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I've spent a long time configuring a new Ubuntu laptop. This includes:

  • A custom keyboard layout on /usr/share/X11/kbd.

  • Custom system configurations (ex: gnome tweaks).

  • Changes in random system files (ex: /etc/xdg/user-dirs.conf)

  • Installed apps with lots of customization (ex: Vimium on Chrome).

  • Dotfiles (ex: .vimrc, .bashrc, .xmonadrc, etc.)

Having a highly configured / customized OS is great, but the problem is, what do I do when I change computer? Do I need to go through all those steps again, or is there some way to migrate all my configuration to another machine in a small amount of time?

MaiaVictor
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    Is there anything preventing you from cloning your old disk and moving the image to your new computer? Clonezilla is a viable option for this. – KGIII Jul 17 '20 at 19:16
  • If you've correctly identified all the files that you've modified, simply copying them over will generally be enough. – Brian Z Jul 17 '20 at 19:17
  • @KGIII not really, looks like a sensible answer. For example, I used Time Machine for that on OSX, which basically cloned every single file. I wonder if that works on the long term though. Wouldn't that mean I get stuck to the same OS version forever? – MaiaVictor Jul 17 '20 at 19:18
  • @BrianZ I am keeping track of them. But I was afraid this would cause issues if the format of those files changed. Also, this still doesn't backup things like installed apps and their configurations (ex: app-specific shortcuts, Vimium mappings on Chrome). – MaiaVictor Jul 17 '20 at 19:19
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    Most of those other kinds of customization will be somewhere in your home folder (~/) so just back up all of that. Whether you decide its worth cloning or just backup your files manually, either way, upgrading OS is a separate issue. You may need to troubleshoot individual problems that arise but in general Linux is pretty stable and standardized in that sense so an update shouldn't suddenly break all your configurations. Moving from one distro to another could be trickier. – Brian Z Jul 17 '20 at 19:22
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    It doesn't solve all of your requirements, but I've found the command in this post to be helpful. – earthmeLon Jul 17 '20 at 19:26

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The easiest answer is to clone your disk(s) and just copy them to the new computer.

When doing this, I prefer to use Clonezilla, a live Linux distro that can be run from USB or DVD.

First, download Clonezilla Live and write it to a USB or optical disk. Then, boot to the live instance of Clonezilla and copy the old disk to the new disk. It's pretty self-explanatory and the OS is easy to use, as well as well-documented. Do note that you may need to boot with noacpi, nomodeset, or whatever additional commands you'd have normally used and Clonezilla works the same way as most other live OSs in these regards.

You can easily do this by just hooking the new drive up to the old computer by either opening the old computer up or by using a USB drive-caddy.

That's about it. It's remarkably easy. If you have any questions about using Clonezilla, it's well documented here.

KGIII
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