How to install programs using setup

[excough]

hello everybody! i have been using ubuntu for sometime now but i have this problem of installing softwares, i dont have internet connection on my pc so i cant install directly. but the main issue is last time i tried using a setup but i could't do it, so can somebody help me on how to install softwares using setup and where to get softwares.
Secondly, i can't play media files mp3, via, wma and other formats except the ones with .ogg other open sourse formats

[reed9]

Not sure what you mean by "using setup" to install software.

https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/add-app...C/offline.html

Install Applications in Ubuntu without Internet - Guide - PlanetOSS

[excough]

i meant installing from non-ubuntu cd or downloaded software on a flash drive.

more explainations-------i downloaded the software setup on a different machine and then copied it onto my flashdrive or burnt onto a cd later. and i wanted to install that software on ubuntu just as we do on windows xp by clicking on the installer or setup file to follow the installation instructions.
please try and help because i cant play mp3 files, i cant install compilers and other softwares

Thank you very much

[reed9]

For the most part in linux, programs are not self-contained, ie, there isn't just one file that has everything you need to run the program. They depend on an array of shared libraries and other programs. Which is a more efficient use of the computers resources, but means you can't just click and install - well, you can, if you have an internet connection, and the installer downloads everything you need to run the program.

Point being, to do an offline installation of a lot of stuff, you need to have all the other packages required as dependencies. The links I posted can help you do that.

If your goal is primarily to get multimedia support, you might consider getting hold of Linux Mint, which is one of the few distros that included non-free software out of the box, and will play back most media fine.

[coopstah13]

I'm not sure if you're trying to install windows software or not, but software isn't installed the same way as it is on windows. If you don't have internet access, ubuntu is probably not the best distro to be using. Debian is a good distro to use as it has many cd's/dvd's of the software and you can use them to install offline.

[excough]

anyway i will continue using my windows, since i cant get other distros in my country
thank you very much

[minthaka]

That means, you are not able to download any packages at all? Since if you are able to connect to the internet, we can help you how to do that! It's easy even easier than on WinXP. As I remeber, by default you cannot play .mp3 files on Windows either. On Linux you have package managers, so you don't have to hunt for files over the internet. Just open synaptic ( *buntu, Debian...), refresh the package lists, and you can install as many of softwares as you want to. For media support, just download the gstreamer packages, and you'll be able to listen to whatever you want.

Let me tell you a story, that would console you:
I was in the same shoe as you are. Living in an underdeveloped country, with the need to install programs on different PCs without internet access. People living on the "Western hemisphere" cannot understand what does it mean to be without internet access. The entire philosophy of .DEB packages was built on a (wrong) hypothesis that the online repositories are available for everybody. Now, when you install Ubuntu on a PC connected to the web, this is not a problem, since you can download all the stuff you want to. But as soon as you're trying to move those packages you're running into serious troubles, especially if you're a newbie. You have two choices: to use AptonCD and have multiple versions of the libraries . This is a very important thing. Unfortunately I didn't have many successes with AptonCD. It crashes usually. The other possibility is to use command dpkg-scanpackage which is not supporting multiple versions, so you are risking to get unsatisfied dependencies if you want to use what you need, a local repository. The real solution is:
1. Get a PC which is connected to the web
2. Install a Suse or Mandriva Linux (RPM rules!)
3. Install all the packages you think you will need on the isolated PC.
4. Collect the downloaded packages to a folder and copy them onto your USB or a CD / DVD
5. Install Linux on the isolated PC.
6. Copy the folder with RPMs to the hard drive.
7. Add that folder as a repository, and there will be no problems at all.

I use to use this method when I install Linux onto an unknown hardware, because I have to have all the dependencies satisfied, and this is easy to achieve, but not with .deb distros.
One more thing. Mandriva comes with preinstalled packages for multimedia.
(Deb-fans, please don't hate me!)

[D-cat]

Except SuSE doesn't play mp3 or other restricted formats out of the box either (but being a DVD distro, it does contain just about anything else you could want). Mirroring the WINE and VLC repositories for local use would make OpenSuSE a good contender.

If all you're looking for is out-of-the-box media playback, there are a few good distros for this. Already mentioned is Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu. There's also Vector which I was surprised to find contains media codecs out of the box, and it's a slackware lightweight, so it works good on older hardware. It also relies on an Internet connection for extras from a repository, but there's not a lot that you would need.

If you intend to be able to run some Windows programs, grab WINE.