When you’re new to Linux and the Mate desktop atmosphere and seeking to create a fast backup of your settings and desktop, you’ll have an interest to know that it’s simpler than you suppose. Observe together with the information under and learn to use Dconf and the terminal to accurately backup your Mate desktop settings.
SPOILER ALERT: Scroll down and watch the video tutorial on the finish of this text.
Set up Dconf
Backing up the Mate desktop settings is feasible due to Dconf. It’s a database system that many Gnome-like desktop environments depend on to outline issues on the desktop atmosphere for the person.
On many Linux installations, the Dconf instruments we want are already there. Nonetheless, in the event you’re lacking the Dconf instruments (for no matter purpose), it’s greatest to observe the directions under and learn to re-install them.
Ubuntu
sudo apt set up dconf* -y
Debian
sudo apt-get set up dconf* -y
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S dconf
Fedora
sudo dnf set up dconf
OpenSUSE
sudo zypper set up dconf
Generic Linuxes
Utilizing an obscure Linux distribution and undecided easy methods to re-install Dconf? Open up your terminal and search your bundle supervisor device for “dconf”.
Can’t discover it? Think about turning to one thing like Pkgs.org, or your distribution’s official documentation.
Dumping The Database
Because the Mate desktop atmosphere has all of its information in Dconf, you’ll have to export the database info to again your setup up. To begin the extraction course of with Dconf, open up a terminal window.
Within the terminal window, it’s important that you don’t attempt to use the sudo command, or achieve root with su. Desktop environments don’t use the foundation person, or root file system to arrange a working atmosphere, so trying this can fail to again up something. As a substitute, run all instructions along with your common person.
Backup All Of Dconf
The most simple method to backup the Mate desktop settings is to neglect about attempting to determine what space of Dconf wants backing up particularly and as an alternative creating a big copy of each single piece of knowledge out there in it.
This fashion is time-consuming, because the dumping course of accounts for every thing Dconf has to supply, however the profit is that it doesn’t matter what you’re certain to get a dependable backup of your Mate desktop setup on Linux.
dconf dump / > ~/Desktop/dconf-full-backup
Confirm that the backup of Dconf works by trying on the content material of the file, utilizing the cat command. Mix it with extra to make taking a look at it line-by-line simpler.
cat ~/Desktop/dconf-full-backup | extra
If every thing within the file appears passable, the backup of Dconf is profitable. Be at liberty to take this backup and place it on Dropbox, Google Drive, MEGA or no matter you employ for Cloud Storage on Linux.
Backup Solely Mate desktop
An alternative choice to backing up every thing is to inform Dconf to solely export gadgets in /org/mate, fairly than every thing. Going this route is protected, because it covers all the Mate desktop info in your Linux PC. Nonetheless, it is not going to again up different areas in your Linux PC that Dconf handles, so preserve that in thoughts.
Begin the exporting course of by getting into the next command in a terminal.
dconf dump /org/mate > ~/Desktop/dconf-mate-backup
Check out the backup to make sure that the export went by way of by operating the cat command.
cat ~/Desktop/dconf-mate-backup | extra
If the backup file appears good, add the backup someplace for safekeeping.
Back Up Themes And Icons
Backing up your desktop settings isn’t going to save lots of your customized icons and theme information. If you wish to again up these, you’ll have to create a Tar archive. In a terminal, compress each the ~/.themes and ~/.icons folders.
Observe: in case your customized themes and icons are put in system-wide, fairly than for a single person, you’ll have to create backups of /usr/share/icons and /usr/share/themes/ as an alternative.
tar -czvf icons-backup.tar.gz ~/.icons tar -czvf themes-backup.tar.gz ~/.themes
Or:
tar -czvf icons-backup.tar.gz /usr/share/icons tar -czvf themes-backup.tar.gz /usr/share/themes/
Restoring The Backup
To restore your Mate desktop atmosphere backup, open up a terminal window and CD to the folder the place you retain your backup. In our information, the backup is saved within the ~/Paperwork folder.
cd ~/Paperwork
Subsequent, use the Dconf command and restore your backup. To restore a full backup, do the next command in a terminal:
dconf load / < dconf-full-backup
Restoring the desktop-only backup works the identical manner as the total backup. Simply use the dconf load command and level it to the backup file.
dconf load /org/mate/ < dconf-mate-backup
Loading the backup file into Dconf will load all your preferences into the Mate desktop. The adjustments ought to occur routinely, although it’s a good suggestion to reboot simply in case.
Restore Icons And Themes
The Mate desktop settings are again to regular, due to restoring the backup in Dconf. The final step is to revive your icons and themes. To try this, transfer your themes-backup.tar.gz and icons-backup.tar.gz information to ~/Desktop, after which use the next decompression command.
tar -xzvf icons-backup.tar.gz -C ~/ tar -xzvf themes-backup.tar.gz -C ~/
Or:
sudo tar -xzvf icons-backup.tar.gz -C /usr/share/ sudo tar -xzvf themes-backup.tar.gz -C /usr/share/
