How to obtain list of installed packages

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Wed, 11 May 2016 02:16:34 +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
>I believe that a new installation of the operating system, is needed

If the Linux install isn't broken, but e.g. the partitioning is that
broken, that it can't be repaired without repartitioning the complete
HDD, you still could make a backup of the complete Linux install and
after repartitioning, restore the complete install from the backup. A
backup could be made without any special tool, a simple cp (copy) or
tar does work, you only need to do it from another Linux install, e.g.
from a live media, with root privileges.