[ubuntu-uk] killed box through /var :P

[William Anderson]

Sorry, catching up with old mail :)

Matthew Wild wrote:
> [snip]
> 
>> 4 would it be best to generate an install list from synaptic so I know what
>> I've got, and do a clean install with a larger partition? (and how would I
>> do this through aptitude command line - I have no gui at all now).
> 
> dpkg -l > packages.txt
> 
> However if dpkg is in a bad state, this may not work.

I'd suggest an easier path would be to do:

dpkg --get-selections > /tmp/packages.txt

Then take a copy of /tmp/packages.txt (and probably an archive of /etc
as well to make a backup of key system settings), do whatever re-install
steps you'd require, put packages.txt back in /tmp/ and then do this
after an apt-get update && apt-get upgrade:

dpkg --set-selections < /tmp/packages.txt
apt-get -u dselect-upgrade

-n