AW: how to transfer APT packages between different devices?
Title: AW: how to transfer APT packages between different devices?
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Tom Roche [mailto:Tom_Roche@pobox.com]
Gesendet: Mi 11/30/2011 14:36
An: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Betreff: how to transfer APT packages between different devices?
summary: My old laptop is up-to-date on LMDE (Linux Mint Debian
Edition), with many add-on APT packages. I'm now qualifying a new
laptop, from a different vendor, on which I have installed LMDE from
live USB. How best/easiest to transfer the packages from the first
laptop to the second, without causing (e.g.) driver problems? (And
please lemme know soonest, since I have much acceptance testing to do
but can't return for refund after 2 Dec 2011.)
details:
I have a 2-year-old laptop (call it "laptop_0") from one vendor. It
has served me well, but the battery is shot, the HD makes ominous
intermittent clicking noises, it's no longer SOTA, and in any case I
could use a backup laptop. This week my university put some quite
high-powered laptops on clearance for a good price, so I'm evaluating
one (call it "laptop_1"). I can return it by Friday (2 Dec) for full
refund.
I regularly backup my packages on laptop_0 using a script that
* copies /etc/apt/sources.list to a designated backup directory
* copies /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ to the backup directory
* redirects `dpkg --get-selections` to a file in the backup directory
I have in the past restored my packages from laptop_0 to laptop_0
(e.g., after ubuntu upgrades) with a script that reverses the above
process:
* restores /etc/apt/sources.list from the backup directory
* restores /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ from the backup directory
* redirects the backed-up package list to `dpkg --set-selections`
* apt-get install -y dselect
* dselect update
* apt-get dselect-upgrade
* aptitude update
I installed 64bit LMDE 201109 Gnome
http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php
from live USB (using unetbootin) on laptop_1 without difficulty. laptop_1 has some problems with LMDE, e.g.,
- it hangs if I try to suspend with a USB drive attached (but it sleeps/restores normally otherwise
- hibernation fails, i.e., instead of restoring it just reboots (but so does laptop_0)
Other than that :-) it seems worth the price, but I've done relatively
little testing (e.g., power management, DVD and stream playing). To do
more a more substantial comparison I need to get roughly the same
packages installed on both boxes. (Particularly I want to benchmark
building and running a scientific model I help develop.) Unfortunately
there are important differences between the two (though both are 64bit
Intel with NVIDIA). I noticed this the hard way when I attempted to
"restore" (using the second procedure above) the packages from
laptop_0 onto laptop_1: laptop_1 booted, but then put up a crippled
GINA (the graphical login screen) into which I could not type (the
keyboard was not working, though the mouse was). Fortunately I just
rebooted and reinstalled LMDE (which took all of 10 minutes--one
suspects Windows will never install that quickly :-) and laptop_1 is
again functional.
So obviously my current package-restore procedure only works to
restore onto on the same device from which the packages were backed
up. I'm wondering, how best to do package-transfer? E.g., can I script
a procedure that is smart enough to not transfer inappropriate
packages (e.g., those causing driver conflicts)? Alternatively, I need
to know (more-or-less) or determine what not to transfer, so I can
edit my package list by hand (before running the package-restore
script), or otherwise human-run the process (hopefully with some tool
automation).
Or is it time for Something Completely Different? What do you believe
is the best way to transfer packages between non-identical devices?
Please lemme know soonest--I can't return laptop_1 for full refund
after 2 Dec 2011.
TIA, Tom Roche <Tom_Roche@pobox.com>
---
Why don't you just backup your running Linux by tar from a live cd e.g. to an USB stick, partition the new drive and extract it on the new laptop? Make it bootable, start in recovery mode and change modules that need to be changed, e.g. the graphics driver.
AW: how to transfer APT packages between different devices?
