How to migrate apps, settings, passwords and files from mx 19.x to a clean installation of Mx 21

[kwijyboo]

Hi there,
I have Mx 19.4 kde on a dell xps 9550 and I'd like to migrate my whole system (passowords, apps, settings, files etc) to a clean install of Mx 21.
I have a root partition and a /Home partition.
I understand that preserving the /home will preserve the files, but is there an easy and fool-proof way to migrate all the currently installed apps with their settings and passwords?

thanks

Code: Select all

System:    Host: <filter> Kernel: 5.10.0-5mx-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-5mx-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.14.5 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM Distro: MX-19.4_kde_x64 patito feo March 31  2021 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 15 9550 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 9 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0N7TVV v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.14.0 date: 02/13/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 30.8 Wh condition: 30.8/84.0 Wh (37%) volts: 12.4/11.4 model: SMP DELL 1P6KD5A type: Li-poly 
           serial: <filter> status: Full 
           Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech K780 Multi-Device Wireless Keyboard serial: <filter> 
           charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-6700HQ bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake-S family: 6 model-id: 5E (94) 
           stepping: 3 microcode: EA L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 41599 
           Speed: 2066 MHz min/max: 800/3500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2066 2: 2413 3: 2159 4: 2046 5: 2201 6: 2264 7: 2227 
           8: 2232 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 530 vendor: Dell XPS 15 9550 driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:191b 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GM107M [GeForce GTX 960M] driver: N/A bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:139b 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa compositor: kwin_x11 
           resolution: 2560x1440~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 530 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.4 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio vendor: Dell XPS 15 9550 driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:a170 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.0-5mx-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM43602 802.11ac Wireless LAN SoC vendor: Dell driver: brcmfmac v: kernel 
           port: f040 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:43ba 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 15.89 GiB (3.3%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: PM951 NVMe 512GB size: 476.94 GiB block size: physical: 512 B 
           logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: BXV77D0Q scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 18.63 GiB size: 18.21 GiB (97.75%) used: 11.01 GiB (60.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 
           ID-2: /home raw size: 21.59 GiB size: 21.13 GiB (97.85%) used: 4.87 GiB (23.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p8 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 3.73 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache pressure: 100 (default) 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 64.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2474 fan-2: 2490 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ buster main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://it.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           2: deb http://it.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster ahs
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list 
           1: deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free #Opera Browser (final releases)
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera.list 
           1: deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teams.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/ms-teams stable main
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 284 Uptime: 2h 16m Memory: 15.46 GiB used: 3.32 GiB (21.5%) Init: SysVinit v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 
           default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: quick-system-in running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

[dolphin_oracle]

most app settings are stored in the home folder already, so preserving /home and using the same user name will do that for you.

the apps themeselves are trickier, you'll need to resinstall those.

[kwijyboo]

Thanks for the answer, however "most" apps doesnt sound quite reassuring :-)
How can I find out which do and which don't?

Most importantly, what about passwords and system settings?

tx

[MAYBL8]

For passwords I use a password manager. I back up my passwords to a file that can be re imported when I have to reinstall the password manager.
I use MYKI as my password manager but there are others out there.
As far as system settings, make a list of them and take screen shots of the settings.
Others here may have better suggestions.

[dolphin_oracle]

Thanks for the answer, however "most" apps doesnt sound quite reassuring :-)
How can I find out which do and which don't?

Most importantly, what about passwords and system settings?

tx

well, I can't tell you everything, but any user-level settings will be stored in your home folder. some root level apps might store some settings somewhere under /etc.

since the desktop runs as a user, that would include desktop settings.

[Earl57]

I recently had to do the same thing here, as my hdd died. I had some warning that was about to fail, so I copied as much data off to thumb drives as I could before it gave out.
I also set up a laptop with MX21 wildflower and having firefox on both, I used the sync function on both. You need to set up a firefox account to use it, but it worked very well. Transferred 20 years or so of bookmarks, logins, and passwords with no problems.

[seaken64]

There is no prescribed way to migrate all your settings from MX19.x to MX21.x. However there are a lot of tips on this forum for what others have done, for this current stable upgrade and for past upgrades. Do a forum search and read up.

Personally, I choose to use Chrome and keep everything synced in the cloud. Firefox and other browsers do something similar.

I chose to backup my /home folder and then just did a new fresh install of 21. On some of my computers I just installed 21 on a new partition and kept the old version 18 or 19 as it was on the other partition. When I am done setting up the new 21 I can delete the old system.

There are ways to move application settings and configs, etc But I just find it better to start fresh.

Seaken64

[figueroa]

It should be noted, as I have done before, that a users home directory (folder) is not the same thing as /home. A user's home directory = /home/ + username, i.e. /home/myname.

No user installed applications will transfer to a new installation. Applications that a user installed will have to be reinstalled on the new system. However, a user's application settings are found in the user's home directory in ~/.config/ and other hidden files. Restoring a complete backup (one that includes the hidden files) of a user's home directory will also migrate the user's customized application settings. System-level application settings are primarily stored in the /etc directory and the old /etc/ directory should NOT be restored to a new installation and doing so may make a system unusable. However, backing up the /etc/ directory may be helpful as those files can be used as a reference and a few may be copied to a new installation successfully. Always back up any system files before hacking them or overwriting them.

It is possible, but not assured, that a user's Firefox and Thunderbird settings might transfer successfully to a new system when the user's home directory is restored, but not every Firefox and Thunderbird system will be restored seamlessly because of differences in major versions. In other words, your mileage may vary. If your settings do not transfer or transfer without complaining and/or failing, you may be able to start firefox and thunderbird with the -P switch (the profile manager) and select your old profile successfully.

[asqwerth]

Some useful customisation files found in root subfolders you may wish to copy or backup before you install the new MX:

Selected** contents of:

/usr/share/[icons, themes, fonts, backgrounds]

If you had previously installed such items from MX/Debian's repos or by enabling an external repo, these won't be saved in your $HOME/[.icons, .themes, .fonts, or whatever] but in the root subfolders above.

If you clean install MX now, but save $HOME, you would still lose those items since the rest of root is written over. YOu can copy over just the specific items you want to keep to your $HOME, or another partition, or external drive as backup, before your clean install new MX, then restore them back.


** for instance, there is no need to copy default Papirus icons or the default fonts in MX, since they will be preinstalled in your new MX. Note however that there is no guarantee that a gtk theme made for one version of gtk3 will work perfectly in the new DEbian base, because the gtk3 version will have changed. It's better now, in that older gtk3 themes from the last few years can often still work fine with latest gtk3 (I know from my Arch-based distros), but occasionally there are issues (eg recently I couldn't open the settings window of a gnome shell extension with the (oldish) theme I'd been using, and had to change to a newer/more updated theme).

[davidy]

There is no magic ap to transfer your personal everything to a new clean install. For instance, I use a lot of appimage files but they act like I never opened them. Backup all your bookmarks from your browsers for sure. CopyQ has an import/export settings button so I used that. The main panel can be backed up in mx tweak but there are some new things in 21 so there's that. I use password safe and simply keep a copy of it's folder config using freefilesync.

What would be awesome is a script to grab a list of all the manually installed and uninstalled items so that at least you don't have to hunt everything down and 'start all over'. Like a differentiation from a stock iso to whatever you got going on ap wise. I completely remove libreoffice just so I can clean install the latest fresh and that is a pita all by itself.

Best bet is backup as much as you can and get to know which programs you use have a 'backup settings' option. I have always preferred portable aps for this very reason. Linux's "portable" aps aren't so much like they are in windows.
For this install, 21, I made a list of all the aps I manually installed so next time maybe I can run them all at once for whatever that's worth.
Yeah, clean install kicked my arse but 19.4 patito feo was getting old considering debian 11 has been out for quite a minute and I couldn't even update password safe to a current version. It feels kinda like on my smartphone I just updated right from android 9 to android 11 skipping 10 altogether.