Reinstallation - apt-cdrom

[Steven Vollom]

On Saturday 01 August 2009 04:08:55 pm Goh Lip wrote:
> Steven, this may help ease in reinstallation of your OS, should you need
> to do it. I am putting in a new subject so that it will not confuse you
> with your current boot problems. Other than backing up your home, and I
> understand you have a separate partition now for it, the following will
> help you reinstall your various applications like biblestudy, wine etc.
> without needing to download again.
>
> make a folder called say, Repo in your home.
> install dpkg-dev and build-essential
> sudo cp /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb /home/Steven/Repo
> cd /home/Steven/Repo
> sudo dpkg-scanpackages . /dev/null | gzip -9c > Packages.gz
>
> burn a cd of all the items in Repo
>
> sudo apt-cdrom add
>
>
> Whenever you do any installation, it will probe your cdrom and install
> from there and use these files instead of downloading again unless there
> are newer versions available.
>
> Before you copy files to Repo, it is advisable to
> sudo apt-get autoremove
> sudo apt-get autoclean
>
> to clear out outdated or older versions of the packages.
>
> Hope this helps; you will find reinstallation a breeze.
>
> Regards,
> Goh Lip
>
> ps: as many have stated before, preferable to use aptitude instead
> especially when using ppa like kde4.3 or beta like Karmic.
>
> sudo aptitude update
> sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
Dear Goh Lip,

It isn't fair that I can't give you a big hug.  I just read your email and I 
am laughing with joy.  It is something that I have struggled with many times, 
because I have had to reinstall so many times, just to solve problems.  This 
sounds kind of like a get out of jail card in Monopoly, if you know the game.

If this works like I anticipate, I will be very close to in heaven.  You are 
such a fantastic friend and person.  I appreciate you so very much.  Thanks!

Steven