Replicate settings from one Ubuntu Desktop machine to another

chribonn

12/19/23, 2:37 PM

I am setting up my second Ubuntu Desktop machine.

I would really like to copy some settings from the existing machine to the new one. The following are the list of settings I've identified:

Remmina
OpenVPN connections
Windows Shares (I think I figured this out -- copy the settings in /etc/fstab). I would then create them in Files.

Thanks.

PS: There isn't a tool that does this?

0 + 7

migration

openvpn

remmina

Jos

12/19/23, 2:41 PM

Most of these settings are user-specific and live in your home directory, in subdirectories starting with a dot `.`. The simplest way is to copy those directories that look important over to the other system.

chribonn

12/19/23, 2:59 PM

Both machines have the same loginname (one is my laptop, the other is my desktop). Is there a particular place I can look into. While I would like to avoid it if the effort to seek transfer and get the files to work is considerable I will (grudgingly) redo everything

Jos

12/19/23, 3:05 PM

Applications on Ubuntu are free to store their settings in any way they choose. So there is no universal clone-your-settings procedure. What I do after installing a new system: copy the "dot folders" from my old system over to the new system, but in a separate place, say `/home/user/oldsystem`. That way, whenever I need my old settings for a newly installed system, I just need to copy them from `/home/user/oldsystem/` to `/home/user/`.

chribonn

12/19/23, 3:08 PM

I will try this and share what happens

chribonn

12/19/23, 3:55 PM

For Remmina the various endpoints are in /home/.local/share/remmina. Copy these to the equivalen directory. For each endpoint the credentials need to be reentered.

chribonn

12/19/23, 4:27 PM

For AnyDesk I could not find the settings. I ended up recreating the endpoints.

Organic Marble

12/19/23, 4:50 PM

You could backup your home directory using deja-dup and restore it to the new machine.

Elon Musk

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