Pre-emptive Request: Backing up installed packages.

[Sasha Tsykin]

Michael T. Richter wrote:
> I'm getting the distinct impression that I'm going to have to resort to
> backing up /home and reinstalling Ubuntu to get access to my audio
> hardware again.  The problem is that I've downloaded and installed an
> obscene number of packages from Synaptic.  (It's really quite addictive,
> isn't it?)  Is there any convenient way to automate getting a list of
> packages that have been installed placed on a file somewhere and then
> automagically reinstalling them without having to select them one by one
> through Synaptic?  (And, too, a convenient way to backup the repository
> information?)
>   
All the deb files installed with apt-get are kept in the folder 
/var/cache/apt/archives. To backup the list type:

cd /var/cache/apt/archives
ls > /home/<username>/packages

This will give you the list (in the packages file). You can then use 
this to create an automatic installation script, but is labor intensive, 
so probably better to just install the packages listed from synaptic.
> --
> Michael T. Richter
> Email: ttmrichter at gmail.com, mtr1966 at hotpop.com
> MSN: ttmrichter at hotmail.com, mtr1966 at hotmail.com; YIM:
> michael_richter_1966; AIM: YanJiahua1966; ICQ: 241960658; Jabber:
> mtr1966 at jabber.cn
>   

Sasha