Re-install ubuntu-desktop metapackage and reinstall its dependencies

Ubuntu-desktop is a meta-package in ubuntu that connects all the packages that are installed by default in a fresh ubuntu install. For that reason you can remove it without any damage to other packages or your system. It can be automatically removed if you remove ekiga or gnome-games.

But what if at some point you want to revert all the changes so you have the default packages reinstalled again?

Running :

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop

does not reinstall its dependencies. So the solution is :

sudo apt-cache depends ubuntu-desktop | awk -F ":" '{print $2}' | \
sed '/^$/d' | xargs sudo apt-get \
install --reinstall --install-recommends --yes

(yes this is one line :))

Enjoy

~ by gourgi on 27 September 2009.