I've been meaning to ask this question for a while, and this seems like a good occasion.
I'm moving someone from a very old i3 machine to a new AMD machine. The key difference apart from performance is that the old machine was bios, and the new one is of course compulsorily EFI.
So what I did was, do a new install, then use Clonezilla to make a copy of the /home partition, and moved it to the new machine.
Everything seems fine, with one exception. The old machine is on Debian Mate. All the files seem to have moved fine. But desktop layout is a different matter. The user has an enormous desktop file on a quite large screen with every inch covered with folders, in a familiar order and positioning. Unfortunately the layout of the desktop doesn't seem to survive the transition, its alpha order.
Where is the layout of the desktop file kept? And is there a way to keep its layout while doing the transfer?
Its not the end of the world if it just has to be accepted, but it would make life a lot easier if I could keep it. This was never a problem in previous machine moves, because I made a clone of the hard drive, then booted on the new machine. But with the arrival of compulsory EFI this isn't possible any more. They have removed legacy mode on the new main board.
I have looked up converting an installation from bios to EFI. It seems like a very fraught procedure. And after all these years there's a case to be made for a clean install, as people here have said. So if I could overcome the desktop layout problem that would be what I would rather do.
Peter
On Sat, 23 Apr 2022 17:14:55 +0100 Peterpeter.northerly@gmail.com allegedly wrote:
Everything seems fine, with one exception. The old machine is on Debian Mate. All the files seem to have moved fine. But desktop layout is a different matter. The user has an enormous desktop file on a quite large screen with every inch covered with folders, in a familiar order and positioning. Unfortunately the layout of the desktop doesn't seem to survive the transition, its alpha order.
Where is the layout of the desktop file kept? And is there a way to keep its layout while doing the transfer?
MATE stores all its settings (including desktop and panels layout) in a dconf database. You need to dump the contents of that database to a text file (which you can then inspect) and then restore from that.
Thusly:
dconf dump > file
followed by
dconf load / < file
For the MATE settings alone you may need to specify the path like this:
dconf dump /org/mate/ > mate-dump-file
then
dconf load /org/mate/ < mate-dump-file
If you need further details, do a search for "backup and restore MATE desktop"
HTH
Mick
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Mick Morgan gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 https://baldric.net/about-trivia ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi
I should probably start with a wow ;)
I never knew of the dconf database and that this is how some of the environment settings are stored. I see how a single bash script could restore (recreate) my favorite MATE settings on any new system.
Thanks for that, that's really handy...
dzidek23
24.04.2022 o 11:38, mick:
On Sat, 23 Apr 2022 17:14:55 +0100 Peterpeter.northerly@gmail.com allegedly wrote:
Everything seems fine, with one exception. The old machine is on Debian Mate. All the files seem to have moved fine. But desktop layout is a different matter. The user has an enormous desktop file on a quite large screen with every inch covered with folders, in a familiar order and positioning. Unfortunately the layout of the desktop doesn't seem to survive the transition, its alpha order.
Where is the layout of the desktop file kept? And is there a way to keep its layout while doing the transfer?
MATE stores all its settings (including desktop and panels layout) in a dconf database. You need to dump the contents of that database to a text file (which you can then inspect) and then restore from that.
Thusly:
dconf dump > file
followed by
dconf load / < file
For the MATE settings alone you may need to specify the path like this:
dconf dump /org/mate/ > mate-dump-file
then
dconf load /org/mate/ < mate-dump-file
If you need further details, do a search for "backup and restore MATE desktop"
HTH
Mick
Mick Morgan gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 https://baldric.net/about-trivia
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Peter