Mintbackup gives no list of installed programs (SOLVED)

[Denko]

I upgraded from 18.3 to 19.0, but there are several mysterious issues. To clear these up I want to do a fresh clean install of 19, but Mintbackup gives no list of installed programs, so this will be a lot of work figuring out which programs, fonts etc were installed.

Anyone know how to get mintbackup to generate the list of installed programs etc.?

Are there other options?

[Sir Charles]

If I am not mistaken, Mint Backup only generates a list of the software installed via Software Manager and not those installed via Synaptic, Gdebi or terminal.You could generate a complete list of all the installed packages in your system by:

Code: Select all

dpkg --get-selections > installed-packages.list

[Denko]

Thank you very much. I got the list.

[Sir Charles]

You are welcome!
You might also want to have a look at the application "Aptik" for making backups of the list of you software, your home directory , PPA:s etc.

Cheers

[Pjotr]

Note that the list generated by dpkg for Mint 18.3, shouldn't be used "as is" in an installation script in 19. Among other things, this has to do with file versions.

[Sir Charles]

Note that the list generated by dpkg for Mint 18.3, shouldn't be used "as is" in an installation script in 19. Among other things, this has to do with file versions.

I believe the OP is already on an in-place upgraded 19, isn't he?

I upgraded from 18.3 to 19.0, but there are several mysterious issues. To clear these up I want to do a fresh clean install of 19...

[Pjotr]

Note that the list generated by dpkg for Mint 18.3, shouldn't be used "as is" in an installation script in 19. Among other things, this has to do with file versions.

I believe the OP is already on an in-place upgraded 19, isn't he?

I overlooked that... You're right.

[Sir Charles]

Note that the list generated by dpkg for Mint 18.3, shouldn't be used "as is" in an installation script in 19. Among other things, this has to do with file versions.

Generally valid point though. It's good to keep it in mind in this upgrading season.

Cheers

[gm10]

This is part of my own backup/restore scripts:

Code: Select all

apt list --manual-installed | awk -F'/' '{gsub(/Listing\.\.\./,"apt install"); printf "%s ", $1; }' > installed_packages_restore.sh; chmod u+x installed_packages_restore.sh

It outputs a script that, when run, will install all the packages installed on your system.

In my actual usage I have another command filter out all the packages that come pre-installed to make it usable between distro versions but as long as you're using it on the same version of Mint that won't be a problem.

Maybe it helps.

[Denko]

Thank you gm10. I created the script.

Can I assume that all files/packages were updated when I updated to 19.0?

[gm10]

Thank you gm10. I created the script.

Can I assume that all files/packages were updated when I updated to 19.0?

I haven't looked at the mintupgrade script but if your existing packages are still in the configured repositories then they will be upgraded with everything else via Update Manager. My script will just install whatever latest version of the package is available (and if something is not available because it came from an additional repository/PPA that's not configured on the install you're running the generated script on it will throw an error and tell you so).

[smurphos]

I upgraded from 18.3 to 19.0, but there are several mysterious issues. To clear these up I want to do a fresh clean install of 19, but Mintbackup gives no list of installed programs, so this will be a lot of work figuring out which programs, fonts etc were installed.

Anyone know how to get mintbackup to generate the list of installed programs etc.?

Are there other options?

If I am not mistaken, Mint Backup only generates a list of the software installed via Software Manager and not those installed via Synaptic, Gdebi or terminal.You could generate a complete list of all the installed packages in your system by:

Code: Select all

dpkg --get-selections > installed-packages.list

Mint 19 Backuptool is bugged in that it isn't even listing Software Manager installed packages - see https://github.com/linuxmint/mintbackup/issues/55 due to a change in the way Software Manager records installed packages that's not been reflected in Backuptool code.

The file produced by dpkg --get-selections > installed-packages.list is accepted as a restore input by Backuptool.

[Denko]

Thank y'all for the quick and good help. I will prepare for a clean install - too many weird bugs in this upgrade (network disappearing, extra login requests, xserver popup messages, not properly 'waking up' sometimes).

I have one question though: I have seen several places, that keeping the dot files (setup files?) in my home directory can/will create problems. Is that true? What would be the way around that?

[Pjotr]

I have one question though: I have seen several places, that keeping the dot files (setup files?) in my home directory can/will create problems. Is that true? What would be the way around that?

They're user settings, and shouldn't give problems. However.... It's conceivable that user settings that were right for an older version, create problems in a newer version. So I advise to preserve only those user settings files, that are worth preserving. Like for instance your settings for Firefox and Chrome. And for Thunderbird (which contains all emails as well).

[gm10]

They're user settings, and shouldn't give problems. However.... It's conceivable that user settings that were right for an older version, create problems in a newer version. So I advise to preserve only those user settings files, that are worth preserving. Like for instance your settings for Firefox and Chrome. And for Thunderbird (which contains all emails as well).

I'd advise to just keep everything, it's just not worth the effort to pick and choose. You can always remove them later, should problems actually occur. In that case you can just move those settings to a backup location and re-log to see if anything changes or alternatively quickly create a new user and log into a completely blank slate - I do the latter. If nothing changes, it wasn't even your user settings at fault.

[Pjotr]

Well, personally I love clean slates when upgrading....

I already had the habit of only preserving ~/.mozilla, ~/.config/google-chrome and ~/.config/chromium, and also the habit of backing up my personal files on an external medium (as of course everybody should). So I saw that as a nice chance to nuke the separate /home partition on my hard disk as well. It was a useless complication, causing inefficient disk usage.

[gm10]

Nothing wrong with cleaning house once in a while. Until you load that one program that stored data you still need in a folder you hadn't been aware of. Then you rush to find that backup and hopefully still have it.

Big fan of separate /home partitions personally, but I also use them for data storage without separating that out further, so probably different use case.

[Denko]

I do indeed have a separate home partition as well as external backup of it (via the wonderful luckybackup), so I think I am fine.

[Denko]

Sorry guys

I did a clean install of lm19. Some problems but now ok.

However, your instructions did not work. The auto-re-install script did nothing - just terminte & close the terminal. The generated list of installed packages does not work as an input file for backuptools.

what am I overlooking or doing wrong here?

[gm10]

However, your instructions did not work. The auto-re-install script did nothing - just terminte & close the terminal.

Which one, mine? Did you click on it in the file browser? That won't work, you need to run that from within a terminal window. Just type ./installed_packages_restore.sh (adjust the path if it's not in your home folder).