From: alan@invalid.com   
      
   On 9/1/25 10:57 PM, Gordon wrote:   
   > On 2025-09-01, Alan K.  wrote:   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > This is the takeaway point of this thread. In my experience re-install, after   
   > backing up /home, and then copy back your data files.   
   >   
   > Then copy back any obvious config files which are not there, if the   
   > programme fires up "new" as if it has had a fresh install.   
   >   
   >>   .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.   
   >   
   > Some config files are installed with the prgramme and copying over the   
   > backed up ones messes with the fresh ones.   
   >   
   >>   
   >> 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.   
   >>   
   > This is the route I am on. The needs to BU the conf files is yery handy.   
   > Alot of them are in /home/.config/ but there is a few others hiding.   
      
   The backup tool in the menu, mintbackup, is a pretty nice tool to use to make   
   a backup of   
   home.  It excludes all dot files and folders so you just need to include them.   
      
   As much as it is, I also use my tar command.  Hey, two backups are better than   
   one.   
      
   --   
   Linux Mint 22.1,  Thunderbird 128.14.0esr,  Mozilla Firefox 142.0   
        Alan K.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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