Hey fellow distro hoppers! I'm looking for some advice on the best ways to transfer my configurations when switching between Linux distributions. Specifically, I have an audio recording setup where I've fine-tuned the kernel for low latency and made some adjustments in PipeWire. I've also been using Bottles with various Wine versions for my guitar VSTs.
I'm planning to move from Mint 22.1 to Debian 13 with KDE, as I'm not really a fan of Cinnamon anymore. While I know KDE can be installed on Mint, I prefer starting fresh with a clean install. I'm a bit concerned since I have some packages installed that I didn't keep track of. Is there an easy way to list all the apt and Flatpak packages I've installed? Any tips for a smooth transition would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
4 Answers
Another practical approach is to create a 'FilesToBackup' directory where you make symlinks to all the files and directories you want to keep. You can then run a script that resolves those links and copies everything to a temporary location before zipping it up with a date in the filename.
Check out the community wiki for some solid installation tips! Also, make sure to connect through an Ethernet cable for stability and don’t forget to remove the boot media after installing!
Using Git to manage your dotfiles is a great way to keep everything organized! I also like to document every change I make in Markdown so I can refer back to it later.
Using a dotfile manager like chezmoi can really help you manage your configs across different distros efficiently. It simplifies backing up and restoring your settings.
Totally agree! I do the same, but I use Org mode for my documentation—just keeps everything neat!