Script to reinstall all Debian packages on the system

reinstall_deb.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Debian System Reinstaller
# Copyright (C) 2015 Albert Huang
# 
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
# 
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
# 
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
# 
# ---
# This script assumes you are using a Debian based system
# (Debian, Mint, Ubuntu, #!), and have sudo installed. If you don't
# have sudo installed, replace "sudo" with "su -c" instead.
# 

becho() {
	echo -e "\033[1m$@\033[0m"
}

spinat=0

spinner() {
	spinat=`expr $spinat + 1`
	if [ "$spinat" = "1" ];then
		spin="|"
	elif [ "$spinat" = "2" ];then
		spin="/"
	elif [ "$spinat" = "3" ];then
		spin="-"
	elif [ "$spinat" = "4" ];then
		spin="\\"
		spinat=0;
	else
		spinat=0;
	fi
	printf "\b$spin"
}

spinner_loop() {
	while :; do
		spinner
		sleep 0.1s
	done
}

spinner_register() {
	spinner_proc=$1
	export spinner_proc
}

spinner_cancel() {
	kill -PIPE $spinner_proc
	printf "\b \b"
}

stopnow=0
export stopnow

trap "echo 'Detected CTRL-C, exiting...'; stopnow=1; export stopnow" INT TERM

becho " * Scanning for all installed packages on the system..."

[ "$stopnow" = "1" ] && exit

spinner_loop &
spinner_register %%

pkgs=`dpkg --get-selections | grep -w 'install$' | cut -f 1 | \
		egrep -v '(dpkg|apt)'`

spinner_cancel

[ "$stopnow" = "1" ] && exit

becho " * Reinstallation will start in 3 seconds..."

[ "$stopnow" = "1" ] && exit

sleep 3s

[ "$stopnow" = "1" ] && exit

becho " * Reinstalling..."

rm -f reinstall.log

for pkg in $pkgs; do
	echo -e "\033[1m   * Reinstalling:\033[0m $pkg"
	echo "***** Reinstalling: $pkg *****" >> reinstall.log
	printf "      "
	[ "$stopnow" = "1" ] && exit
	spinner_loop &
	spinner_register %%
	sudo apt-get -q -y --force-yes install --reinstall -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confmiss" $pkg >> reinstall.log
	cerr=$?
	spinner_cancel
	backstep "      "
	if [ ! "$cerr" = "0" ]; then
		echo "ERROR: Reinstallation failed. See reinstall.log for details."
		exit 1
	fi
	[ "$stopnow" = "1" ] && exit
done

Very useful script. In my case there were a lot of damaged configuration files. The trick is to pass the argument "force-confask". I also removed the spinner for simplification.

#!/bin/bash
# Debian System Reinstaller
# Copyright (C) 2015 Albert Huang
# Copyright (C) 2018 Andreas Fendt
# 
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
# 
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
# 
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
# 
# ---
# This script assumes you are using a Debian based system
# (Debian, Mint, Ubuntu, #!), and have sudo installed. If you don't
# have sudo installed, replace "sudo" with "su -c" instead.
# 

pkgs=`dpkg --get-selections | grep -w 'install$' | cut -f 1 |  egrep -v '(dpkg|apt)'`

for pkg in $pkgs; do
    echo -e "\033[1m   * Reinstalling:\033[0m $pkg"    

    apt-get --reinstall -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confask" -y install $pkg || {
        echo "ERROR: Reinstallation failed. See reinstall.log for details."
        exit 1
    }
done

8 ) ... magnificent, saved my booty

Hi All,
Let me ask you an interesting question. I have already rewrote the usual util-linux 2.37 package on my PC with a newer 2.39.x built on my PC from a cloned directory. This resulted in that my PC is not booting now. I have another Ubuntu system that is working on the same machine. I am the root on both systems: the working and the not booting also.
I have already corrected GRUB & boot process but it seems right after the boot the system is crashing
Can you please provide me with a script that is able to re-install the old and usable util-linux 2.37 package from the working system? I mean that the target of apt-get install command would be on the other system.
Please advice what alternatives are exist. Thanks.
L.