[Bug 1207216] [NEW] No mechanism to avoid inheriting crufty apt information from previous install whilst preserving /home

[Cefn]

Public bug reported:

At least one reason for upgrading is to get a clean system without the
complexity of unusual builds provided by fringe PPAs or unusual
packages. However, this seems to be impossible without a complete format
of the '/' filesystem.

When trying to upgrade to 13.10 Gnome Saucy Alpha 1 I didn't choose the
upgrade option (which offers to preserve personal files AND tries to
preserve packages) but chose to do partitioning and configuration
myself, attempting to simply preserve personal files (the /home folder)
and to lose the previous package configuration.

After choosing a partition and mount point for '/' and choosing not to
format (helping me preserve my home folders on the disk) the installer
warned me that /var/ /usr/ and /etc/ would be lost during the install.
This is exactly what I wanted - a clean system, yet this is not what
happened.

After the install I found that the /etc/apt information had been
preserved (with some modifications to the Ubuntu repositories only) and
all kinds of software which was previously installed was attempted to be
installed again.

Can an option be added for the installer NOT to try and preserve apt
information and pre-existing packages. For many people this is exactly
what they want when installing a new system.

Perhaps for this reason, during the install there was a failure managing
the install, which accused the process of 'holding back' packages,
perhaps because of the crufty config, meaning I don't know if the
installer completed adequately.

A potential workaround is to mount the root partition, manually delete
the /etc/apt folder, then unmount the filesystem, although this was
impossible through Nautilus (I needed to drop to the command line and
sudo the mount and removal).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: ubiquity 2.15.8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.9.0-7.15-generic 3.9.7
Uname: Linux 3.9.0-7-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.10.2-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
CasperVersion: 1.335
Date: Thu Aug  1 09:00:56 2013
InstallCmdLine: noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu-gnome.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash --
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu-GNOME 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha i386 (20130626)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

** Affects: ubiquity (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: apport-bug i386 saucy ubiquity-2.15.8 ubuntu-gnome

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1207216

Title:
  No mechanism to avoid inheriting crufty apt information from previous
  install whilst preserving /home

Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  At least one reason for upgrading is to get a clean system without the
  complexity of unusual builds provided by fringe PPAs or unusual
  packages. However, this seems to be impossible without a complete
  format of the '/' filesystem.

  When trying to upgrade to 13.10 Gnome Saucy Alpha 1 I didn't choose
  the upgrade option (which offers to preserve personal files AND tries
  to preserve packages) but chose to do partitioning and configuration
  myself, attempting to simply preserve personal files (the /home
  folder) and to lose the previous package configuration.

  After choosing a partition and mount point for '/' and choosing not to
  format (helping me preserve my home folders on the disk) the installer
  warned me that /var/ /usr/ and /etc/ would be lost during the install.
  This is exactly what I wanted - a clean system, yet this is not what
  happened.

  After the install I found that the /etc/apt information had been
  preserved (with some modifications to the Ubuntu repositories only)
  and all kinds of software which was previously installed was attempted
  to be installed again.

  Can an option be added for the installer NOT to try and preserve apt
  information and pre-existing packages. For many people this is exactly
  what they want when installing a new system.

  Perhaps for this reason, during the install there was a failure
  managing the install, which accused the process of 'holding back'
  packages, perhaps because of the crufty config, meaning I don't know
  if the installer completed adequately.

  A potential workaround is to mount the root partition, manually delete
  the /etc/apt folder, then unmount the filesystem, although this was
  impossible through Nautilus (I needed to drop to the command line and
  sudo the mount and removal).

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
  Package: ubiquity 2.15.8
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.9.0-7.15-generic 3.9.7
  Uname: Linux 3.9.0-7-generic i686
  ApportVersion: 2.10.2-0ubuntu2
  Architecture: i386
  CasperVersion: 1.335
  Date: Thu Aug  1 09:00:56 2013
  InstallCmdLine: noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu-gnome.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash --
  LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu-GNOME 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha i386 (20130626)
  MarkForUpload: True
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=xterm
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: ubiquity
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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