Need help with apt and offline computer

[Preben Randhol <randhol@pvv.org>]

I have tried to follow the description in /usr/doc/apt/offline.text.gz,
but I cannot get it to work.

What I do:

   I take the status file from my offline computer to my online and then
   I do what the description says about setting the APT_CONFIG variable
   and my apt.conf is identical to the one in the doc. I then run
   apt-get update and apt-get upgrade or apt-get install
   task-helix-gnome or some other package.

   I take with me the whole disc directory home and unpack it on my
   computer. Then I do what it says but if I try apt-get .... upgrade it
   says that it is going to install a lot of files, but when I press y
   it just stops nothing happens. Other times it wants to download
   eventhough I have the --no-download. So I always end up doing a lot
   of dpkg -i -E *, dpkg --pending --configure, dpkg -r ... until all is
   in place.

   I also try the second aproach where one define where the archive is,
   but apt-get only says it cannot find the package...

Is there somebody out there who has a working way of using apt-get on
both machines so that I can get this process less painful?

I'm using Debian testing on both machines now with some packages from
unstable: 
   gnat 
   gvd (great debugger!!)
   ligtkada1-{art|dev|gnome|glade|gl} 

mainly.

Thanks in advance.

--
Preben Randhol ------------------- http://www.pvv.org/~randhol/ --
                 «For me, Ada95 puts back the joy in programming.»