How to migrate user settings and data between Linux machines on a LAN

Ever had to set up a new Linux machine (for example your work laptop), and wanted to import the exact same settings that you use on your main (or home) machine? Maybe some data as well?

Some steps of this guide are Manjaro Linux (and, by extension, Arch Linux) specific, but some of the general ideas could be transplanted to other distros as well. Your mileage may vary with respect to my specific setup and needs. Some of the steps below assume the two machines are in a local area network (LAN).

Here is what we will be covering:

1. Using the same mouse and keyboard to control the two machines, provided they are conveniently placed on a desk side by side.
2. Setting up OpenSSH server on the new machine to be able to copy files from the “old” one.
3. Making a list of packages installed on the new machine that we also need on the new machine. This can save a lot of typing!
4. Copying user settings from the old to the new machine.

In this post, let’s say we want to migrate settings and files from a machine with hostname desktop (LAN IP 192.168.1.28) to another machine with hostname laptop (LAN IP 192.168.1.24).

Share mouse and keyboard

First things first. If we’re talking about a LAN and the two machines are side by side on a single desk, it’s handy to use the “main” one’s keyboard and mouse to control both. For this you can use synergy. After installing Synergy on both machines, the steps are as follows:

1. Make each machine know the other’s name. It’s not mandatory but it’s more user-friendly to connect to desktop than to 192.168.1.28. To do this, edit each machine’s /etc/hosts file by adding a line with the other’s machine LAN IP followed by its hostname. For example, on the main desktop machine (IP 192.168.1.28) I would add 192.168.1.24 laptop to /etc/hosts. To get the LAN IP, examine the output of ip addr (or ifconfig for other Linux distros).

2. Edit /etc/synergy.conf on the main (desktop) machine. You need to tell it where the other machine is, physically. I have my laptop to the left of my desktop, so my /etc/synergy.conf file looks like this:

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   section: screens desktop: laptop: end section: links desktop: left = laptop laptop: right = desktop end

3. Start the Synergy server on the main machine (desktop in my case) by running synergys. This is the machine whose mouse and keyboard will control the other.
4. Start the Synergy client on the new machine (laptop in my case) by running synergyc desktop. This means that this machine will connect its Synergy client to the Synergy server running on dekstop (where the Synergy server must already be running).

That’s all. Now you can use only one mouse and keyboard for both machines.

Copy files to new machine

Once keyboard and mouse input are available through your main device on the new machine, you can start copying files comfortably (i.e. without being endangered by scoliosis). OpenSSH server needs to be installed on the new machine first, though. In Manjaro and Arch Linux:

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alex@laptop$ sudo pacman -S openssh

Now to configure it, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config on the new machine (laptop) as follows (replace the ListenAddress with the LAN IP of your new machine):

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ListenAddress 192.168.1.24
ListenAddress 127.0.0.1
PermitRootLogin no
MaxAuthTries 3

I also like to enable logging such that I can check my SSH logs with journalctl -u sshd. For this, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config to add the following (or uncomment these lines under the Logging section):

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SyslogFacility AUTH
LogLevel INFO

Then you need to start OpenSSH server on the new machine:

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alex@laptop$ sudo systemctl start sshd.service

The first time you connect to the new machine, you will be asked to check the host fingerprint.

To copy files from the main to the new machine, use scp.

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alex@desktop$ scp ~/doc.txt alex@laptop:~

If you want to copy a directory over to the new machine, just use the -r switch with scp:

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alex@desktop$ scp -r wallpapers/ alex@laptop:~/Pictures

Install the same packages on the new machine

Before starting any package install, it is best to update the mirror list with the fastest mirrors. On the new machine, run:

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alex@laptop$ sudo pacman-mirrors -f 10

This will determine the 10 fastest mirrors and update /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.

Now generate the list of installed software on the old machine and copy it over to the new machine:

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alex@desktop$ pacman -Qqen > pkglist.txt
alex@desktop$ scp pkglist.txt alex@laptop:~

Be sure to remove what you don’t need, for example NVidia drivers if the new machine does not have an NVidia graphics card. (In my case, the original list contained 399 packages, of which I only wanted to install 61 to the new machine.)

On the new machine, install the packages listed in ~/pkglist.txt:

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alex@laptop$ sudo pacman -S --needed - < ~/pkglist.txt 

If, by chance, you have installed KDE’s Baloo file indexer as a dependency, do yourself a favor and disable that monstrosity:

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alex@laptop$ balooctl disable

Copy user settings over to the new machine

If you use the same desktop environment on both machines (this example assumes we’re using XFCE), you can attempt the following method. It is important to replace the files on the new machine from an actual TTY, NOT from the graphic session. First, back up the destination folders on the new machine:

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alex@laptop$ cp -fr ~/.config/xfce4/ ~/.config/xfce4.bck
alex@laptop$ cp -fr ~/.local/share/xfce4 ~/.local/share/xfce4.bck

Then, prepare a temporary folder for the XFCE configuration files. You don’t want to be copying them while XFCE is up and running:

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alex@laptop$ mkdir ~/tmp/
alex@laptop$ mkdir ~/tmp/.config ~/tmp/.local/share

Then, copy them over from the main machine to the temporary folders on the new machine:

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alex@desktop$ scp -r ~/.config/xfce4/ alex@laptop:~/tmp/.config
alex@desktop$ scp -r ~/.local/share/xfce4/ alex@laptop:~/tmp/.local/share/

Now log out from the new machine, then open a TTY (Ctrl + Alt + F1, Ctrl + Alt + F2, etc.). From the TTY, first remove the default XFCE configuration, then move the new one in its place. Finally, restart (do a full reboot):

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alex@laptop$ rm -fr ~/.config/xfce4
alex@laptop$ rm -fr ~/.local/share/xfce4
alex@laptop$ mv ~/tmp/.config/xfce4 ~/.config
alex@laptop$ mv ~/tmp/.local/share/xfce4 ~/.local/share
alex@laptop$ sudo reboot

After reboot, your old settings should be applied to the new machine (but keep in mind that some adjustments might be necessary). If everything is FUBAR-ed, then just log out, switch to TTY and rename the two xfce4.bck directories to xfce4.

Conclusion

This guide for migrating user data and settings might be useful for quickly migrating the most important stuff between two Arch Linux-like distros. Happy set up!