Re: how to reinstall all? Alias: how to dup. an installation ?
Hi, Paolo!
>
> Q. Is it possible to copy an installation from a PC to another?
> A. Yes (of course :-)
>
> Q. HOW ???
> A. .......................
>
Here what we do to synchronise 4 Linux boxes:
1. Pick one to be your master.
2. set all lovely products that you want on it
3. Run "dpkg --get-selections > packages.list" on that mode
4. Redistribute this file "packages.list" on all other nodes
5. Run "cat packages.list | dpkg --set-selections" on each node
6. On each node run "dselect" and hit "Install"
All steps except 6 could be done in some smart script. Use ONLY SSH for
copying and remote commands. (There are quite a few hot heads on the Internet
these days). Unfortunately dselect requires that you answer certain
questions, so the last step I repeat on each node. Perhaps there is a way to
automate even that, but I don't know how.
> Ciao,
> I want to format my HD and reinstall all the system, but I don't want to forget the list of
> installed packages (or reinstall them by hand...).
>
Well, I'll give you an answer on somewhat different question, but perhaps it
could be of some use. A friend of mind just lost his "slink" system to
crackers and wanted to reinstall "slink" starting from hamm CDROM. Here are
steps that I would recommend.
-1. SAVE ALL /etc /home and other importand directories.
0. Prepare your old list of packages:
dpkg --get-selections > packages.list
1. Install BASIC (25 Mb) installation from HAMM from CDROM
2. You want APT. Manually install packages in the following order:
dpkg -i libc6_2.0.7u-4.deb
dpkg -i libstdc++2.9_2.91.57-5.deb
dpkg -i apt_0.1.7.deb
You can get them (actually later versions now from slink)
3. Set new /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian slink main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/mirrors/linux/debian-non-US unstable non-US
4. Run dselect, "update" "install" to update your Base system
5. Take packages.list from your original setup
6. Run
cat packages.list | dpkg --set-selections
7. Run dselect and hit "Install" (you can glance thru select as well)
Hope that helps,
Sasha.
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