Arch Linux

heimdal

Member

Registered: 2009-06-25

Posts: 27

Ubuntu to ArchLinux

So I am only wondering, but I am thinking of getting rid of my Ubuntu distro, and moving to ArchLinux (as I already have it on my laptop.) My question, is there a way to keep applications and such from Ubuntu and move them to Arch without backing them up? Perhaps just replacing the core of Ubuntu with Arch? I know it sounds odd, but is it able to be done? I am probably going to just backup my files and such, then run Arch, but I have always wondered if one could just replace the kernels and such without having to rebuild compleatly.

Peasantoid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-26

Posts: 928

Website

Re: Ubuntu to ArchLinux

Possible, but not worth the effort.

R00KIE

Forum Fellow

From: Between a computer and a chair

Registered: 2008-09-14

Posts: 4,734

Re: Ubuntu to ArchLinux

If I was you I would have the trouble of configuring every single app again, arch usually has the latest versions of everything (which may be more recent than the ones you are using) and sometimes the config files change and things stop working as they should, so to avoid some trouble with possibly older config files I would start from scratch.

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R00KIE
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arkham

Member

From: Stockholm

Registered: 2008-10-26

Posts: 516

Website

Re: Ubuntu to ArchLinux

Unfortunately there are som big differences between the core of Ubuntu and the core of Archlinux; the initscripts and the packages are very different.

One thing you could is to backup your home folder in ubuntu, extract somehow the list of explicitly installed packages, save it to a file, install those packages in arch and restore your home. Still there would be probably some errors caused by version mismatches though.

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"I'm Winston Wolfe. I solve problems."

~ Need moar games? [arch-games] ~ [aurcheck] AUR haz updates? ~

AlecSchueler

Member

Registered: 2009-05-30

Posts: 22

Re: Ubuntu to ArchLinux

One thing you could is to backup your home folder in ubuntu, extract somehow the list of explicitly installed packages...

I think this can be done with

dpkg --get-selections | grep install

heimdal

Member

Registered: 2009-06-25

Posts: 27

Re: Ubuntu to ArchLinux

I was only wondering for the sake of asking, thank you guys for helping. I will just get a list of what I want, and backup all users.

My only question remaining is how do I save the users I already have, along with their settings?

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,597

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Re: Ubuntu to ArchLinux

@heimdal - tar up your /home partition or each user's home dir.

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whoops

Member

Registered: 2009-03-19

Posts: 891

Re: Ubuntu to ArchLinux

I "converted" Debian once, by...
- making a list of all files
- having pacman.static install all the packages that they belong to directly over the old debian
- looking though all .pacnew's, comparing them to the original config files and adjusting them
- setting all packages that cannot be removed due to dependencies to "installded-as-dep"
- moving all files that don't belong to any package to /backup and putting homefolder & stuff back to /
( I think I had to chroot into a boot cd somewhere in the middle because some stuff stopped working before I was finished and could reboot )

That was really much easier than I would have thought once I started, working fine, looking clean and SUCH A WASTE OF TIME! Wouldn't recommend something like that to anyone or ever do it again.

arkham

Member

From: Stockholm

Registered: 2008-10-26

Posts: 516

Website

Re: Ubuntu to ArchLinux

I think this can be done with

dpkg --get-selections | grep install

I think that that command lists all installed packages and not only the explicitely installed ones. This would cause some problems in Arch when removing packages, because most of the dependencies will stay since they are excplicitely installed.

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"I'm Winston Wolfe. I solve problems."

~ Need moar games? [arch-games] ~ [aurcheck] AUR haz updates? ~