View source for Retrieve Package List from Dead System


If you have a dead Debian Linux system and you want to recover a list of software packages that were installed, you can use this method. You can either attach the hard drive to another system, or run a live disc on the system.

Do these steps as root. 

Mount the main partition of the dead system (replace sdx with the device name on your system).
<source lang="shell">
mount /dev/sdx1 /mnt
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Dump a package list to a file.
<source lang="shell">
find /mnt/var/lib/dpkg/info/ -name "*.list"  -type f -printf "%P\n" |  awk -F'.' '{print $1}' | sort >~/packages.txt
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Now you have a sorted <code>package.txt</code> file that you can copy to your recovery media.