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View Full Version : [ubuntu] Update new install with apps from a dying drive?



SylentO
December 17th, 2010, 11:22 PM
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! I had an old laptop (POS) with Lucid installed. I was updating to Maverick via Update manager. Well, I had a feeling my HDD was failing but it finally bit the dust on me, and the laptop never booted up properly after the update... I then put together a new laptop with a new drive, I can connect my old drive via USB to the new Lappy, and pull any essential data over to the new system, my question is....
How do I import the list of apps I used to run into the new lappy, to have Aptitude or apt pull down and reload everything I "was" using? I figure there is a simple way, just not sure how to do it from a non-running distro via usb connection.... Any advice??

gmargo
December 18th, 2010, 12:36 AM
All the data on what packages are installed is contained under the /var/lib/dpkg/ directory.

It's all in the status file - every installed package has the word "installed" on it's Status: line.

However, it's probably easiest to just get the directory listing of the /var/lib/dpkg/info/ directory. Just look at all the files named *.list:


cd ..../var/lib/dpkg/info
ls *.list | sed 's/\.list$//'

SylentO
December 20th, 2010, 05:31 PM
Thanks ever so greatly gmargo! That's exactly what I was needing.. Thank again, and happy holidays to you and yours.