apt-get system reinstallation

[Bart Silverstrim]

Bart Silverstrim wrote:

> I'm wondering if I've stumbled into the Ubuntu version of "dll 
> hell"...it's weird that FireFox works fine with flash on system A and 
> not on system B; correct me if I'm wrong, but that would imply that 
> there's something installed on system B that isn't on A and conflicts, 
> despite %99 of the software being from Synaptic/Apt-get.
> 
> Or it implies corruption of some sort, but I haven't been getting errors 
> that I can find in logs for anything. Perhaps a way to verify all the 
> installed packages would also be handy. I'll have to dig through Google 
> and see if such a beast exists. :-)

Second thought...is there a way to verify the installs against the repos 
with apt-get, and if so, would that be a way to do a "virtual reinstall" 
(check that my applications aren't corrupt and is properly installed)? 
If the repos check out against installed applications, that should mean 
the system is as stable as it would be with a reinstall of everything, no?