Gnome Boxes Settings locations and VM Locations?

[doop]

hi,

I need to format and re-install a debian based release with gnome and gnome boxes installed.

I want to copy all the relevant settings and VMs to a HDD then just re-install Boxes after, then just copy the settings and VMs back to the correct places to save a lot of time.

Please could anyone tell me the stuff and locations I need to backup?

Would really appreciate help!

Oh and does it matter if I change the account username as well?

THX

doop

[vgaetera (Vladislav Grigoryev)]

GNOME Boxes typically relies on libvirt, so the related configs and data can be stored in multiple places depending on the package format/version/maintainer/etc. and virtualization settings.

The common locations involved:

~/.cache/gnome-boxes
~/.cache/libvirt
~/.config/gnome-boxes
~/.config/libvirt
~/.local/share/gnome-boxes
~/.local/share/libvirt
/etc/libvirt
/etc/qemu
/var/lib/libvirt
/var/log/libvirt

In addition, each VM/pool/network can use extra paths which you’d best to verify:

virsh list --all
virsh dumpxml vm_name
virsh pool-list --all
virsh pool-dumpxml pool_name
sudo virsh net-list --all
sudo virsh net-dumpxml net_name

Those paths are usually absolute, so you should update them if you change the user name:

virsh pool-edit pool_name
virsh pool-start pool_name
virsh edit vm_name
virsh start vm_name