Moving With KDE

KDE has been my desktop of choice for quite sometime, though for the longest time the method of implementation had been Kubuntu. A few months ago I decided I finally had enough of Kubuntu breaking my installation every time there was an upgrade, so I began looking around for a distribution that made KDE its default desktop. Much to my surprise, almost all of the distros used something else, but then I found Chakra. The Chakra development team weren't quite ready for prime-time, but I decided to jump on the boat anyway. I have to say, that there is a lot to like about the Chakra distro. If you're a KDE fan, then I strongly recommend it. On the same hardware I was running Kubuntu, Chakra seems to run faster and more stably than Kubuntu. Now don't think that that I'm bashing the Kubuntu team. I have absolutely no doubt that they work hard to make sure Kubuntu runs, but they are handicapped by the inclusion of the Gnome libraries that Chakra limits.
I digress though. The purpose of this post is to cover what I did to keep my personal information in KDE when I moved from one installation to another.
In actuality, it boils down to just making sure to copy certain folders over, assuming that in the move you did perform a significant jump in KDE revisions. So, if like me, you make use of mostly KDE apps, then the folders and files are as follows (don't forget to show hidden files, or you won't be able to find these folders).

• .config
  • akonadi (you'll also find other folders here that might interest you, such as chromium)
• .local
  • share
    • akonadi
    • contacts
    • local-mail
• .kde4
  • share
    • apps
      • akonadi
      • akonadi-davgroupware
      • blogilo
      • choqok
      • emailidentities
      • kabc
      • kontact
      • kopete
      • kopete_chatstyles
      • korganizer
      • kwallet

Assuming you grab all of the ones that I list here, you should be able to successfully manage a move from KDE installation to another. Make sure you mind the little things, like ownership and privileges. Also don't forget to install any programs or plugins before attempting to run any specific apps. For instance, if you have Kontact sync with your Google data, then make sure you've installed the Akonadi Google data plugin resource before launching Akonadi.