On Tue Dec 10 14:05:20 2024 David Wright <deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote:
> You still haven't said what files cause you concern in /usr/bin/. There are a lot of them, e.g. xscreensaver, zip, sox... > All the files belonging to Debian's packages are going to be present, > because you wrote: > >>> At this point the old and new systems' root partitions should be >>> as alike as possible, aside from my own customizations. > > That implies you installed the same set of Debian packages as were > present on the old disk. Right? Not quite. See below. >> Yes, not even zip is present after an installation from scratch - >> and apt puts it into /usr/bin. > > That's irrelevant: it's just part of Step 1. No, it's not. Step 1 was just a basic network install. I didn't ask for anything extra. Digging around in some musty old files, I found some post-installation notes left over from a previous upgrade. Here's an excerpt: # apt install zip # apt install libncurses5-dev # apt install openssl # apt install libssl-dev # apt install dosemu # echo 1 > /proc/sys/abi/ldt16 # apt install mplayer # apt install sox # apt install libsox-fmt-mp3 # apt install lame # apt install ntp # apt install rsync # apt install xpdf # apt install xscreensaver # apt install xscreensaver-data # apt install xscreensaver-data # apt install xscreensaver-gl # apt install xscreensaver-gl-extra # apt install xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod Most of that stuff goes into /usr/bin, but it's not put there by a basic install from scratch. I have to do it manually. And then there are the truly non-standard utilities like xv, the Seamonkey web browser, and all my Steam games. I was hoping to find ways to bring all that stuff over in an rsync or two rather than rebuilding it piece by piece. > What worries me is whether anything was copied by Step 5's: > >>> sudo rsync -av /bin /mnt/backup >>> sudo rsync -av /lib /mnt/backup >>> sudo rsync -av /lib64 /mnt/backup >>> sudo rsync -av /sbin /mnt/backup >>> sudo rsync -av /usr /mnt/backup > > That stuff is all Debian's, and everything should already have > been present and correct after Step 1. Much of /etc and /var too. > > But /var/lib/ contains the state of the system, and I would worry that > any difference in the state of the old disk's system is going to be > forced onto the new one, even when it's not appropriate. Yes, I'm concerned that I'm overwriting parts of the new install (e.g. in /etc and /var) that should be left alone; that's why I was saving and restoring /etc/fstab, but there are probably other things that I missed and one of them is no doubt what's biting me. On the other tentacle, my Usenet archives are in /var/spool/slrnpull, and I don't want to lose them. I think it's time to throw in the towel. The only reason I'm spending so much time on this is that I had knee surgery a few days ago and I'm sitting here at home, not mobile enough to do much else but putter with my machines. But I think I'll just forget about that shiny new NVMe SSD - it was an extra toy I got talked into as part of a motherboard upgrade but it isn't really necessary. My original hard drive is still intact and works perfectly well (albeit a bit slower than the SSD), so I'll just go back to booting from it. If someday my machine has a meltdown and really does need to be rebuilt from scratch, then I'll re-visit the matter. It's sort of like normal system updates/upgrades - usually they work smoothly and I can upgrade from one release to another without touching anything else. But if things really go south (which they have done once or twice in the past, but not often), I have enough backups to put Humpty Dumpty together again - and I'll work the SSD into the re-build. Thanks, everyone, for your help. -- /~\ Charlie Gibbs | Life is perverse. \ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | It can be beautiful - X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | but it won't. / \ if you read it the right way. | -- Lily Tomlin
