Which Programs Are Included In The LiveCD That Are Removed Upon Installation?

Question

I've noticed when booting up Ubuntu 13.10 – Desktop X86-64 disc in "Try Without Installing" mode that Gparted is pre-installed, however if you install Ubuntu to your hard drive the package is removed (or purged? not sure which) during the installation process.

I know for a fact that Gparted is pre-installed in the LiveCD rather than installed by script during LiveCD boot, because I've examined the filesystem.squashfs file. This makes me wonder what other programs are pre-installed but removed during installation. Is there a full listing available somewhere?

Answer 1

I think it has something to do with some voodoo with ubuntu seeds (can some one who knows more elaborate please.. I'd like to know too ;) ) The installer seed defines what packages are needed for installation but removed later. However I don't know whether this has become obsolete as it seems to be last updated at the time of gutsy gibbon.

At the time of installation the the full list of packages to be removed is found in the file iso/casper/filesystem.manifest-remove

The data from the trusty iso:

apt-clone archdetect-deb btrfs-tools casper cifs-utils cryptsetup cryptsetup-bin dmraid dpkg-repack ecryptfs-utils firefox-locale-en firefox-locale-es firefox-locale-zh-hans gir1.2-json-1.0 gir1.2-timezonemap-1.0 gir1.2-xkl-1.0 gparted jfsutils keyutils kpartx kpartx-boot language-pack-en language-pack-en-base language-pack-es language-pack-es-base language-pack-gnome-en language-pack-gnome-en-base language-pack-gnome-es language-pack-gnome-es-base language-pack-gnome-zh-hans language-pack-gnome-zh-hans-base language-pack-zh-hans language-pack-zh-hans-base libcryptsetup4 libdebian-installer4:amd64 libdevmapper-event1.02.1:amd64 libdmraid1.0.0.rc16 libecryptfs0 libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a:amd64 libnss3-1d:amd64 linux-signed-generic linux-signed-image-3.13.0-14-generic linux-signed-image-generic localechooser-data lupin-casper lvm2 metacity python3-icu python3-pam rdate reiserfsprogs sbsigntool ubiquity ubiquity-casper ubiquity-frontend-gtk ubiquity-plugin-ubuntuone ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu ubiquity-ubuntu-artwork user-setup watershed xfsprogs

Answer 2

https://askubuntu.com/a/436700/248158 is a great answer but if you no longer have the file iso/casper/filesystem.manifest-remove to look at the list or just want another way you may be able to get the information (in more ugly form) from /var/log/apt.

• Assuming you have the oldest compressed history.log file available (which you normally should have if you did a clean install of 13.10 (and don't use things like Bleachbit)), you should see something close to this:

  $ ls -l /var/log/apt
  total 120
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5024 Mar 19 07:40 history.log
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1252 Feb 27 07:29 history.log.1.gz
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2156 Jan 31 06:03 history.log.2.gz
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1288 Dec 31 11:14 history.log.3.gz
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3232 Nov 27 07:22 history.log.4.gz
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18813 Oct 31 07:11 history.log.5.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 root adm 28064 Mar 19 07:40 term.log
  -rw-r----- 1 root adm 3331 Feb 27 07:29 term.log.1.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 root adm 4862 Jan 31 06:03 term.log.2.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 root adm 3685 Dec 31 11:14 term.log.3.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 root adm 9058 Nov 27 07:22 term.log.4.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 root adm 12452 Oct 31 07:11 term.log.5.gz
  $

• In here, history.log.5.gz is of interest. So, to get the uncompressed version, run:

  zcat /var/log/apt/history.log.5.gz > ~/Desktop/output.txt

• Look at that file with the text editor you like. Looking from the top, you'll see a lot of "installs" (very long lines) but if you go down carefully a few lines, you'll come to a line beginning with Purge:. That is also a very long line and will list the packages, including gparted, removed as part of the setting up of your OS.

• If you like the terminal, you can extract only that line with:

  grep -m 1 "Purge:" ~/Desktop/output.txt