Installed Packages

I've been searching for an easy way to itemize all installed packages on a Debian / Ubuntu system, but just found it today. To list all installed packages,

dpkg --get-selections > installed-software

Now, you can use this list to re-install an existing system or duplicate its configuration on a new system:

dpkg --set-selections < installed-software

Finally, run deselect to make the selection changes take effect!

dselect

Thank you to Ubuntu Forums for the answer: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=261366

Finishing my previous thought

After expanding the virtual disk and the partition, simply run resize2fs on the device of interest and the filesystem (EXT2 or EXT3) will be expanded to occupy the full extent of the partition :)

Virtual Disks

Expanding a virtual disk in VMWare is very simple:

vmware-vdiskmanager -x 10GB myDisk.vmdk

Just remember that you still have to expand the partition and the filesystem living on that partition as well. Thanks to http://4sysops.com/archives/expanding-a-virtual-vmware-disk/ for the information!