apt-get not working behind restricted internet access

Question

I have boxes running in a company but they have internet browsing and firewalls for security.

When I do apt-get update or install it fails. But I have a remote server which ip is only allowed to have access.

How can I tell apt-get to go to my cloud server and via the cloud server get the packages downloaded or updated?

Solution 1

Do you have a proxy at your company? If so, you can set the proxy before running the apt-get update logged in as root first:

export http_proxy=http://host:port
apt-get update

Using sudo:

sudo http_proxy=http://host:port apt-get update

If your proxy requires authentication, you can set it in the URL (beware that the password will be saved in history as plain text):

http://username:password@host:port

Solution 2

The permanent method to set the apt-get proxy are as follows:

• Modifying the apt.conf file. Edit the /etc/apt/apt.conf or create a new file under /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ with the following content:

  Acquire::http::Proxy "http://user:password@proxyiporhost:port";
  Acquire::https::Proxy "http://user:password@proxyiporhost:port";
  Acquire::ftp::Proxy "http://user:password@proxyiporhost:port";
  

• Calling apt-get with the --options/-o switch. This method allows you to determine the proxy at run time, giving you the ability of an adhoc proxy:

  sudo apt-get -o Acquire::http::Proxy=http://user:password@proxyiporhost:port update
  

  You can get as many -o you need.

• Using a configuration file. This is a mix between each of previous methods since it won't be a permanent that you have to modify each time you change networks and you can switch on/off as you see fit. For that we will need the -c option. We only need to create a file with the content like the first method and tell apt-get to read it with the switch:

  sudo apt-get -c proxy.conf update
  

Comments

[Admin]

If you use a proxy take a look at the answer from Hugo. There is more information here

[Admin]

@WarrenHill that wiki is misinforming, I've never seen apt-get use users environment variables to set the proxy. The only environment variable apt-get will ever use is APT_CONFIG.

[Admin]

@Braiam I don't use a proxy so I'm not in a position to test but I've sent a lot of users to that page in the past and most of them have reported that it fixed their problems. Also the OP has accepted the answer so it presumably worked for them.

[Admin]

@WarrenHill he has another problem with VNC since in an edit he describe the problem. Accepting Hugo's answer seems that has nothing to do.

[Admin]

@yumyumyum I think you are experienced enough to know that answers should be below, not up your question. I rolled back the changes, please post your answer below.

[Braiam]

I would say that the first code block should be used if you are logged as root. If you add sudo su or sudo -i or however you like to login as root, would be the best.