Transfer of a Linux Installation to another PC

From Blue-IT.org Wiki

This article should cover - over time - the transfer of settings from one to another PC. I discuss the problems I discountered for each program try to give a practical answer. I will follow this scheme:

  • Data: where is the directory to hold the programs information
  • Copy: how to copy the data
  • Result: what went ok
  • Problems: what went wrong

Firefox

Data

Firefox holds its data in the following directory: 

~/.mozilla/firefox

Thereby using a special profile directory in a form like 

~/.mozilla/firefox/yourProfile.default

This directory is named and configured in this file 

~/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini

Copy

I had some problems with upgrading to a new firefox version, when importing the whole tree like 

~/.mozilla/firefox/myProfile.default/*

from firefox 2.0.1 to 2.0.3. The extensions would malfnction. So I tried and excluded all extensions: 

cd ~/.mozilla/firefox/myNewProfile.default
rsync --exclude extensions/ --exclude extensions* --delete -av --delete /old_dir_to_users_home/.mozilla/firefox/oldProfile.default/. .

Result

Everything went o.k. My bookmarks are there, all themes and extensions/plugins previously installed (e.g. for lacalisations!!) are o.k.

Problems

  • Needed to install several extensions again, but the setting had been there!
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