I’m working on a suite of scripts that will enable me to hop Linux distros and get back to business as usual w/ minimal fuss. When I hop distros, I tend to back up my important stuff and blow everything else away so I can start with a clean slate. I have some scripts for updating my backups before the wipe and updating the system after the base install:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Followed by other commands to install my favorite apps and configure my favorite desktop settings.
One thing that I haven’t nailed down yet is restoring my Firefox add-ons through the command line. Searching the web, I’m not even sure this is feasible. I found this post from 2011 in the AskUbuntu forum, but I figure the answer might have changed since then.
I just want to remove as much friction as possible from the distro hopping process. I know I can store /home on a separate partition, but I prefer nice, clean installs followed by scripting in my config changes.
Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
I think Firefox Sync already restores your profile including add-ons, if you log into Firefox. Of course you may not want that for privacy reasons. In that case, I believe there is a way to self host a sync server, but I will have to go look for the repo for it.
I like to minimize cloud services if I can help it.
Nothing wrong with that, and self hosting can get complex. My recommendation then is to back up the files in your Firefox profile the old fashioned way.