[DESKTOP] New Install not upgraded, my post questions

[CharlieDaves]

Hello,
I figured this is more "post install" so a new thread. Sorry if it confesses users. I was upgrading 18.04.3 to 20.04.1 new fresh install, & Creating a separate /Home on a different SSD.
Pre install questions see this thread (First part)
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...e-my-questions

POST Install.
Mozilla, Thunderbird, Samba all worked fine.
Most of my desktop was Okay.
I still had to manually install other apps (programs) like Virtualbox, Lucky Backup.
Major problems was the Theme, Cursor, Colors, Icons, weren't installed. This is what I really wanted, was the same look and fell of my current 18.04 system. Not this new 20.04.1 look and feel. Black and white Mac series 1. It's frigging horrible.
It took awhile to find out why and fix. I'm glad I managed to "printscreen" all the system settings beforehand, and they came in very handy.
Problem was trying to find the actual setting again. 20.04 has a different layout, and some things are difficult to find.

Firstly. Should these questions be posted here or that other sub-forum "kde" ?

Q. Is it possible to 'save' or copy the custom, how I like the look and feel into a /Home/DOT folder that will be used if I decide to upgrade again ?
Q. Or is it possible to export save all these settings along with whatever custom or different settings things (Some I had to actually download) ?

Q- Where is the set clock to 24hours setting. I am unable to find it.

Q- Where is the boot screen login color, layout stuff. I spent hours customizing mine, co-opted a few different ones together. I think we have gone from MDM login screen to SDDM Login Screen.
Q- Do I have to re-learn something new ?

One problem I did encounter. I'll ask here, even thou it was a pre-install question.
When I was coping files and folders, I kept getting "could be found" or "unable to save" errors. The problem was the file or folder had an unusual symbol in it. Things like

? / | \ &

If I deleted said symbol, the file would copy fine.
Q- Why is it I can save a file or folder with some weird symbol (I had one with a Carriage Return in it), and I can move it anywhere on my PC, to different drives, but I cannot copy it to a Networked PC (NAS-ish) that has the same version of Linux install and same Samba, etc. (It was actually a clone of this 18.04 PC).

More Questions later. Tiredness kicking in.

[jlittle]

Major problems was the Theme, Cursor, Colors, Icons, weren't installed. This is what I really wanted, was the same look and fell of my current 18.04 system. Not this new 20.04.1 look and feel. Black and white Mac series 1. It's frigging horrible.

I'm the same, horrible is the word I use. Gnome 3 is even worse. (I suspect the insidious influence the iPhone and iPad, and Apple Corp generally, have on UI designers. Or maybe it's indirect, via the influence on millennials.)

In principle, the "global theme" concept seems intended to solve this problem, and maybe one day some will be put together that are comprehensive and well tested. But, KDE plasma has changed a lot since it was released about 5 years ago, and keeps changing, discouraging theme builders.

It took awhile to find out why and fix. I'm glad I managed to "printscreen" all the system settings beforehand, and they came in very handy.
Problem was trying to find the actual setting again. 20.04 has a different layout, and some things are difficult to find.

Q. Is it possible to 'save' or copy the custom ... look and feel ...

The only sort-of solution is an "unfresh" install, where you copy the old home directory over the new one, overwriting if both old and new have the same files. Before KDE plasma there were times when that did not work well, or at all, but this forum has had good reports of doing this in the last few years.

Q- Where is the set clock to 24hours setting. I am unable to find it.

If right-clickiing the time -> Configure Digital Clock does not get a settings screen, delete the widget and add the "Digital Clock" widget. The underlying Qt regionalization design, where everyone in a region gets the same settings, has caused problems here, but after years, if not decades, of complaints someone has listened.

(I don't mind the British "11:00 pm", though preferring 24-hour, but the American "11:00 P.M." is awful.)

When I was coping files and folders, I kept getting "could be found" or "unable to save" errors. The problem was the file or folder had an unusual symbol in it. Things like " ? / | \ &". If I deleted said symbol, the file would copy fine.

What were you using to do the copies? Unix (and so Linux) file names can have any characters at all, except "/" and NUL (ASCII 0). GUI tools like dolphin should have no trouble, but in can be very tricky on the command line. I imagine that with the "Networked PC" you are talking SMB to it, which was originally a Microsoft protocol, so maybe it has problems.

[claydoh]

I generally recommend a separate /home partition, which allows for reinstalling without losing any user settings, documents, etc.

However, these days, when I (rarely) do a new OS install, I usually set a new clean /home ans only copy over the bare minimum I need for files. No configs other than my mild desktop customizations.

There is a desktop widget that can be used to save and restore the desktop settings, and includes all the images and files associated with them
https://store.kde.org/p/1298955/
It can be installed like any desktop widget. The package qml-module-qt-labs-platform may need to be installed.
I have used this to copy my PC desktop setup to my then-new laptop. It is a very handy tool, as I normally have to go through a dozen or two plasma styles to find the one that works with my wallpaper, and can never remember which one it was.
THEN I discovered this and tried it out. Now I can play around, experiment, but still am able to go back to a known good setup if, I mean when I forget what that was.

[CharlieDaves]

What were you using to do the copies? Unix (and so Linux) file names can have any characters at all, except "/" and NUL (ASCII 0). GUI tools like dolphin should have no trouble, but in can be very tricky on the command line. I imagine that with the "Networked PC" you are talking SMB to it, which was originally a Microsoft protocol, so maybe it has problems.

Dolphin. Split screen with "Other cloned kubuntu" NAS. Not a real NAS, but all it has is files, vlc, and firefox that doesn't work properly.

I thought it would have worked within Linux. But copy errors kept occurring. Mostly

 | ?

[CharlieDaves]

Thanks claydoh. I will be checking that out in 5