Does Endeavour use skel to preserve user settings?

Technical · October 10, 2022, 6:05pm

Hi all! I use Endeavour now and then, some weeks ago I’ve moved to pure Arch. During a KDE minor version upgrade, Arch just overwrote KDE settings on my home partition. I’m sure Arcolinux never does that, as it uses skel folder to keep updated settings: it never writes on your home partition.

Losing KDE settings (in fact any other desktop environment) is another no-no for pure Arch. Yeah, I know and have backups, but I’m looking for a distro that does not overwrite user settings.

I’ve searched the forum for skel and only discover the default information of skel folder. Does Endeavour overwrite user’s settings in home folder? Thanks.

dalto · October 10, 2022, 6:07pm

No, we don’t. Neither does Arch.

Are you sure your settings got overwritten? Sometimes the plasma cache gets corrupt during plasma updates causing havoc.

r0ckhopper · October 10, 2022, 6:07pm

Hello and welcome @Technical

That is annoying

pebcak · October 10, 2022, 6:16pm

If that is what has happened, how unlikely as it seems, I think it would be a good idea to report it on Arch forum or Bug Tracker.

Technical · October 10, 2022, 6:21pm

Thanks dalto for the reassuring. I didn’t know KDE cache could be corrupted, but it makes sense. As I said, this is “another” no-no for pure Arch for me. Support is always welcome, take the last grub issue as an example.

For any other KDE user, my backup script for settings is below:

echo && tput setaf 2 && echo "Plasma settings backup" && tput sgr0

mkdir -p <backup_path>

cp -r $HOME/.config/gtk-3.0 <backup_path>/kde/.config # GTK3 Config
cp -r $HOME/.config/gtk-4.0 <backup_path>/kde/.config # GTK4 Config
cp -r $HOME/.config/gtkrc-2.0 <backup_path>/kde/.config/gtkrc-2.0 # GTK2 Config
cp -r $HOME/.config/kate <backup_path>/kde/.config # Kate
cp -r $HOME/.config/kdeconnect <backup_path>/kde/.config # KDE Connect Config + Data
cp -r $HOME/.config/kdeglobals <backup_path>/kde/.config
cp -r $HOME/.config/Kvantum <backup_path>/kde/.config
cp -r $HOME/.config/latte <backup_path>/kde/.config/latte # Latte
cp -r $HOME/.fonts <backup_path>
cp -r $HOME/.icons <backup_path>
cp -r $HOME/.local/bin <backup_path>/.local
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/akonadi <backup_path>/kde/.local/share/akonadi # Akonadi Data (PIM/Mail?)
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/aurorae <backup_path>/kde/.local/share
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/color-schemes <backup_path>/kde/.local/share
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/fonts <backup_path>/kde/.local/share
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/icons <backup_path>/kde/.local/share
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/kmail2 <backup_path>/kde/.local/share/kmail2 # Kmail Data
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/konsole <backup_path>/kde/.local/share
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/kwalletd <backup_path>/kde/.local/share/kwalletd # KDE Wallet Data
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/kwin <backup_path>/kde/.local/share
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/kxmlgui5 <backup_path>/kde/.local/share # Interface settings of KDE apps
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/plasma <backup_path>/kde/.local/share
cp -r $HOME/.local/share/wallpapers <backup_path>/kde/.local/share
cp -r $HOME/.themes <backup_path>
cp $HOME/.config/autostart/ssh-add.desktop <backup_path>/kde/.config/autostart/ssh-add.desktop # Autostart SSH Keyring
cp $HOME/.config/breezerc <backup_path>/kde/.config/breezerc
cp $HOME/.config/dolphinrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/dolphinrc # Dolphin Config
cp $HOME/.config/gtkrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/gtkrc # GTK Config
cp $HOME/.config/kactivitymanagerdrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/kactivitymanagerdrc # KDE Activites Config
cp $HOME/.config/kalendarrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/kalendarrc # Kalendar Config
cp $HOME/.config/katerc <backup_path>/kde/.config/katerc
cp $HOME/.config/kcminputrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/kcminputrc # KDE Cursor Config
cp $HOME/.config/kde.org/UserFeedback.org.kde.plasmashell.conf <backup_path>/kde/.config/kde.org/UserFeedback.org.kde.plasmashell.conf # KDE Plasma User Feedback Config
cp $HOME/.config/KDE/kalendar.conf <backup_path>/kde/.config/KDE/kalendar.conf # Kalendar Config
cp $HOME/.config/kded5rc <backup_path>/kde/.config/kded5rc # KDE Startup Config
cp $HOME/.config/kdeglobals <backup_path>/kde/.config/kdeglobals # KDE Global Config
cp $HOME/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/kglobalshortcutsrc # KDE Keybinding Config
cp $HOME/.config/khotkeysrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/khotkeysrc
cp $HOME/.config/klipperrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/klipperrc
cp $HOME/.config/kmail2rc <backup_path>/kde/.config/kmail2rc # Kmail Config
cp $HOME/.config/konsolerc <backup_path>/kde/.config/ # Konsole Config
cp $HOME/.config/kscreenlockerrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/kscreenlockerrc # KDE Lockscreen Config
cp $HOME/.config/ksmserverrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/ksmserverrc # KDE Session Manager Config
cp $HOME/.config/ksplashrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/ksplashrc
cp $HOME/.config/ktimezonedrc <backup_path>/kde/.config # KDE Timezone Config
cp $HOME/.config/kwalletrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/kwalletrc  # KDE Wallet Config
cp $HOME/.config/kwinrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/kwinrc # KDE Window Manager Config
cp $HOME/.config/kwinrulesrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/kwinrulesrc
cp $HOME/.config/lattedockrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/lattedockrc
cp $HOME/.config/lightlyrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/lightlyrc
cp $HOME/.config/mimeapps.list <backup_path>/kde/.config/mimeapps.list # Default Applications
cp $HOME/.config/oxygenrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/oxygenrc
cp $HOME/.config/plasma-localerc <backup_path>/kde/.config/plasma-localerc # KDE Locale Config
cp $HOME/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/ # KDE Plasmoids and Widgets
cp $HOME/.config/plasma-workspace/env/askpass.sh <backup_path>/kde/.config/ # KDE Askpass Environment
cp $HOME/.config/plasma-workspace/env/kwin.sh <backup_path>/kde/.config/plasma-workspace/env/kwin.sh # KDE Window Manager Environment
cp $HOME/.config/plasma-workspace/env/ssh-agent.sh <backup_path>/kde/.config/plasma-workspace/env/ssh-agent.sh # Manage SSH Agent Environment
cp $HOME/.config/plasmarc <backup_path>/kde/.config/plasmarc # KDE Plasma Config
cp $HOME/.config/plasmashellr <backup_path>/kde/.config/plasmashellr # Panels?
cp $HOME/.config/plasmashellrc <backup_path>/kde/.config/plasmashellrc # KDE Plasma WM Config
cp $HOME/.config/Trolltech.conf <backup_path>/kde/.config/Trolltech.conf # QT Theme Config
cp $HOME/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf <backup_path>/kde/.config/xsettingsd/xsettingsd.conf # X11 Theme Config

sradjoker · October 10, 2022, 6:21pm

As a matter of fact, pacman cannot install in a user’s home directory.

dalto · October 10, 2022, 6:22pm

I don’t think that is entirely true but certainly neither Arch nor EOS packages do so.

sradjoker · October 10, 2022, 6:24pm

pacman installs as root, and the $USERNAME variable won’t work. There is no way for pacman to know about user’s home directory location. Am I wrong?

Technical · October 10, 2022, 6:24pm

@pebcak Thanks, as it happens some weeks ago, and, mostly, it’s not easy to even report things for Arch team without being bashed, I’ll let it go. But, I’ve updated Arch frequently and one day, after KDE got a new minor version, probably 5.24 to 5.25, next boot I have no customizations at all.

Technical · October 10, 2022, 6:26pm

I just see .pacnew files on non-home folder.
Maybe it was an accident, but it was my last pure Arch. I never lost settings on Arcolinux.

Maybe a KDE issue?

dalto · October 10, 2022, 6:29pm

It can write to all the home directories. It doesn’t need to know which one is yours specifically.

Although, it would be incredibly bad form for a package to do that.

ricklinux · October 10, 2022, 6:35pm

Seems very odd that to think it is a KDE issue.

dalto · October 10, 2022, 6:41pm

It happens infrequently during updates. I have never had it happen to me but there is usually at least one report of it every time there is a major plasma update.

sradjoker · October 10, 2022, 6:42pm

I’ve never thought about this.
More like I’ve never seen a package/PKGBUILD that does this

dalto · October 10, 2022, 6:42pm

Well…that is good. They really shouldn’t…

ricklinux · October 10, 2022, 6:52pm

Never happened to me either.

Technical · October 10, 2022, 6:56pm

Why? I’m a long-term KDE user, and it’s not the most stable desktop environment: the long lists of bug fixes show us that. But I can only be sure of my personal experience in Arcolinux: it never corrupted my settings.

As Plasma customizations are a must have for me, and I used lots of distros during my life, I was only thinking if Endeavour would provide the same level of “stability” of Arcolinux. As far I can see, it would.

By the way, Plasma 5.26 was released today in Fedora Rawhide (https://repology.org/project/plasma-desktop/history).

sradjoker · October 10, 2022, 7:00pm

The KDE on Arch, Arcolinux and EndeavourOS is the same. We don’t even ship a skel package for Plasma. Maybe Arco does.

ricklinux · October 10, 2022, 7:03pm

https://arcolinux.com/updating-your-system-with-skel-and-still-keeping-your-own-settings/

sradjoker · October 10, 2022, 7:08pm

I found their settings: