From: alan@invalid.com   
      
   On 9/1/25 12:01 PM, Monsieur wrote:   
   >   
   > Linux can be an ass sometimes.   
   >   
   > I finally got a new machine on which I installed the latest Mint. Works   
   > beautifully. Next I copied my complete home folder from the old machine   
   > on an external ssd and then copied that back to the new machine.   
   > Unfortunately nothing showed up in the new home folder when I rebooted.   
   >   
   > Chatgpt advised me to sudo chown -R $USER:$USER ~ to change the   
   > ownership of all files in home but that didn't help.   
   >   
   > Another internet page told me to copy all the folders starting with a   
   > dot again, which I did. Now a few things are back (wallpaper settings,   
   > Thunderbird found my e-mail profiles), but most stuff isn't there yet,   
   > like all the icons in my panel or the start menu. The home folder is   
   > still empty, except for a folder .dosbox which somehow wriggled its way   
   > into there.   
   >   
   > I am willing to redo the whole installation if necessary, but what is   
   > the best way to copy my home folder to the new machine without all the   
   > trouble I'm having right now? Anyone experienced this too?   
   >   
   > Thanks for any pointers in the right direction.   
   >   
   >   
   I piece meal copy items.   
   I don't need the entire .config folder, just parts.  .local/share is another.   
   As a matter of fact, if moving from one install version to another, you might   
   not want to   
   copy some config files.  They do change from app version to version.  And Mint   
   OS version   
   to version.   Or one could trip you up at least.  One panel applet change the   
   location of   
   their settings on me.   
      
   Yes, Thunderbird mail and Firefox and Microsoft Edge I just bulk copy.    
   ~/.thunderbird and   
   ~/.mozilla folders.   
      
   I have just found and documented (backup-weekly-files.txt) all the little   
   files that are   
   configs or icons etc that I can, so later I just copy these selected things   
   back.  Works   
   great as a backup script too.   
      
   list=${HOME}/bin/backup-weekly-files.txt   
   tar czf ~/Downloads/backup.tar.gz  -T $list 2>&1   
      
   It takes time but after years, I'm pretty happy with my results.   However, I   
   still have   
   to manually config a few things.  Can't get them all huh?!!   And I do image   
   the partions too.   
      
   --   
   Linux Mint 22.1,  Thunderbird 128.14.0esr,  Mozilla Firefox 142.0   
        Alan K.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)