Current version 0.1.34
No offline installer is staged on this instance yet; the online installer above still works on a connected computer.
Put the platform and the apps you want on one USB stick and carry it to the computer. Nothing on the stick needs internet, one stick installs any number of apps at once, and every install checks what is already present first — the platform, each app and each library go on only once.
pol apps usb write /media/$USER/<stick> --apps all # or --apps gears,terms; --platform yes pol apps usb list # Polari finds a prepared stick pol apps usb install # or open the Isle App Store: "From a USB stick"
Plug it in and it asks. The stick offers Install, Not now or Wipe the stick; after an install is confirmed finished (every package present) it can wipe itself back to an empty drive, keep itself, or ask — your choice when writing it (--after-install ask|wipe|keep). On a computer that already has Polari, Polari watches for the stick. On one that does not, the desktop itself offers to run it when the stick is ext4 (pol apps usb prepare /dev/sdX --fs ext4); a FAT stick cannot start anything by itself, so open it and run polari-apps/on-insert.sh.
Writing a stick never formats it; the files go under polari-apps/ next to whatever is on the drive. A wipe only ever touches a removable drive, names it first, and needs a second yes.
Get Ubuntu and Polari onto it together: probe it from a USB stick, choose what it becomes, and install from the same stick — unattended.
Apps are installed separately, after Polari. Every app comes as Install (the app itself) or Access only (its shell), online or offline.
Not built yet — honestly. Here is what this will offer once it is: everything the normal install fetches from the internet, prepared as a set of files sized to DVDs or USB sticks (several — the payload is bigger than one). You download each disk's file list on a connected computer, write the files to the media, and install on the offline machine from those.
Open Isle App Store from your applications menu. It will walk you through creating your own isle or joining an existing one — passwords are asked by the system itself, never typed into a terminal.
The standard installer format on Ubuntu and other Debian-family Linux — the equivalent of a setup file on other systems. Your computer's own Software Install app reads it, shows what will be installed, and asks for your password through the system dialog. Nothing runs until you approve it.
Each piece builds on the one before it. Your computer's installer checks that the earlier pieces are already in place but cannot download them for you — so going top to bottom is what makes every install succeed on the first try. Option A avoids the question entirely: one file, one install.
Pre-prepped files are built ahead of time and sit ready on this server, so the download starts instantly. Generated on demand files are packaged fresh at the moment you ask for them — you wait briefly while the server builds your copy, and the server deletes its copy after delivery instead of keeping a duplicate on disk. Each item on these pages says which kind it is.
Supporting software the apps need (for example Docker) comes from Ubuntu's own official repositories during the install — fetched by your system's package manager, from the same place all your other Ubuntu software comes from. Nothing is fetched from anywhere else.
Programs install into the system software areas (/usr, /opt) and app data lives under /var/lib/polari. The .deb file you downloaded is only the delivery vehicle — once the install finishes it is safe to delete from your Downloads folder.
Several computers, or not sure what you need? Plan your setup — three questions, a per-device proposal.
Want more? Add individual apps — every module this instance knows, packaged on request.
Installing from a CD/DVD or USB stick with no internet: see the offline install page — it says honestly whether the media set is built yet.