Ubuntu – How to back up the ubuntu packages/settings/etc so that it can be restored from a clean install

backupinstallation

I need to reinstall Ubuntu, but it doesn't have anything to do with wanting to clean my system or 'start fresh.' I have my stuff pretty fine tuned, so I want to redo as little as possible.

Best Answer

In brief

Backup you $HOME or whatever partition, logical volumes that contains your personal data
Get a list of the installed packages dpkg --get-selections > pkg.list keep the file
When restoring the packages sudo dpkg --set-selections < /path/to/pkg.list and sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade
Backup your /etc if you can't remember what changes you have made for tuning

You can use tar or rsync over SSH to a remote host. I personally recommend booting using a USB/DVD Live (e.g. Ubuntu Desktop or System Rescue CD) and do the backup just to avoid file lock issues, always safer;-)

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Ubuntu – Clean install from Ubuntu 10.04 to LUbuntu 10.10 without losing data

It's entirely possible to do just that. Simply run the installer, and when you get to the partitioning options, go for manual partitioning, and mark your single partition as root (/) BUT DO NOT FORMAT IT.

Proceed from here as normal and the installer will simply overwrite the existing system files, and anything else that isn't a system file (such as the contents of your home directory) will be ignored. I've done it myself, though I was reinstalling my Ubuntu 10.04 installation, rather than moving to a separate distro, but I can't see there being any problem with that.

Good luck.

Ubuntu – How to remove packages using preseed

There isn't an option to purge o delete a package in the preseed configuration script but you can use this command....

d-i preseed/late_command

This command is run just before the install finishes, but when there is
still a usable /target directory. You can chroot to /target and use it
directly, or use the apt-install and in-target commands to easily install
packages and run commands in the target system.
"in-target" means: chroot /target
d-i preseed/late_command string [in-target] foo

example :

d-i preseed/late_command string \
            in-target apt-get remove packagename

you can also run a script :

d-i preseed/late_command string \
        in-target wget http://........./postinst.sh -O /root/postinst.sh; \
        in-target /bin/bash /root/postinst.sh

or install a group of DEB files :

d-i preseed/late_command               string \
    for deb in /hd-media/*.deb; do cp $deb /target/tmp; \
    chroot /target dpkg -i /tmp/$(basename $deb); done

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Ubuntu – Clean install from Ubuntu 10.04 to LUbuntu 10.10 without losing data

Ubuntu – How to remove packages using preseed

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