I had installed Knoppix 3.2 on my machine. After doing apt-get update, some 60 - 70 mb worth of .debs had been downloaded and then installed on my machine.
Now, the hdd has developed bad sectors. As the hdd is still within the warranty period, I have to return it to the vendor for testing which will destroy all my data on the hdd.
the .debs have been saved on the hdd somewhere in /var/... (I don't remember the exact location -- I am not at that machine).
my question is:
If I back up these .deb files, will I be able to reuse them after I reinstall knoppix ? if so, how ?
What other files do I need to backup ?
What is the best way to get a working debian install on my machine with all the latest goodies like in knoppix ? (I mean the latest kde for eg, which in woody, even after upgrading via the net gives me kde 2.1.2 which is ancient :( )
I read somewhere that this is best done by installing just a base system from woody and then upgrading the base system to testing or unstable. I can't find this reference now so, any pointers are welcome.
I am a newbie to debian.
thanks,
Sharukh.
On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 09:42:36AM +0530, Dr. Sharukh K. R. Pavri. wrote:
Now, the hdd has developed bad sectors. As the hdd is still within the warranty period, I have to return it to the vendor for testing which will destroy all my data on the hdd.
I have never tried doing this myself, but I do know that the Debian packaging system is so insanely sane, that you can indeed recreate your config on a new HDD ... only the package-specific preferences will need to be handled manually.
If I back up these .deb files, will I be able to reuse them after I reinstall knoppix ? if so, how ?
The files you are looking for reside in /var/cache/apt ... copy the contents onto some place on your new HDD, and then create a new entry in your sources.list I am not sure exactly how that works, but the sources.list manpage gives the basic idea. More information might be available on http://debianplanet.org/
BTW, its a good idea to use a weekly cron job to keep cleaning your cache, using "apt-get autoclean"
What other files do I need to backup ?
In order to get the exact set of packages on your system use the command, "dpkg --get-selections" Again, more "info" in the manpage ;) You can reuse this later using "dpkg --set-selections"
I read somewhere that this is best done by installing just a base system from woody and then upgrading the base system to testing or unstable. I can't find this reference now so, any pointers are welcome.
One way is to install from the Knoppix CD, then change the sources.list to unstable, follwed by "apt-get update" and "apt-get dist-upgrade".
I install Debian using a netinst CD image, with only the basedebs. Essentially, with such a CD, you install a base working Debian (stable) system on your hard-disk and when you boot for the first time, it asks you for more packages and mirrors to get them from. You might want to try the new debian-installer that released its first beta recently.
The netinst CD's are available here:
http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/
I use David Kimdon's image - the one called bootbf2.4, which uses kernel 2.4 by default.
The Debian Installer project lives here:
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
This seems more useful and I look forward to try it the next time we need to install Debian on a machine here!
I am a newbie to debian.
It would be great if you help us all by recording your experiences in shifting to a new hard-disk, as a mini-HOWTO and contributing to the Debian newbiedoc project (Documentation by newbies, for newbies) ;)
http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/
Sameer.
On Monday 17 November 2003 06:25, Sameer D. Sahasrabuddhe wrote:
Next LUG meet: 9 Nov 2003 around 4 pm - VJTI
One way is to install from the Knoppix CD, then change the sources.list to unstable, follwed by "apt-get update" and "apt-get dist-upgrade".
dist-upgrade can have dangerous side effects and can leave ur installation in an unusable state.
On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 12:40:20PM +0100, J. T. D'souza wrote:
One way is to install from the Knoppix CD, then change the sources.list to unstable, follwed by "apt-get update" and "apt-get dist-upgrade".
dist-upgrade can have dangerous side effects and can leave ur installation in an unusable state.
Thanks for pointing that out ... standard disclaimers and (lack of) warranty assumed. :)
Sameer.
On Monday 17 November 2003 05:12, Dr. Sharukh K. R. Pavri. wrote:
Next LUG meet: 9 Nov 2003 around 4 pm - VJTI
I had installed Knoppix 3.2 on my machine. After doing apt-get update, some 60 - 70 mb worth of .debs had been downloaded and then installed on my machine.
Now, the hdd has developed bad sectors. As the hdd is still within the warranty period, I have to return it to the vendor for testing which will destroy all my data on the hdd.
Which make of hd and how old was it. I am interested as i am about to purchase a vanilla 40 or 80 GB drive.
the .debs have been saved on the hdd somewhere in /var/... (I don't remember the exact location -- I am not at that machine).
the debs are in /var/cache/apt/archives
my question is:
If I back up these .deb files, will I be able to reuse them after I reinstall knoppix ? if so, how ?
yes. mkdir /root/debs cd /root/debs cp <backed up files> dpkg -iR *.deb
or cd /root/debs dpkg-scanpackages debs /dev/null | gzip > debs/Packages.gz
then add the following to /etc/apt/sources.list deb file:/root debs/
finally apt-get update apt-get install packagename
Howto at http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ ch-basico.en.html#s-dpkg-scanpackages
the second method is the correct method. But if u r lazy like me, the first works well except throwing up a lot of errors while recursing.
What other files do I need to backup ?
Afaik nothing else.
What is the best way to get a working debian install on my machine with all the latest goodies like in knoppix ? (I mean the latest kde for eg, which in woody, even after upgrading via the net gives me kde 2.1.2 which is ancient :( )
Install knoppix. do one of the above. then apt-get update; apt-get upgrade.
Enjoy the latest-n-greatest Debian.
On Mon, 17 Nov 2003, J. T. D'souza wrote:
Which make of hd and how old was it. I am interested as i am about to purchase a vanilla 40 or 80 GB drive.
Samsung 40 GB. This is what dmesg gives : hda: SAMSUNG SP4002H, ATA DISK drive
What is the best way to get a working debian install on my machine with all the latest goodies like in knoppix ? (I mean the latest kde for eg, which in woody, even after upgrading via the net gives me kde 2.1.2 which is ancient :( )
Install knoppix. do one of the above. then apt-get update; apt-get upgrade.
Enjoy the latest-n-greatest Debian.
AS I wrote to you, the knoppix CD seems to have corrupted kde packages.
Sharukh
On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 10:38:37PM +0530, Dr. Sharukh K. R. Pavri. wrote:
Came across this article about the new Debian Sarge installer, that's currently doing its beta version. The automated hardware discovery part looks promising ... apparently, you no longer have to face that daunting tree of module options!
http://articles.linmagau.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&fi...
Also the set of links at the end of the article, for other related articles is very useful.
Sameer.
On Monday 17 November 2003 18:08, Dr. Sharukh K. R. Pavri. wrote:
Next LUG meet: 9 Nov 2003 around 4 pm - VJTI
AS I wrote to you, the knoppix CD seems to have corrupted kde packages.
I seem to have missed that mail. If u are refering to the cloop errors during installation, they are caused by missing po, font and other files not required for a englsh / euro install and can be safely ignored. If it is some other let me know i will burn one more cd and send it across.
On Fri, 21 Nov 2003, J. T. D'souza wrote:
On Monday 17 November 2003 18:08, Dr. Sharukh K. R. Pavri. wrote:
Next LUG meet: 9 Nov 2003 around 4 pm - VJTI
AS I wrote to you, the knoppix CD seems to have corrupted kde packages.
I seem to have missed that mail. If u are refering to the cloop errors during installation, they are caused by missing po, font and other files not required for a englsh / euro install and can be safely ignored. If it is some other let me know i will burn one more cd and send it across.
No, there is an error with kdeinit and only twm starts up. Complains about needing more than 82 mb ram (there's 256 mb on this machine). Same error on my other machine also with 256 mb ram.
am trying my hand at debian testing. I installed woody, then changed sources.list to use testing using the go-woody script, upgraded the base install to testing and am now in the process of downloading the software I require. Am unable to set up my mouse using gpmconfig. Will hit the man and info pages after the kids fall asleep.
regards,
Sharukh.
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Dr. Sharukh K. R. Pavri. -
Dr. Sharukh K. R. Pavri. -
J. T. D'souza -
Sameer D. Sahasrabuddhe