Flashing the OS without losing settings

[danielm]

I was wondering if backing up /home/username and restoring it after flashing the OS would restore everything to normal. Or would this break something due to new/changed settings? Well, at least /home/username/Applications and /home/username/Desktop should be safe?

Since upgrading from SuperZaxxon 1.54 to 1.55 broke my WiFi, I would like to re-flash, without having to set up everything again.

 

[mcobit]

Theoretically it should restore everything to normal. But you never know...


Better be prepared and backup your entire rootfs. Just in case.

 

[_wb_]

Just /etc and /home should be enough.

 

[Askarus]

I use custom Themes for Mouse and desktop.

Those are o /usr/share/themes and /usr/share/icons

 

[EvilDragon]

I use custom Themes for Mouse and desktop.

Those are o /usr/share/themes and /usr/share/icons

You don't have to install themes system-wide, you can also install them locally (.config/themes, AFAIR) which will keep them when you backup your home-directory.

 

[danielm]

Thanks for all the tips, I'll try them out tomorrow or the day after

 

[danielm]

Restoring /etc broke more than it helped, but /home/username worked alright.

Next time I will have to remember to backup themes as well. Even though I doubt that I manage to backup all settings. It's a shame that settings are not separated from the OS and that flashing just kills everything ...

 

[Letalis Sonus]

You should be able to put your GTK themes into ~/.themes as well.

 

[hedwards]

Restoring /etc broke more than it helped, but /home/username worked alright.

Next time I will have to remember to backup themes as well. Even though I doubt that I manage to backup all settings. It's a shame that settings are not separated from the OS and that flashing just kills everything ...

That's to be expected. Files in that directory do change from time to time, and it's just the ones that were modified that need to be backed up and restored.

 

[dimag0g]

Maybe the issue with /etc is permissions-related? Did you care to keep original permissions? And I wonder if all UIDs/GIDs remain the same after reflash.