Hey fellow distro hoppers! I need some advice on the best ways to migrate my configurations when switching between Linux distributions to save on setup time. I have a custom audio recording setup that includes a low-latency kernel, specific PipeWire configurations, and multiple Wine versions for my guitar VSTs. I've also installed a few additional packages through APT and Flatpak that I'm not currently tracking. I'm planning to move from Mint 22.1 to Debian 13 with KDE since I've realized Cinnamon isn't really for me. While I could install KDE on Mint, I'd rather do a clean install. Any tips would be greatly appreciated to make my distro hop as smooth as possible! Thanks!
4 Answers
Using Git to manage your configurations is a great approach! I document everything I do in Markdown, which really helps with keeping track of changes and setups across distros. It's also easy to push to GitHub or any other repository to access from anywhere!
If you want something automated, consider using a dotfile manager like chezmoi. It simplifies the management of your configuration files and makes it easy to synchronize them across different systems!
You might want to set up a FilesToBackup directory. Just create symlinks inside this directory for all the important files and folders you need. Then, you can use a simple script to read these symlinks, copy everything to a temporary directory and zip it up for easy transfer. That way, you won't miss anything important!
For installation tips, check out some useful guides available online. I saw a wiki with a bunch of installation tips that could come in handy. Just remember, if you're installing, make sure to do it via ethernet and remove the boot media afterward!
I do the same! I document my process in Org mode; it's super handy for referencing everything later.