Rick P.
June 2nd, 2016, 02:46 PM
I have a home server set up and running 12.04 very nicely but am getting tired of the "Not all updates can be installed" warnings from old packages that are no longer maintained. I could clean them up but figure I'm due for an upgrade anyway...
The system started out running 8.04 or maybe 9.04 and was upgraded along the way to 12.04 Desktop (not Server) before I actually needed server functions. I added them along the way as i needed them and at this point i don't even remember what they all are. FTP, upsd / upsmon, NTP, smtp, nntp, mdadm (if it's not part of the desktop install), plus Plex, SickBeard and print server services are a few that I can think of. My question is twofold:
1. Is there a tool that shows what packages have been added over time (vs updates to base packages), especially the services I've added on top of 12.04 Desktop? Ideally
dpkg --get-selections > somefile.txt followed by
sudo dpkg --set-selections < somefile.txt && sudo apt-get -u dselect-upgrade
would be sufficient to get be back up and running after I install 16.04 but i don't know if this also works for services / daemons.
2. Assuming it doesn't what besides these should I be looking at backing up?
/home
/root
/etc
/var
/opt
/media
/mnt
If there are files in some of these folders that might hose a 16.04 install if overwritten do you know what they are? This server is the base for our home TV and I'll be drawn and quartered if I take too much time sorting out an upgrade so thoughts / comments would be appreciated.
The system started out running 8.04 or maybe 9.04 and was upgraded along the way to 12.04 Desktop (not Server) before I actually needed server functions. I added them along the way as i needed them and at this point i don't even remember what they all are. FTP, upsd / upsmon, NTP, smtp, nntp, mdadm (if it's not part of the desktop install), plus Plex, SickBeard and print server services are a few that I can think of. My question is twofold:
1. Is there a tool that shows what packages have been added over time (vs updates to base packages), especially the services I've added on top of 12.04 Desktop? Ideally
dpkg --get-selections > somefile.txt followed by
sudo dpkg --set-selections < somefile.txt && sudo apt-get -u dselect-upgrade
would be sufficient to get be back up and running after I install 16.04 but i don't know if this also works for services / daemons.
2. Assuming it doesn't what besides these should I be looking at backing up?
/home
/root
/etc
/var
/opt
/media
/mnt
If there are files in some of these folders that might hose a 16.04 install if overwritten do you know what they are? This server is the base for our home TV and I'll be drawn and quartered if I take too much time sorting out an upgrade so thoughts / comments would be appreciated.