How to import config from my notebook to my desktop (fresh install)?

Ask Fedora
,
1

Hi there,

I am using Fedora on my notebook from quite a moment which I also customized a little bit (E.g. the way windows are shown on the task bar on each monitor, etc.)
I really don’t remember how I did that back in the days (was a mix of gnome extensions and some settings both in the regular gnome settings and in the Tweaks app).

Is there a way I can export my settings from my laptop and then import them on the fresh fedora install on the desktop?

PS: Still on Fedora 38… I prefer to have my desktop settings done before upgrading both systems (and I remember when I upgraded to F38 one of the Gnome extensions I was using was not yet ready)

2

Most of your config is stored in ~/.config a hidden directory in your home. You should copy that over to the new machine.

3

I have to say that in general, copying the home directory worked well.
Or just .config, as suggested above.

Both can be potentially problematic, but so far I haven’t encountered an issue.

However it seems you are talking more about the desktop environment settings, rather than user configuration of various apps.

For the Cinnamon desktop environment, I can use:

dconf dump /org/cinnamon/ > cinnamon_desktop_backup
dconf load /org/cinnamon/ < cinnamon_desktop_backup

to back up and reload the settings.

E.g. as shown here on this random google result: https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/backup-the-cinnamon-desktop-settings-on-linux/

For Gnome it should be most similar I guess, and I believe other DEs have some way like this too.