Install previously downloaded Jetpack SDK

I have downloaded the Jetpack SDK comfortably at my workspace to just install it later, close to where the Jetson Xavier is mounted. However the installation process still needs an awfully large amount of download space while ‘Offline’-installation.

Is this correct? And if so what is the point of ‘Download now install later’ if still a huge download needs to be done?

P.S. Instructions are taken from here: https://docs.nvidia.com/sdk-manager/offline-install/index.html

I cannot say exactly, but every flash requires the driver package (which SDKM downloads for you) to run the operation, plus the sample root filesystem (which is the basis of the flashed image). These together are probably a couple of GB in size. The image which gets generated for actual flash is enormous, as it is a bit-for-bit exact copy of the entire root filesystem partition, plus all of the other partitions (so basically about 32GB just in temporary files). There is even a “sparse” version of the “raw” rootfs, and this adds a couple more GB in space requirements.

The SDKM also offers to install optional packages, e.g., CUDA, and thus the download area can contain all of those “.deb” files. Some of those are for the Jetson (arm64), and others are for the host PC, and so you might end up with two seemingly “the same” “.deb” files, although they are for different architectures. These are not necessary during flash, but after flash any install of the “extras” does require those files (there are exceptions possible with more recent release so far as the Jetson side goes).

If you just want to flash, then all you need is the content of the “Linux_for_Tegra/” subdirectory. This is the content of the “driver package” plus “sample rootfs”, and technically does not even require SDK Manager (which is really a front end to flashing and does not do the flash operation itself). If you’ve ever flashed with SDKM, then you’ll already have that content.

You might want to mention more about what you want to do/keep, versus what options you are willing to get rid of to save space.

I am aware that this much space is needed and initially I made enough space. At this point I believe that the checks whether there is enough space can be improved. It seems that the application checks at the very beginning if the needed space is available. It is not considering how much what is already there and how much is downloaded.

Obviously I have not investigated it further, but those are the thoughts that crossed my mind. In case someone else experiences something similar there is a place to communicate it now.

Thank you for your extensive response @linuxdev. It made me aware of lots of alternative ways! Appreciate it!