Prepping Your Computers For an Internet Outage
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An internet connection is central to how we go about our lives. In the event of an internet outage that could last days or weeks, a bit of preparation, a bunch of disk space, and time to download a few resources are all you’ll need to prepare. Here is how you can host your own local services in the case of an internet outage.
The USB
Our installer USB provides a fully working PureOS live environment running from the USB drive it’s on. This feature means you can try out PureOS on a computer, and if you choose, you can reinstall with PureOS
The live environment can also troubleshoot or access data from a computer that can’t fully boot, so it’s an excellent platform for disaster recovery.
This is also the perfect tool to convert a computer into a PureOS computer. But how can you make that base install truly useful offline? Let’s dig in.
Repo Mirroring
Our software repositories contain only freedom-respecting software where the source is entirely available. To install software while offline, you’ll need to set up a local mirror. You’ll need at least 150GB of free disk space in /var/spool/apt-mirror/.
We provide standard tools like apt-mirror, debmirror and ftpsync to create the local repository. For this example, we’ll focus on apt-mirror. First, install apt-mirror and apache with the following command:
sudo apt install apt-mirror apache2You can host this on any Librem device including the Librem 5 by linking a large sdcard to this folder:
mv /var/spool/apt-mirror /media/purism/<sdcard>
ln -s /media/purism/<sdcard>/apt-mirror /var/spool/apt-mirrorNext edit /etc/apt/mirror.list with the following:
#PureOS
deb https://repo.pureos.net/pureos byzantium main
deb https://repo.pureos.net/pureos byzantium-updates main
deb https://repo.pureos.net/pureos byzantium-security main
deb-arm64 https://repo.pureos.net/pureos byzantium main
deb-arm64 https://repo.pureos.net/pureos byzantium-updates main
deb-arm64 https://repo.pureos.net/pureos byzantium-security mainYou can now start the first mirroring with:
su - apt-mirror -c apt-mirror
This will take a while to complete.
This script will update the mirror and download changes to the translation files. Copy it to /sbin/ and add the execute bit.
To update automatically every day, edit /etc/cron.d/apt-mirror with the following.
0 9 * root /sbin/PureOSrepomirror > /var/spool/apt-mirror/var/cron.log
This will update the mirror at 9 am daily.
Setup Apache2
Apache is web server software we will use to host this mirror over HTTP. You’ll need to link a few directories to your web folder to expose the mirror.
ln -s /var/spool/apt-mirror/mirror/repo.pureos.net/pureos /var/www/html/pureos
You should now be able to browse the mirror by going to your mirror server’s IP. To find the IP run this command
hostname -I
From a browser, it should look like this:
Setup PureOS mirror
To use the mirror on any PureOS computer on your network, edit /etc/apt/sources.list with the following. Add a # to “comment out” or disable the other lines. and add in your repository, substitute my 10.250.10.42 address with your mirror server’s IP.
#deb https://repo.pureos.net/pureos byzantium main
deb http://10.250.10.42/pureos byzantium main
#deb https://repo.pureos.net/pureos byzantium-updates main
deb http://10.250.10.42/pureos byzantium-updates main
#deb https://repo.pureos.net/pureos byzantium-security main
deb http://10.250.10.42/pureos byzantium-security mainWith that done, you can run apt update and install packages like normal. This works for any PureOS computer, including the Librem 5 phone.
Using your repo mirror and an installer ISO, new computers can be imaged with PureOS and software installed entirely offline. You can install documentation, games, or anything you would have been able to install from the repo before.
Kiwix
If you’ve ever looked up a random question on the internet, you are probably familiar with Stack Exchange. This is an online community dedicated to solving and answering common issues. If you run into a coding question or need to know when not to use WD-40, looking at what others have done is a quick way to get going. Using Kiwix from our software repo, you can offline or download a good chunk of the threads you may ever want to visit. This app has a massive catalog of indexed information. Kiwix makes it simple to download all of Wikipedia and download many knowledge base resources. This covers everything from home repair to 3d animation to geography.
The ZIM files themselves are offline databases and take up a lot of disk space.
To search in one, select it to start browsing. You can choose an article or search using a keyword or phrase.
Media Server
Controlling your own media server is beneficial with an internet connection but becomes invaluable without one. Even when the wider internet is down, your server can become a local oasis ready to stream to anything on your home network.
Using a software respecting tool like Jellyfin, getting going is simple. While it’s not in our PureOS repos, this is well packaged and only takes a few commands to get running. If you’d like to make sure you have this app installable in an emergency, you can easily download the .deb for offline installation. Jellyfin provides plugins for many popular “smart TV” platforms as well as a web interface much like other streaming services; the difference is you are entirely in control of the content.
Wrap up
Don’t be stuck wanting an app, information or entertainment; prepare now, and you’ll have your own software oasis no matter what happens to the broader internet. Offline? Have an install party on your local network and reimage your friend’s computer with something that still works.
Purism Products and Availability Chart
| Model | Status | Lead Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Librem Key (Made in USA) | In Stock ($59+) | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 5 | In Stock ($699+) 3GB/32GB | 10 business days | |
| Librem 5 COMSEC Bundle | In Stock ($1299+) Qty 2; 3GB/32GB | 10 business days | |
| Liberty Phone (Made in USA Electronics) | Backorder ($1,999+) 4GB/128GB | Estimated fulfillment February | |
| Librem 5 + SIMple (3 GB Data) | In Stock ($99/mo) | 10 business days | |
| Librem 5 + SIMple Plus (5 GB Data) | In Stock ($129/mo) | 10 business days | |
| Librem 5 + AweSIM (Unlimited Data) | In Stock ($169/mo) | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 11 | In Stock ($999+) 8GB/1TB | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 14 | Backorder ($1,370+) | Estimated fulfillment December | |
 | Librem Mini | Backorder ($799+) | 10 business days | |
 | Librem Server | In Stock ($2,999+) | 45 business days |
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