reproducing apps in new distros? (re: synaptic, etc)

[bleu rider]

i recently had to reinstall hardy/kde3.5 after a non-recoverable system failure (thank the deities for backups!) and i realized i was faced with the chore of reproducing the environment i had customized w/ various repositories.

yah, i know you can generate a list of installed apps w/ dpkg, but that's just *useless* because it lists every single file and *not* discrete packages.

finally, with the help of a more knowledgeable buddy, we figured out how to open synaptic in a vnc window, looking at the dead hardy install. that allowed me to cruise through the installed packages in one desktop window and compare/select changes for the new hardy install in another desktop window with synaptic open in both.

Pretty cool and got the job done reasonably well... until i ran into a problem: the /sys partition was too small for the new selections but synaptic happily burned through the last 10% of free space on the partition and then hung up. i couldn't even run "sudo dpkg --configure -a" for example, let alone boot any apps that weren't already running.

Sooo here's were i go into complaint mode and ask for help (or at least some cogent responses).

this episode got me to thinking about things...

FIRST: why isn't there some mechanism to tell synaptic (etc) users that "you have xxxMb available on the target partition and you are requesting install of xxxMb of new additions" or some such. HELLO!? how are we supposed to know if we're about to shoot ourselves in the foot otherwise? that doesn't seem like a difficult thing to enable, right? (of course i am by NO means a developer, so maybe there are things i'm not aware of.)

SECOND: how about somebody figuring out how to run synaptic (etc) in a web browser? *that* would allow one to save pages (aka snapshots) of installed packages in a *rational* manner, for use in the event that (as happened to me) your FS gets boned or you want to otherwise reproduce the environment with a new install.

if anybody out there has *useful* suggestions about this, do please chime in!

8)

[aged hippy]

Re: reproducing apps in new distros? (re: synaptic, etc)

For the second one, you could make yourself a 'Local Repository'.

Rog131 has an excellent guide here: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3087550.0

and there's another here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Personal


That's one way to do it.

[Rog131]

Re: reproducing apps in new distros? (re: synaptic, etc)

FIRST: why isn't there some mechanism to tell synaptic (etc) users that "you have xxxMb available on the target partition and you are requesting install of xxxMb of new additions" or some such. HELLO!? how are we supposed to know if we're about to shoot ourselves in the foot otherwise? that doesn't seem like a difficult thing to enable, right? (of course i am by NO means a developer, so maybe there are things i'm not aware of.)

a) You could partition your system so that your danger to kill the system is low > FAQ: How to Partition

b) This is a bit old but still... > Topic: Kubuntu fails to give an out of memory warning

>> Day-to-day disk space management on Unix and Linux systems
Part II of Managing disk space on Unix and Linux systems.

Typically one would run df regularly (at least once an hour, using cron) on each file system to provide an early warning if disk space is getting low.

and

Which raises the question of how full is full? Clearly once a disk is 100 per cent full it’s already too late, but at what level should the alarm bells start ringing? Generally a good rule of thumb for all resources (memory, CPU cycles, I/O capacity or whatever) is that if it’s in use more than 75 per cent of the time it’s a potential bottleneck. The same rule holds true for disks; if a disk is permanently more than 75 per cent full it’s probably time to think about upgrading it or moving some of the users elsewhere, or something.

There is a script that will warn you when your disk (partition) usage is more than 75 %.


c) FAQ: Free Disk Space

- Tools and more tools...


So you could:

- Minimize the risk with partitioning:

• More than one partition
• System partition is big enough
• Have a separate partion for the /var

- Use available tools or/and make more tools (you are the administrator of your system).

SECOND: how about somebody figuring out how to run synaptic (etc) in a web browser? *that* would allow one to save pages (aka snapshots) of installed packages in a *rational* manner, for use in the event that (as happened to me) your FS gets boned or you want to otherwise reproduce the environment with a new install.

hmm - ?? maybe:

If you want to install same packages:
> How to clone an installation?


If you want also same settings:
> HowTo: Backup & Restore your system my way ~[:^D

[tinker]

Re: reproducing apps in new distros? (re: synaptic, etc)

if anybody out there has *useful* suggestions about this, do please chime in!

This is a fairly easy way to do what you're asking about although it is command line rather than GUI based. Since you need to be root for the operation, preface the commands with sudo. This won't handle the space issue for you automagically, you'd have to make sure you had enough space but you probably won't get caught by that again now that you have experienced it.
From the Debian.org Reference Manual:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/re....html#contents

Section:
6.4.9 Record/copy system configuration
To make a local copy of the package selection states:
# dpkg --get-selections "*" >myselections # or use \*
# debconf-get-selections > debconfsel.txt

"*" makes myselections include package entries for "purge" too.

You can transfer this file to another computer, and install it there with:
# dselect update
# debconf-set-selections < debconfsel.txt
# dpkg --set-selections <myselections
# apt-get -u dselect-upgrade # or dselect install