why does this command not work?

[C M Reinehr]

Ken,

On Friday 12 January 2007 10:03, Ken Moffat wrote:
> C M Reinehr wrote:
> > Matt,
> >
> > David clearly is the Debian expert on this list and he prefers dselect.
> > For my part, I use aptitude for the most part and when I last did this
> > (just last week) I first ran dpkg --set-selections. Then, started up
> > aptitude and entered 'g' for go. I was presented with a list of all of
> > the packages & dependencies which had been marked for installation.
> > Entering a second 'g' for go started the installation. Can't get much
> > easier than that.
> >
> > Cheers!
> >
> > cmr
>
> I have been thinking of reinstalling etch to a different partition. To
> do this procedure, would I just create a text file on the old partition
> using dpkg --get-selections, then use the basic netinstall of etch, put
> the text file on the new partition and run dpkg --set-selections,
> followed by aptitude or dselect? This would bring the new install up to
> the state of the old install? Or am I missing something important in
> this process. It seems almost too simple.
>
> ken

Yes, that's all there is to it, aside from updating boot stuff (grub or lilo). 
Of course, I wouldn't delete the old partition until you have demonstrated 
that you can boot into the new partition--unless you absolutely have to!

Unless you just want a completely clean install, you might also consider just 
using tar or cp to copy your old partition into your new partition. I've done 
that more than once, too. I boot from Knoppix; create & format the new 
partition; mount both partitions; do the copy; & edit my grub menu.lst.

Last but not least, you might also consider using LVM2 instead of raw 
partitions.

Cheers!

cmr
-- 
Debian 'Etch' - Registered Linux User #241964
--------
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