[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] Re: [maemo-announce] New Nokia 770 software image available

[From: Antonio Orlando]

> I think that using tar to back up and restore applications installed
> with apt/dpkg would be a Bad Idea.

Can I ask why? I have not enough Linux knowledge to answer this (stupid?)  
question myself. In a Windows environment, I can backup/restore everything  
just with rar/unrar, having care to install just portable or almost  
portable applications; this care is due to the presence of the Windows'  
registry. Is there an analogue problem in the Linux architecture, or in  
the 770 implementation? I've also tarred all my linux installation  
(excluding some stuff) hoping it could be used as a backup [1], has it  
been a Bad Idea?

> It should be pretty easy to get a list of installed packages from apt
> (or the application installer) before the flash, and then reinstall them
> in one swoop with apt-get install.  I plan to figure this out over the
> weekend.

Le me know on the list if you succeed, please.

> By the way, can someone confirm or deny that the backup tool does not
> back up your /etc/apt/sources.list and therefore you will have to re-add
> all the application manager repositories manually?

It seems confirmed. As already requested, a list of the files and dirs  
that should be backed up and restored would be great (including files and  
dirs where installed applications use to or can store their executables,  
libraries, settings, etc.); it will include the /etc/apt/sources.list I  
suppose...


[1] http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=81311

-- 
Antonio