Comments on: Howto Reinstall all of currently installed packages in fresh Ubuntu install

By: linuxpusher

linuxpusher — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:38:31 +0000

Thanks But it does not work if packages are missing pieces, which is an ongoing issue for me.

By: jonny rocket

jonny rocket — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 21:25:31 +0000

i always wondered about this. now it makes it a breeze to re-install.

By: Arun

Arun — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 01:34:51 +0000

Your post was really Awesome !
Thanks for the help Dude !

By: Lakosshoots

Lakosshoots — Sun, 30 May 2010 23:16:59 +0000

nice one. helped a lot

By: admin

admin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:34:48 +0000

@spuffler - I have updated the article

By: spuffler

spuffler — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:44:43 +0000

As krsfer said…. you MUST check “save full state, not just changes”. I found out that simply launching Synaptic and doing the “save markings” thing but WITHOUT check marking the “save full state…” option will produce a zero byte file, totally empty. Would be quite annoying if you went to recover by reading from a zero byte file. I’d suppose that “apt-get” will need similar instructions.

Be a good lad, add the “save full state, not just changes” information to the main article.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:41:18 +0000

Does Jens’ idea using debconf work when upgrading? i.e. can I backup details of my currently installed packages and then reinstall them after upgrading to the latest release?

By: jens

jens — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 16:07:23 +0000

Hello,

what I use (from command line (in my backup scripts)) is this:
dpkg --get-selections > /var/backups/dpkg-selections.txt
debconf-get-selections > /var/backups/debconf-selections.txt

The second line requires debconf-utils to be installed.

after installation of a new sytem you can then simply feed them back using:
debconf-set-selections debconf-selections.txt
dpkg --set-selections < dpkg-selections.txt

Jens

By: jab

jab — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:08:54 +0000

Funny, usually the only reason I “re-install” Linux ever is because I have too much crap on my machine. Things that looked cool so I installed, played with it for a few days and then forgot about. I rarely want to re-install all (any?) of that stuff.

For me at least, it is very therapeutic to “start fresh” when things get bogged down. I make sure I save off all configs (usually just keep a copy of /etc is sufficient) and re-install. The stuff I added to the system which I use all of the time will missing and obvious right off the bat. But installation is (usually) dead simple and quick with package managers they way they are today. The stuff I never touched after initial install/play time will be gone and I will be none the wiser and I get some system resources (even if it is just disk space) back that I never knew I had.

By: Bit Hacker

Bit Hacker — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:58:08 +0000

$ sudo apt-get install aptoncd
Or via Add/Remove…

Take a look at this (not relavent to APTONCD)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=688872 [How to make live DVD from your current HD installation.]

By: Ivan Simeon

Ivan Simeon — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:24:57 +0000

How to this via apt-get?

You mentioned that it can be done, but didn’t tell how to achieve this…

By: ATOzTOA

ATOzTOA — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:20:49 +0000

I think APTonCD will help…

You can burn all currently installed packages to a CD and later transfer them to the new machine

_ATOzTOA

By: Bit Hacker

Bit Hacker — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 07:35:22 +0000

Gonna try these two tools, thanks Foxh0und

By: foxh0und

foxh0und — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:52:21 +0000

Whoops! I fixed the Reconstructor address: Reconstructor

By: foxh0und

foxh0und — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:08:13 +0000

There are two tools that have helped me in this situation that is worthy of mention: Remastersys and Reconstructor. Both can build a live cd/dvd off your current install in essence creating your own distro to reinstall or share with family or friends (if you choose not to backup your Home folder with all your private files of course.) The problem I found with AptonCD is it doesn't backup my cache, so certain applications not attached to the official repos (buntu or deb) are not backed up. Hope this helps. Remastersys Reconstructor

By: Bit Hacker

Bit Hacker — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 09:46:29 +0000

Has anybody heard of AptOnCD…….http://aptoncd.sourceforge.net/ “Create APTonCD” feature we have the possibility to make a CD/DVD with all previously downloaded packages with apt-get or aptitude.

By: Brett Howard

Brett Howard — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:52:22 +0000

Now if there was only a way to backup only the ones that you’d added since a base install. So that you could use it after an upgrade and not end up pulling back in older kernels and things of that nature…

By: Jerad

Jerad — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:39:47 +0000

You should really specify in the how-to that you have to check the “Save full state, not only changes” box when you save the current package list. I just tried this trick to copy my downloaded packages to a second computer and it didnt do anything. It’d have been tragic had I reformatted my computer…

By: t0m5k1

t0m5k1 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:59:04 +0000

worked a treat thnx

By: Nyarnon

Nyarnon — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:23:18 +0000

This is one of those simple but pretty perls that made me add this RSS to my Google reader.