installing v42.2 using existing packages configuration on v42.1

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Currently, I have an OpenSuSE Leap 42.1 installed on a Dell computer. Later on, I would like to install OpenSuSE Leap 42.2 on my old AMD64 PhenomII X3 computer with the same packages installed on my Dell computer. Is this possible? If so, how can I do this?

2

Follow the instructions on installing 42.2 (when it is released, I assume there comes installation documentation with it as it is done in earlier releases).

Add the packages you need above the basic installation with YaST > Software > Software Management (maybe preceded by using YaST > Software > Repositories Management to add the needed repositories).

While I know 42.2 will be new and have some new things and loose some “old” ones, I assume that this will be as it was with 42.1 (and earlier). Or do I misunderstand you?

Maybe you seek advice if 42.2 will run on what you call an “old” computer?

3

You could see what packages are installed and then replicate the same on the new install but the list would be very big.

rpm -qa
4

There’s no mention here about the Desktop Environment being used.

For those folks, like me, who prefer KDE, I noticed the following with respect to KMail and Kontact this morning (“Migrating your setup to a new distro”): <https://userbase.kde.org/Kontact#FAQ.2C_Hints_and_Tips>.

The current (not yet finalised) Leap 42.2 Release Notes (for the Beta Tester and Release Candidate Testers) are here: <https://doc.opensuse.org/release-notes/x86_64/openSUSE/Leap/42.2/>.

The openSUSE documentation should always be consulted: <https://doc.opensuse.org/>.

5

That is what I 1st thought, but we are talking about thousand of packages and the two computers are in different rooms on different floors. In other words, I have to print the list out and start to enable a package at a time during installation. Is there a way to automatically do this? For instance, back up the package database from v42.1 and restore it to the old computer once the installation v42.2 is done so that it will start to install all the packages from the back up v42.1 database? If so, how do I backup/restore the database from v42.1 to v42.2?

6

On Wed 02 Nov 2016 12:46:01 PM CDT, habibie wrote:

tinylagarto;2798234 Wrote:
> You could see what packages are installed and then replicate the same
> on the new install but the list would be very big.
>
> >
Code:

> > rpm -qa

> > That is what I 1st thought, but we are talking about thousand of
packages and the two computers are in different rooms on different
floors. In other words, I have to print the list out and start to enable
a package at a time during installation. Is there a way to automatically
do this? For instance, back up the package database from v42.1 and
restore it to the old computer once the installation v42.2 is done so
that it will start to install all the packages from the back up v42.1
database? If so, how do I backup/restore the database from v42.1 to
v42.2?

Hi
Do you have any non-standard repos active?

There is autoyast, but since your setting up on two different systems
there may be some subtle differences. You can always upload this to
SUSE Studio, build an image, then when openSUSE 42.2 is released onto
SUSE Studio upgrade it.

There are lots of ways to get a full list, rpm, zypper, snmp but then
you would need to process the list to just use the names.

What I would do in this case is prepare this list for use by zypper
(just a big file with package names separated by spaces). Then do a
standard 42.2 install, add your repos, then use this list to do a
zypper dup, it will then ignore any packages already installed and pull
in all the missing ones.

You could also use zypper to list packages per repo that are installed,
which may be a better option if there are lost of third party repos
involved. Then you could install per repo after a standard install.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE Leap 42.1|GNOME 3.16.2|4.1.34-33-default
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

7

Are the machines Servers?
Do the users login to these machines? – With Virtual Desktops?
If so, are you also planning user directory migration and user application migration?

8

the rpm command shows ALL packages including the ones installed by default that is why so many

9

Please excuse me – I’m not trying be disrespectful, really . . .

In the rpm man page:


   **PACKAGE SELECTION OPTIONS:**
       PACKAGE_NAME
              Query **installed** package named PACKAGE_NAME.

       -a, --all
              Query all **installed** packages.

And, checking that on this machine for a package which is not installed – for example: “> zypper search kernel” and choosing something like ‘kernel-pae’:


 > rpm -q kernel-pae
package kernel-pae is not installed
 > rpm -qa | grep 'kernel-pae'
 >

Some other statistics from this 13.2 machine:


 > rpm -qa | wc -l
2439
 > 
 > zypper search --installed-only * | wc -l
1772
 >

Why the discrepancy between rpm and zypper? – No idea, yet . . .


 > zypper search --installed-only * | head
Daten des Repositories laden ...
Installierte Pakete lesen ...

S | Name                                       | Zusammenfassung                                                                                  | Typ
--+--------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------
i | AdobeICCProfiles                           | Adobe ICC Profiles                                                                               | Paket
i | Bluefish                                   | Text editor with many web and software development extra's                                       | Anwendung
i | Crystalcursors                             | Mauszeiger im Crystal-Stil                                                                       | Paket
i | Dolphin                                    | File Manager                                                                                     | Anwendung
i | ImageMagick-devel                          | Enthält Dateien und Bibliotheken, die zur Programmentwicklung benötigt werden.                   | Paket
 >
10 
knurpht@knurphtlaptop:~> zypper se --installed-only | wc -l3127
knurpht@knurphtlaptop:~> rpm -qa | wc -l
3012

NOTE: I left the wild card out.

11

You can easily redirect output to a file:


rpm -qa > packagelist.txt

would redirect the output to the file packagelist.txt. But, the version numbers on 42.2 will differ,

12

Hi
The zypper output includes products, patterns, applications, srcpackage and patch, rpm knows only packages (which includes patterns and products).


malcolml@ernie1:~> zypper -q --no-refresh se -i -t package |wc -l
2138

malcolml@ernie1:~> zypper -q --no-refresh se -i -t package -t pattern |wc -l
2154

malcolml@ernie1:~> zypper -q --no-refresh se -i -t package -t pattern -t product |wc -l
2155

malcolml@ernie1:~> rpm -qa | wc -l
2150

Less three lines of zypper output puts it within one or two… possibly a system one that isn’t counted…

13 
zypper search --installed-only * | wc -l

I guess you have the intention to offer the argument * to the zypper command.
What you do is offering it to the shell, which will do Pathname Expansion on it. In other words, the shell will replace the * with a list of all the file names that exist in your current directory (if there is at least one, when not then the * will not be replaced). We do not know what your current directory is and thus have no idea what the result will be. Have you?

When you want to offer the * as an argument to zypper (and the zypper man page confirms that zypper can use this as a wild card for package names, not file names),then please hide it from the shell by quoting. E.g.

zypper search --installed-only '*' | wc -l
14

I will give this a try when LEAP 42.4 is released (anytime soon). Thank you.