How to Back Up and Restore User Settings on HamoniKR OS

Start With the Right Kind of Backup

If you are preparing to reinstall HamoniKR OS, move to another computer, or recover a changed desktop, save your personal files and settings before you begin. A system snapshot, a partition image, and a copy of your user configuration serve different purposes. Choosing the wrong one can leave you with a backup that does not contain the preferences you wanted.

The project styles its name as HamoniKR. Its current documentation identifies version 8, Paektu, as based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. The steps below are written for that desktop, while the manual archive method also applies to other recent HamoniKR releases. Menu labels and included tools can vary by release. Check the official HamoniKR 8 guide for your installed version before relying on a particular utility.

What Does Each Backup Method Preserve?

Verified: HamoniKR’s current guide lists a partition backup and recovery program and a way to create a live system image. Its upgrade guide separately describes a Backup Tool for personal data and a partition-level backup utility in the live environment. The guide says to restore data with the same program used to create the backup. Those options are useful when migrating or preserving a broader system state; a partition image is not the same thing as a portable collection of desktop preferences. See the HamoniKR 7-to-8 upgrade instructions and the Systemback guide.

Version-dependent: an older HamoniKR 5.0 manual says its Backup Tool copied the home folder but skipped hidden files by default. Hidden folders such as .config commonly hold application and desktop preferences. That old behavior does not prove what a tool in HamoniKR 8 does today. Action: open the tool’s selection or exclusion screen and confirm that hidden files and folders are included before starting a backup. The historical instructions are in the HamoniKR 5.0 user guide.

Practical choice: for a clean reinstall or migration, use the official live-system backup workflow for important personal data, and make a separate archive of selected user settings. That gives you a file you can inspect and restore selectively, without assuming a full system image will behave like a settings export.

Before You Start

• Connect an external drive with enough free space. A backup stored only on the disk you plan to reinstall is not a safe copy.
• Open the file manager and note the drive’s mounted path. In the commands below, replace /media/$USER/ExternalDrive with the actual mounted path. A drive label containing spaces is fine when the path is inside quotes.
• Decide which accounts and apps matter. The example includes desktop and shell configuration, not documents, email, browser profiles, or passwords.
• Close applications whose settings are being saved. Some programs write preferences only when they exit.
• Do not run the archive command with sudo. It should be created as your normal user so file ownership and permissions remain sensible.

Back Up User Settings to an External Drive

1. Confirm the external drive is mounted

Set the destination to the path you saw in the file manager, then check that it is on the external filesystem:

BACKUP_DIR="/media/$USER/ExternalDrive"
df -h "$BACKUP_DIR"

Check the output before proceeding. It should identify the external drive and show its available space. If the path is missing or the output points to your system disk, stop and correct the path; do not create a backup directory in the wrong location.

2. Choose settings to include

On a Linux desktop, many per-user preferences live in hidden directories, whose names begin with a period. In this example, .config contains application settings, .local/share/cinnamon can hold Cinnamon-specific user data, .local/share/nemo can hold file-manager data, and shell startup files such as .zshrc or .profile customize the terminal session. HamoniKR 8 documents Cinnamon and a Zsh-based terminal, but installed apps and local configuration differ from one computer to another.

Some desktop preferences are stored in the dconf database. Export Cinnamon’s settings separately as readable text instead of relying only on copying a live database file:

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
dconf dump /org/cinnamon/ > "$BACKUP_DIR/cinnamon-settings.dconf"

If the dconf command is unavailable, skip this optional export and use the graphical settings panels or the file archive. Do not install packages from an unfamiliar source just to run one backup command.

3. Create a compressed archive

This Bash-compatible command checks which common settings paths exist, then archives only those paths. It excludes the raw dconf database because the previous step exports Cinnamon settings separately. Change the list to include another app’s configuration only after you have identified its folder.

BACKUP_FILE="$BACKUP_DIR/hamonikr-settings-$(date +%F).tar.gz"
items=(.config .local/share/cinnamon .local/share/nemo .local/bin .zshrc .bashrc .profile)
existing=()
for item in "${items[@]}"; do
  [[ -e "$HOME/$item" ]] && existing+=("$item")
done
tar --exclude='.config/dconf/user' -czf "$BACKUP_FILE" -C "$HOME" "${existing[@]}"

A .tar.gz file is a compressed archive. It is a convenient container, not encryption. Treat it as sensitive: application settings can contain account identifiers, server addresses, or tokens. If you want to save SSH keys, browser profiles, mail data, or password-manager files, make a separate encrypted backup and understand exactly what those folders contain first.

4. Verify the archive before relying on it

List the archive contents and confirm that expected directories appear:

tar -tzf "$BACKUP_FILE" | head -40
ls -lh "$BACKUP_FILE"

Then safely eject the external drive from the desktop and keep it disconnected until you need it. For important data, keep a second copy on a different device or trusted backup service. A single USB drive can fail or be lost.

Restore Settings Without Replacing Your Whole Profile

After installing HamoniKR again, install or open the applications whose settings you intend to restore. Close those apps first. Prefer restoring into the same user account name; if the account differs, check ownership and permissions rather than copying system files as root.

First extract the archive into a staging folder, not directly over your active home directory:

BACKUP_DIR="/media/$USER/ExternalDrive"
BACKUP_FILE="$BACKUP_DIR/hamonikr-settings-YYYY-MM-DD.tar.gz"
mkdir -p "$HOME/restore-preview"
tar -xzf "$BACKUP_FILE" -C "$HOME/restore-preview"
find "$HOME/restore-preview" -maxdepth 3 -type f | head -60

Replace YYYY-MM-DD with the date in your archive’s filename. Inspect the staged files. For an individual application, preserve its current configuration first, then copy only that application’s directory from the matching folder under restore-preview. For example, if the app uses ~/.config/example-app, rename the current example-app folder to a dated backup, then copy the archived folder into ~/.config. Replace example-app with the real directory name; do not paste the example literally.

For Cinnamon settings exported with dconf, review the export and load it after logging in to the new desktop:

dconf load /org/cinnamon/ < "$BACKUP_DIR/cinnamon-settings.dconf"

This applies the saved values under the Cinnamon settings path and may change several desktop preferences at once. If you only need one preference, set it manually in System Settings instead of loading the full export. Settings keys can change between releases, so use this full import most confidently on a compatible Cinnamon setup.

Restore shell files such as .zshrc only after checking them. A shell startup file can contain old paths, aliases, or commands that no longer fit the new installation. Restore one file at a time and open a new terminal to check for errors.

Common Assumptions to Check

• “A system snapshot includes every personal setting.” Not necessarily. HamoniKR documentation distinguishes system or partition recovery from personal-data backup. Choose the method for the data you need, and verify its selection list.
• “Backing up Home automatically includes hidden settings.” Do not assume this. A version 5.0 manual explicitly says hidden files were excluded by default. Inspect the current tool or create and verify a separate archive.
• “Restoring all old dotfiles is harmless.” It can replace newer defaults or reintroduce stale app settings. Restore selected application folders, keep a copy of the new configuration, and test one app at a time.
• “A successful backup dialog proves the files can be restored.” It proves only that the backup operation completed. Check the archive listing and, when practical, test extraction into a temporary folder before you need it.

Check the Result

A useful settings backup is on a separate drive, has a readable archive listing, and contains the folders you deliberately selected. A successful restore should bring back the intended preferences without breaking login, the desktop, or the application. If a setting is missing, check whether it belongs to another account, a system-wide location under /etc, an app-specific profile folder, or a service that syncs settings separately. Do not copy files into /etc or other system directories as a workaround; those require a different, documented system-administration procedure.

For a complete HamoniKR reinstall, follow the current release’s own upgrade or installation notes and use its recommended backup tools for personal data. Keep the settings archive as a selective recovery aid, and retain the original drive until you have checked your files and applications on the new system.