Also, there is a very interesting article at Linux Owns showing three steps to get all your favourite packages (back) fast. I added a fourth step actually saving your package list for later use. Deriving it straight from there (without testing, since unfortunatelly my last machine has been hardyed just a couple of hours ago):

1. integrate medibuntu sources.list

   sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
   

2. add server key

   wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update
   

3. write a text file listing all package names you wish installed separated with spaces — you should be able to instead put every package name in one line with trailing \\ (double back-slash) but as I said: I haven’t tested it, yet! Name it, say, most_important_debs.

4. sudo aptitude --assume-yes install < most_important_debs
   

   You might want to approve the package list before install. In that case omit –assume-yes

Let me know it someone used it (hopefully with success).

Update 2008/05/15: It does help to read and think before you speak (or write for that matter). I got it completely wring. The linked article is about packages from Medibuntu only. OK then, if it’s like this I just alter 1, 2, 4 and 3 -> 1

1. build a list of your (most important, enduser) packages
2. update-manager -d, i.e. dist-upgrade your system
3. employ aptitude to read in your file (to be exact it’s bash that redirect from the file…)

Of course, this method still does not solve the problem of saving your personal settings but still get all the system settings from the new distro release. But this shouldn’t be that hard for release maintainers since they (potentially) know which package version had what config files delivered or generated. From there it should be easy to determine if a system config file has been changed be the user -> show diff. Or do I overlook something once again?

Update 2008/05/15: Even better looks aptitude-run-state-bundle:

DESCRIPTION
aptitude-create-state-bundle produces a compressed archive storing the files that are required to replicate the current
package archive state.  The following files and directories are included in the bundle:
·      $HOME/.aptitude
·      /var/lib/aptitude
·      /var/lib/apt
·      /var/cache/apt/*.bin
·      /etc/apt
·      /var/lib/dpkg/status
The output of this program can be used as an argument to aptitude-run-state-bundle(1).

Update 2008/05/15: A good starting point would be either

dpkg -l | grep ^i | editor

or if you don’t use aptitude this also shows (only currently) installed packages

dpkg -l | grep ^i | editor

One needs to remove non-package-name strings, though. As I haven’t come around to learn sed (line editing) I cannot show how to deploy sed to do it. Anyone?

Note 08/01/08: There have been issues after the original plugin has been updated. See Ubuntu Forum, Bug description (workaround or fixed deb for firefox only which is version 9.0.115!) or comments below for more. Components have been removed that also opera needs! Yet another example why closed source is bad… Hence you might want to give gnash a go, i.e. open source flash. The new Flash version is meant to work with opera version > 9.50 Beta, though (see bottom note). Anyway, here it goes for Flash version 9.0.48.0:

Note 2008/04/19: Before you get all frustrated about Flash and Opera you might enjoy operas’ ads.

Here we go

To install Adobe Flash Player after you installed Opera in Ubuntu, I found the best way is to, once again, use the debian way:

sudo aptitude install flashplugin-nonfree

After the install routine is done you need to add the path to plugins options in opera. Alternatively you could link there. To find where the new binaries are located do:

dpkg -S flashplugin-nonfree
app-install-data: /usr/share/app-install/desktop/flashplugin-nonfree.desktop
flashplugin-nonfree: /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree
flashplugin-nonfree: /var/cache/flashplugin-nonfree
flashplugin-nonfree: /usr/share/lintian/overrides/flashplugin-nonfree
flashplugin-nonfree: /usr/share/doc/flashplugin-nonfree
flashplugin-nonfree: /usr/share/doc/flashplugin-nonfree/changelog.gz
flashplugin-nonfree: /usr/share/doc/flashplugin-nonfree/copyright

Update 2008/04/16: The correct “list flag” for dpkg would be -L instead of -S:

dpkg -L flashplugin-nonfree | grep -i 'lib'
/usr/lib
/usr/lib/xulrunner
/usr/lib/xulrunner/plugins
/usr/lib/mozilla
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
/usr/lib/iceape
/usr/lib/iceape/plugins
/usr/lib/iceweasel
/usr/lib/iceweasel/plugins
/usr/lib/firefox
/usr/lib/firefox/plugins
/usr/lib/midbrowser
/usr/lib/midbrowser/plugins
/usr/lib/xulrunner-addons
/usr/lib/xulrunner-addons/plugins
/usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree
/var/lib
/var/lib/flashplugin-nonfree

/Update

Alternatively you could link the lib’s binary to Opera’s plugin directory:

sudo ln /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/opera/plugins/

Some say you may need to restart opera in order for plugins to actually work. Fortunally, for me it work right away. In opera’s address field type opera:plugins to see what opera knows about flash.Update: See this blog on bleeding edge info on plugin’s development status if interested.

Ressources:

• as always: man pages
• Launchpad bug report
• Adobe’s Linux Flash blog
• Ubuntu Community Help on restricted formats
• Ubuntu Community Help on Opera browser flash problems

Update: This works for 7.04, a.k.a. Feisty Fawn, and 7.10, a.k.a. Gutsy Gibbon.

Update 2008/04/16: On a side note: There is the option reinstall for aptitude if one wants to make sure the newest files are all in the right places.

Update 2008/04/19:I stumbled upon the close to be release of Opera 9.5 which is currently in beta state (and has even more great features once again before Firefox has them ). Supposingly the Debian package should get flash working. I tried the i386 version for Gutsy and it did work for me.

Update 2008/06/28: Here are some command line parameters you can start Opera with. Especially useful would be -debugplugin. To use it you have to open a terminal to see the additional information:

opera -debugplugin [Enter/Return Key]

This Post has been updated and, hence, a new address.