Moving installed packages to new installation

[choward]

I swear... there is a god and he has thrown every caveat in the book, trying to prevent me from moving my esx 3.5 32bit ubuntu (9.1) VM to a 64bit vsphere 4 installation... So, I gave up and now all I care about is just backing up and restoring.

I have the original linux ubuntu 9.1 desktop CD and made another installation. I updated both machines as far as updates go for this release. I dumped all my installed packages to a text file on original system. On destination system, I'm trying to launch the following:

apt-get install $(< pkgs.txt)

Command breaks out when it hits the first, already installed package on the destination system. (ACPI or something...)

Simple backup is broken in this release with a known bug and no effort to fix.

1) Are there arguments to add to ignore and continue to the next package?

2) Is there an easier way to do this or a different command to use?

3) Is there a free application with a GUI that backs up and restores? (I'm really tired of typing)

Thanks!

[hans51]

your new system is a 64bit
hence you use of course a 64bit install CD? and not your 32bit CD

[sgosnell]

Try this:

sudo dpkg --set-selections < pkgs.txt && sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade