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I'm using Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS and have done some customization to unity like changing wallpaper, icon sizes and so. How can I back it up and restore it in some other machine, to be precise which file(s) should I copy?

The things I want to backup:

  • My current wallpaper
  • Launcher icon sizes
  • Number of workspaces I have
  • Color of Launcher

Albeit I can summarize it to everything I've changed through unity-tweak-tool.

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  • You could create a script to set those settings for you.
    – M. Becerra
    Apr 9, 2017 at 17:05
  • @M.Becerra, I'm not that pro and pretty sure unity saves its settings to a file (every Linux well written program do). So I just want find that file for further use.
    – Masked Man
    Apr 9, 2017 at 18:10
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    @MaskedMan Ok, first of all, there is a lot of different things that you want to be "backed up". This can be done fairly easily with a script, as Becerra said, and I could write one when I have time, but you need to state clearly which things do you want. So please edit your question and include a complete list of things that you want to be backed-up and restored.
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Apr 9, 2017 at 18:27

1 Answer 1

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dconf stores its configuration in the file ...

~/.config/dconf/user

So backup that one. tweak-tool is about changing dconf settings.

  • location to the wallpaper is in there. Not the wallpaper itself
  • amount of viewports is in there
  • size of launcher icons is in there
  • color of launcher too

gsettings is the tool to change dconf. Example using wallpaper location:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file:///dir/to/wallpaper.jpg"

The "org.gnome.desktop.background" part is the structure inside dconf and picture-uri the parameter and the part in between "s the value.

Setting colors for background:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background primary-color "#FFFFFF"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background secondary-color "#FFFFFF"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background color-shading-type "solid"
  • FFFFFF being black
  • shading-ype: SOLID, VERTICAL, HORIZONTAL are valid

Icon launcher size:

gsettings set org.compiz.unityshell:/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/unityshell/ icon-size 32
  • 32 being the size ;-)

This question How to dump all the manully altered gsettings keys? lists a method of dumping all settings changed by the user.

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  • My wallpaper is a simple color however.
    – Masked Man
    Apr 9, 2017 at 19:55
  • It would be nicer if you could show how to restore only that relevant parts from it
    – Anwar
    Apr 9, 2017 at 19:57
  • @MaskedMan was searching for the correct lines. background color and launcher icon size added.
    – Rinzwind
    Apr 9, 2017 at 19:58
  • I wrote this answer for a Mate question, it can be used for restore part. askubuntu.com/a/821571/61218 Whole directory under /compiz can be backed up
    – Anwar
    Apr 9, 2017 at 20:00

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