[Tex/LaTex] MiKTeX: […] does not seem to be a local package repository

errorsinstallingmiktexpackages

I used MiKTeX 2.9 on windows.
I have downloaded a package I want to install from the internet (manually, not through MiKTeX). The archive (*.lmza) containing the package was saved to a directory on my C:\ drive.
Through MikTeX -> Maintenance -> Settings -> Packages -> Change…
I can select the directory in which I have saved the archive containing the package.
However, if I choose Packages shall be installed from a directory and choose the location of the package, I get this error message:
C:\my\package\is\here does not seem to be a local package repository.
What does it take for a directory/folder to become a local package repository?

Best Answer

In addition to any package archive you store in any directory, at least these three other files need to be present:

miktex-zzdb1-2.9.tar.lzma
miktex-zzdb2-2.9.tar.lzma
miktex-zzdb3-2.9.tar.lzma

These three contain the complete package list. Once those archives are present, the directory/folder can be specified as local package repository

These CURRENT archives can be found at CTAN.
Use this Link above and in browser search for miktex-zz

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] MiKTeX savesym package not found

Looking into http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/ctan/systems/win32/miktex/tm/packages/ I see there is savesym archived as savesym.tar.lzma, but according to your log file the (older) CAB version was requested. For the reason I can only guess, that this mirror was not up to date some days ago (it is now).

So some general hints:

You can check whether your selected mirror is (officially) up to date on MiKTeX Package Repositories.
On each update a file mpm.ini is updated first. This can also be found in archive miktex-zzdb1-2.9.tar.lzma on each mirror. For savesym you can among other entries read there:
```
[savesym]
Type=TarLzma
```
So, if you’d get this error message again, you could check, if there would be a inconsistency.

[Tex/LaTex] Creating a local package repository for offline installation of MikTex

These steps outline installing miktex itself, and then installing packages from a local repo. The local repo contains .tar.lzma files, as well as miktex-zzdb1-2.9.tar.lzma and miktex-zzdb2-2.9.tar.lzma. Packages to install are described as a comma separated list.

$appInstaller points to the basic-miktex-2.9.6643-x64.exe. $miktexPackageInstaller points to mpm.exe, which is located in hte miktex program file directory after install.

# install miktex unattended, for all users (requires admin). uses cmd args shown from -h option
Start-Process -Wait "$appInstaller" -ArgumentList "--auto-install=yes --unattended --shared"

Start-Process -Wait "$miktexPackageInstaller" -argumentList "--admin --repository=$localPackageRepo --install=package1,package2,package3"