Please, don't laugh at me until you have read the message! I was doing some maintanance tasks, removing old files with rmold (it is an alias for "rm -rf *~ .*~"). I noticed (with "ll /etc|less") that /etc had some old files and I did "rmold /etc", unknowing of the catastrofic effects: It removed the whole directory!
I tried to use dselect to configure all packages installed but dselect didn't executed. Then I had a panic, the system freezed and I booted. But then initd refused to go on (I had no /etc/init.d files!). Then I tried to install Debian again with the Hamm CDROM, but when installing base system some errors ocurred and I couldn't finished. I couldn't see the errors because messages were covered down with error mesages that explained that something failed but not where it failed! Then, I decided to make a SuSe boot disk in order to install the Minimal system and then trying again with Debian, but SuSe also failed. Again I tried out with Debian Hamm. Then, when "mounting already initialized partitions" (I didn't want to format them and loose the work of six months!) I noticed a warning message: I shouldn't mount partitions before checking them. So I unmounted and checked them. There were plenty of errors due (I suposse) to the first reset, when the system hanged and I had panic). So I e2fsck'ed them various times in order to have them right, I went on with instalation, and finally I had the base system installed. I didn't use dselect in order to install the standard packages because I had them already installed, but then, and after rebooting, I tried to use dselect in order to configure all my packages installed in these last six months. Dselect told me that I had installed almost no packages! I've lost the list of packages installed in these months! How could I restore it? Then I remembered that two months ago I tar'ed the /etc directory for a friend, searched the diskette, found it, and untar'ed it. Thus, I had the /etc of 23 december 1998. In order to obtain newer versions of /etc files for packages installed I dselect'ed and installed via ftp all packages listed (the base system). Then configured them, by choosing between the package /etc files and those already installed. Now I have a running system, but dselect says I only have 134 packages. I remember the name of the last five or six packages installed previous week, but nomore. How can I get a list of packages I really DO have installed in order to reinstall again in order dselect to know the truth? Thanks, now you can laugh! -- Conrado Badenas (Assistant Lecturer) Department of Thermodynamics. University of Valencia c/. Doctor Moliner, 50 | e-m: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 46100 Burjassot (Valencia) | Phn: +34-63864350 SPAIN | Fax: +34-63983385
