can we get standard ubuntu desktop service pack? need to use for virtual machine for testing purpose, can't afford frequent update from internet

You can make your own with aptoncd which will use the downloaded debs in a system (you can make apt-get pull them down again if you want), or you can use the daily build ISO to update with

Thanks, I shall try this option and post if gets any problem

Thanks Eliah Kagan, that solved my question.

Now is there any way, suppose I need list of packages from archieves folder only for specific applications say virtualbox or say vlc application. How can i achieve that? I mean package and if its having any supported library of packages?

I am just backing up everything in archieve and dumping in archieve of new machine and simple run install command as per the ref doc.

A solution like aptoncd or Keryx looks especially good given these requirements.

However, if you still don't want to do that, you can simulate the installation of a package on the new machine first by updating your local package information if you have not done so recently (which *does* access the Internet, but only downloads a small amount):

sudo apt-get update

And then by running the simulation--this simulates installation of vlc:

apt-get -s install vlc

That will tell you what other packages have to be installed for vlc to be installed. There might not be any. In any case, you can then grab the .deb files for those packages and for the vlc package from the /var/cache/apt/archives folder on a system that already has them, or from a backup of that folder. Make sure the package versions are the same--if they are not, then there has been an update, and you are usually best-off downloading the update (though you might want to update the "master" machine first and then copy the updates files to the other machines).

As you might be beginning to guess, using aptoncd or Keryx soon becomes far easier than syncing packages manually.

However, if you have one machine that has all the packages installed that you'll need on your other machines, but you don't need to have all those packages installed on your other machines, but you have enough space on the other machines to store the files from /var/cache/apt/archives, then you can simply copy the packages. If vlc is installed on the master machine and one of the secondary machines has all the .deb files for everything installed on the master machine, then it will have the .deb files for everything that has to be installed as dependencies for everything that is installed on the master machine (because the master machine must have those files too). Of course, the same situation, where you need to manually update, will arise here when an update to vlc (or perhaps to one of its dependencies) is released.

So again, you should use aptoncd or Keryx or something like that.

Finally, I noticed that you said you cannot afford to download frequent security updates. But security updates are not actually very frequent. If you are willing to go without updates that provide fixes for serious stability and usability bugs, and just get updates that fix security vulnerabilities, then in your Software Sources (click Settings... at the lower-left corner of the Update Manager), you can disable the -updates repository (make sure the -proposed and -backports repositories are disabled also), making sure to keep -security enabled. You'll want to re-enable -updates if you install new software that you're downloading onto the machine anyway (because it is better to install a later, more stable version from -updates than an earlier less stable release version or earlier less stable -security version, where both exist).

Again, you may notice the complexity of this approach, and its undesirability (you don't get stability/usability updates). I recommend aptoncd or Keryx or something like that.

Dear Eliah,

Thanks for your detailed information. This information will definitely help me in many more aspects about this subject.