so far:
[initially i wanted to do it the arch way & first mounted my usb stick to /mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg]
pacstrap /mnt base <<<<this began to download so i had to cancel (see point 1)
[remounted usb drive as /mnt2]
pacman --root /mnt --cachedir /mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg --dbpath /mnt/var/lib/pacman --logfile /mnt/var/log/pacman.log -U *
this gave the following error:
error:'/mnt2/pkg/accountsservice-0.6.18-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz': duplicate target
how can I move forward with this?
i have tried to use pacserve but that just redirects to my desktop mirror list thus downloading what i already have!
I did ask this question on IRC but was not given much advice & was mainly told the channel was created by someone who hated arch & that the IRC channel is not helpful as it is full of n00bs!
however one guy did respond nicley & pointed me in the right direction but alas i still face the above issue
thanks in advance for any & all responses
Last edited by t0m5k1 (2012-08-08 10:30:42)

Answer 1

ngoonee wrote:
Use arch-chroot as mentioned in the wiki. Before that, mount your root to /mnt or wherever and then mount your cache to /mnt/var/cache/pacman/pkg.
EDIT: if you have terrible and expensive Internet you should probably not use Arch....
i tried to
arch-chroot /mnt
mount: mountpoint /mnt/etc/resolv.conf does not exist
chroot: failed to run command /bin/sh: no such file or directory
umount: /mnt/etc/resolv.conf: not found
I gathered this was due to me not having a base install (which is contained in my package cache)
I already use Arch on my Desktop, i just do not see the point in re-downloading something which I already have as it is a pure waste of my pricey bandwidth.
Thought:
I have noticed that I am being told from multiple people (forum/IRC) that perhaps Arch is not for me!!!!
WHY I love this distro, I have tried so many before which have never come close to what i want which is what I find in Arch but I guess some do not want this to get popular & to think I was considering making a donation why should I if I am being told to go away!
Last edited by t0m5k1 (2012-08-08 09:05:02)