How to clone an installation?

[froebi]

Hi there,

I have a computer with Kubuntu 7.10 installed already. Now I want to install a second one with exactly the same packages as one my first installation. -- How would I go about it?

The things I did so far:
* Install the base system on the second computer.
* Clone the sources.list from the first computer to the second one.
* Got a list of selected packages from the first computer with dpkg --get-selections.

That's it. Now I'm stuck. I thought I could simple use the selections by issuing something like dpkg --set-selections on the second computer. But that didn't work. Don't even know what this really does.

Was was digging through the man pages of apt-get, dpkg & friends but couldn't find anything that sounds promising. All that packaging stuff under the hoods is driving me nuts. There surly must be a way to achieve what I want without selecting every package by hand via adept, I guess.

Christian

[toad]

Re: How to clone an installation?

What you are after is remastersys - which can be found here: www.remastersys.klikit.org/

It enables you to either make a distributable live CD out of your installation or an installable backup. It is bloody brilliant!

EDITED - just found a good link for you: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/creating-c...mastersys.html

[Rog131]

Re: How to clone an installation?

Topic: Get list of installed packages?
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3085703.0

=>

Ubuntu Tricks - how to generate a list of installed packages and use it to reinstall packages
http://www.arsgeek.com/?p=564


List of packages (kubuntu-files):

dpkg --get-selections | grep -v deinstall > kubuntu-files

Using kubuntu-files:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
dpkg --set-selections < kubuntu-files
sudo dselect

This will open up a dselect session. Type ‘I‘ and allow dselect to install of the the packages listed in your (k)ubuntu-files document. When it’s finished, type ‘Q‘ and hit the ENTER key to exit dselect.

About dselect (man dselect)

dselect(1) Debian dselect(1)

NAME
dselect - Debian package management frontend

SYNOPSIS
dselect [--admindir <directory>] [--help] [--version]
[--licence|--license] [--expert] [--debug|-D<file>] [<action>]
[--colour|--color screenpart:[foreground],[back‐
ground][:attr[+attr+..]]]

DESCRIPTION
dselect is one of the primary user interfaces for managing packages on
a Debian system. At the dselect main menu, the system administrator
can:
- Update the list of available package versions,
- View the status of installed and available packages,
- Alter package selections and manage dependencies,
- Install new packages or upgrade to newer versions.

dselect operates as a front-end to dpkg(1), the low-level debian pack‐
age handling tool. It features a full-screen package selections manager...

[froebi]

Re: How to clone an installation?

Sorry for the late reply.

I went with Rog131's approach as it seemed more native. -- And it worked.

Thanks,
Christian

[toad]

Re: How to clone an installation?

rog, got to hand it to you. Haven't got a clue what your bookmark file must look like, but you are the link-man!!!

I tried your solution 'cos it seemed... different - and definitely more native and it worked a treat.

Thank you very much for this great info.