Reinstall over existing system?

[rainfox]

Ok, I managed to bring at least the icons back and some other components from my backintime backup :-)

I also followed the hints how to get the installed packages. At the end this are not too much so I will follow @baldyeti's hint to reinstall from command line.
At least I can work again with the system. I will take a look at the reinstall and keep option later, maybe. Depends on system status.

There are still some unresolved dependencies, I can't e.g. start gimp, it's complaining about too old version of GEGL.
When doing a

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sudo apt --fix-broken install --install-recommends

I get some errors like this

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prepare to extract .../libva-x11-2_2.10.0-1_i386.deb ...
Exctracting libva-x11-2:i386 (2.10.0-1) ...
dpkg: Error while processing the archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libva-x11-2_2.10.0-1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 Failed to overwrite shared file »/usr/share/doc/libva-x11-2/changelog.gz« which is different from other instances of libva-x11-2:i386 
Error while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libva2_2.10.0-1_i386.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libva-drm2_2.10.0-1_i386.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libva-x11-2_2.10.0-1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

libva2 is only one package that fails to install again.
If I can't solve this, I tend more and more to reinstall if I have the time.

I've attached an excerpt of the history.log with the bad command, there you can see what was removed. I'm still surprised how easy it is to damage the system that much.

[baldyeti]

wow - over 550 packages removed (amongst which sddm & many plasma components), i am surprised you still have a graphical desktop at all !

what i have sometimes done in the past is try aptitude instead of apt (or apt-get) as aptitude sometimes suggests workarounds for broken dependencies issues - but depending on how many such issues or conflicts you have this may get real tedious and re-installing without touching /home end up being faster

wait a little and see if someone else chimes in, i am no apt guru

[rainfox]

Not all of them where removed. I canceled it when I saw the icons vanish There where some messages about
First I had fear that it would not reboot at all. But luckily it did. I immediately installed some packages back after this.

The term.log

part term.log.7z

is much more frightening:
e.g. systemd and sysvinit compenents where removed

[rainfox]

what i have sometimes done in the past is try aptitude instead of apt (or apt-get) as aptitude sometimes suggests workarounds for broken dependencies issues - but depending on how many such issues or conflicts you have this may get real tedious and re-installing without touching /home end up being faster

I did not know this. This fixed my gimp installation as I was now able to install gegl with aptitude. Thanks !
Also mx-snapshot was installed again.

[Solon]

rainfox you sound like a Linux 'power user' (unlike myself) so I will simply suggest that you have a look at this thread: sudo apt autoremove; a detailed discussion about this same topic with a lot of very knowledgeable MX folks which happened last year.

Much of what was discussed there went over my head, but one thing really hit home, and that was Post #16 which I will put here (I highlighted dolphin_oracle's key advice in red):

This is quite an eye opener for me. I do my updates regularly and if I see the auto remove message that’s what I do. I have never broken anything in the past 2 years since I left Windows for MX. But it seems I could have done?

My question is how does a non technical user like myself decide what to do if I see that message? Is there a “how to” guide?

what I do is...if the autoremove only removes the things that were expected, then its OK. if all of a sudden 100s of packages are being removed, then I stop the process.

In addition to being good advice, that wry admission always makes me smile!

[rainfox]

Hi Solon, thanks for pointing this out, very good thread. I would myself not describe as an power user, but I keep learning.
I'm also happy to have switched from Win10 to MX Linux. I like it a lot.

[eyduh]

If you reinstall from scratch but preserve /home you have to be diligent with the formatting options and the prompt that come up when you press next.

If you do decide this route, you can
preserve ESP or boot (whichever one you're using),
format root
preserve home.

Make sure any other drives you have don't get formatted as wel though, the installer seems to sometimes fill in some stuff to get formatted when they shouldnt be. Just make sure to check out the Details button of the prompt when you press next after the formatting step.

it does get a bit trickier if you're using LUKS or LVM but the theory is the same, just might involve trips to Disks to open/mount stuff between.

Bonus: if you use flatpak user installs for softwares they get preserved as well as they get installed to ~/.var I've carried some commonly used programs between different distros by always preserving /home q: (it does get a bit messy after a while and I'm probably due for a fresh start with /home soon but saved me some headaches when distrohopping for a while)