Backing up apps

Ubuntu
1

I refurbish a lot of old laptops and have to install OS over and over again (long story). I have installed Ubuntu at least 50 times! The os itself isn’t so bad (memorized by now), but all the apps I have collected are lost each time and I have to go back to finding, downloading, and installing these same files every time…about 2 hours of extra work.

What I want to do is backup my system once I have it set up perfectly. This way, I just reinstall the OS and then(assuming it’s the same) just reinstall all the apps into it all at once.

I think all i need to know is where my chosen apps are being saved in the Linux directory. If I know that, I can backup those folders as a regular weekly backup. along with /home/

Any help is appreciated!

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2

A better approach may be to customize your own Ubuntu .iso so that you simply install ubuntu with all the apps already applied. here are a couple of pages that may be of help to you.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDCustomization

https://www.915tx.com/remaster/

https://www.maketecheasier.com/6-tools-to-easily-create-your-own-custom-linux-distro/

There are other tutorial available on line.
Good Luck

6 Likes
3

As suggested by @kc1di you can create your own customized ISO/live USB so that the new install will have all the necessary apps and settings.

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4

1000 Thank yous! This will save me countless hours next time I install (in a couple days).

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5

how do I mark a topic solved? or do you do that?

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At present, it doesn’t have the option to mark a thread as solved. I’ll have to look for plugins for that. You can edit the title of the thread and add [Solved] at the beginning.

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Thanks again! Until next time!

1 Like