Sync Installed Software after re-Instal

[pierpiotr]

Hello,
There is (in French Documentation) a page where it says that the Ubuntu Software Center provides for sync of softwares between computers. And it says that Muon does the same, Can someone confirm because I do not find this functionality ?
I want to re-install my laptop at home because many glitches annoy me. My Office PC has all I need so it would be great after re-install to just sync the two.

[SteveRiley]

I'm not aware of any way to do this via Muon. You can, however, use the command line.

On your work system:

apt-mark showauto > ~/pkgs-auto.list
apt-mark showmanual > ~/pkgs-manual.list
dpkg --get-selections | grep -v 'deinstall' > ~/packages.list

Save the three .list files onto a USB drive.

On your home system, first install the exact same version of Kubuntu that's on your work system. Copy the .list files to your home directory. Then:

sudo dpkg --clear-selections
sudo dpkg --set-selections < ~/packages.list
sudo apt-get -u dselect-upgrade
sudo apt-mark auto $(cat pkgs-auto.list)
sudo apt-mark manual $(cat pkgs-manual.list)

[claydoh]

To save the list of software packages :
Muon Package Manager >> File >> Save Installed Package List

To restore:
Muon Package Manager >> File >> Download Packages From List

Note that this is Muon Package Manager, and not Muon Software Center or Muon Discover.

[SteveRiley]

Hah. I guess maybe I should have looked at Muon's menus first. It's been a looooooooong time since I've used the thing.

[pierpiotr]

Thanks claydoh and SteveRiley,
Isn't there a sources.list file to save somewhere on the the source PC ?

[SteveRiley]

Yes, but it isn't necessary to copy that file from the source PC if it hasn't been modified. However, if the source PC has some PPAs enabled, the sources files for those will need to be copied. These will be in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/. I suppose, just to be safe, it would be good to copy the entire /etc/apt/ subdirectory from the source. This would also pick up any APT preferences and repository signing keys that exist on the source.

[pierpiotr]

All right.
I've got this at home it rpobably looks alike at work :

/etc/apt$ ls
apt.conf.d  preferences.d  sources.list  sources.list.d  sources.list.distUpgrade  sources.list.save  trustdb.gpg  trusted.gpg  trusted.gpg~  trusted.gpg.d

I'll try that on monday (obviously ;-)
I'll report therafter

[SteveRiley]

Be prepared in case something goes south. I've never done this exercise myself, and while it's commonly mentioned as a way to clone a system, I've seen a few reports that the result has been less than, ah, perfect. So definitely YMMV.

[pierpiotr]

Hello,
It does not seem to work, either after copying sources.list nor apt directory altogether.
In the first case nothing happens
In the second case, the menu from Muon package manager si all gry and nothing can be selected as an action. Like freezed.

I think I'll re-install the packages one by one. If I do not get another solution by tomorrow, I'll get back here and label this discussion accordingly.