[Debian-au] Methods of migrating from one box to another?

[Lucy Newman]

Wotcha,

I'm retiring my desktop, and have just bought a laptop to use instead.
My desktop was happily configured with all my hand picked debian
packages and I'd like to get this onto my new laptop. I only have
dialup, and a 7 cd set of Sid from Feb 2002 (thanks incidentally to Tony
Green :-) ) which was what I used to set up the desktop in the first place. 
I've installed a base system, am am now considering how to best install all
my other deb selections.

I thought I might get a text file of apt-cache pkgnames, and pass this
to apt-get install (with the sources list pointed at the cdrom set).
Does that sound sensible?

One other thought I had was that it'd be nice to see a list of packages
I'd selected, before the dependancies were calculated. That way any
packages I don't use and all their depencies can be removed from the "to
install" list giving me cleaner setup.  Can I do that?

I believe redhat (>= 7 ?) has some kind of kickstart application that 
allows you to create a template containing details your own general setup 
for speedily installing a new box with your choice of packages.
Has Debian got a similar method?

Any advice appreciated.
Cheers
~lucy