Re: HELP - Screwed Up Package Listings

[paul <paul@cvanet.com>]

Hi Chris,
> HELP - I've royally screwed up my dselect package listing.  I was working in
> dselect to get rid of packages that I never use on my server (games, xemacs,
> etc) and had a finger slip that removed a required package and exited to the
> menu.  Now almost every package is set to remove.  How can I get the packages
> list rebuilt?
> 
> If this has to be done manually, is there a way to force apt/dselect to
> downgrade to slink (the slink cd is in the cd changer on the machine and the
> machine is currently running potato)?
> 
Look in the directory /var/lib/dpkg at the files status *. there should be a "status-old" file that MAY match your package listing before your dselect screw-up.  If it does match, then rename this file to "status" and run dselect to check it.  If not, then look at the files "status.yesterday.*", one of them may match your actual and/or desired status.  If this is so, then copy that file to "./status".  I've done this when in a similar situation, and suffered no ill effects.  I hope this is what you're looking for.

-ptw