I have a simple wish, with a probably not so simple solution.

I recently started with linux (Arch kde), I’m loving it, I quickly realized that this OS and almost all apps, are highly customizable, I’m laving that as well. My problem is the unavoidable reinstalls and that I have a laptop.

Is there any way that I can save all my configs, apps and my apps’ configs, and transfer them over to my laptop, while almost having a very quick back-up. I realize that I could turn it into an ISO somehow, but that wouldn’t work (I think) because my laptop has vastly different hardware. I also realize the partitioning problem. So in my idealistic world, there should be a solution that requires a clean install (from scripts or manual) and some .sh file, that installs all my apps, pastes all my configs and reboots.

So is this possible? and if yes, how should I go about this? did someone make a tool for this already? Or(!) can I burn it to a flash and the drivers will correct themselves/I’ll deal with them later?

For final words I’d like to say that I’m far from finished configurating, but I’d like to know the proccess, to not shoot myself in the foot somewhere along the way of configing, thanks!

  • Tyler K. Nothing
    3·
    7 months ago

    I’m not an expert in Linux, but I’ve been using it for more than 20 years. I used to be plagued by this issue, but since online services have matured, I’ve got most of my stuff synced up. That, and my NAS and an external drive for backups. I do have a few thoughts, though.

    One, I believe you can simply copy your /home directory and restore your OS settings by restoring it to a new install. This strikes me as a limiting option, as it doesn’t allow you to distro hop, at least not seamlessly. Also, get an external drive for backups. I use Deja Dup for simple, easy backups and restorations.

    Two, I would suggest you investigate either Fedora (https://getfedora.org) or Pop_OS! (https://pop.system76.com/) as an alternative. Fedora is based on Red Hat, which is very mature, but strikes a nice balance between the latest software and reliability. Pop_OS! is Debian-based, which is also a very well matured OS, though System76 has made some major improvements. I use their Pop Shell extension for GNOME on Fedora 39 for window tiling, easily the best I’ve used on any Linux distro. Regardless, almost any other distro should be easier to get going over Arch. Sorry, Arch users ;)

    Three, if you really don’t want to leave Arch, check out Manjaro. It’s Arch-based, but it’s quite a bit easier to set up.

    Four, if you’d still like to try borking things, but without facing consequences, I’d set up a local VM using Boxes for GNOME or VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org/). That way you can test stuff without risking your functional system. Boxes is better, IMO, since it can install distros from the app itself. The list has at least 100 distros of all types to choose from, including Haiku and FreeBSD. It would be good, however, if you have at least 16GBs of RAM, though I generally run VMs with 4GBs of RAM, Linux can run fine with 2GBs.

    I hope that helps :)

    • UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.worksOP
      1·
      7 months ago

      tbh I bearly have experience in any distro, but Arch didn’t pose that much of a challange. I might switch, but I really don’t see the advantage I’d get. Maybe to Debian, I used it’s terminal. But, great Idea to mess around in VMs first!

      Can you explain this step:

      and restore your OS settings by restoring it to a new install.

      • Tyler K. Nothing
        2·
        7 months ago

        I’m utterly useless with base arch 🤣 If it works for you, who’m I to complain 👍

        I guess I should have made that clear. Your /home directory is where everything user-related is stored in invisible folders. All your settings for the OS and applications are kept in there. So, if you copy that directory and restore it to a fresh install of the same distro, all of your settings will be restored. It’s been years, but I’ve done it a few times.

        The only thing you’ll really need to do after that is re-install all of the apps you installed. Once you have, however, every apps settings are restored.

          • Tyler K. Nothing
            2·
            7 months ago

            Definitely take your time and soak up more info from other sources :) I hope all of this turns out to be at least marginally helpful :D

            • UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.worksOP
              2·
              7 months ago

              Thank you. You wrote so much that I checked out your profile, I just wanna say: Enjoy your time on Lemmy! And that I am honored to have more then half of your all time comments be answers to me.