how to backup desktop configuration before KDE upgrade?

[Grisen]

Hi,

I'm late to do the upgrade to KDE 4.9.5, but did do the apt-sources update at the beginning of January.  About a month ago, update notifier stopped providing updates and just gives an error message, so I believe I need to do the KDE upgrade before individual packages will be kept up to date.

Rather than read through the many many pages of posts responding to Pinoc's sticky on the KDE upgrade to try to find this, can someone help me with:

1.  A couple of times in the past I have lost my desktop configuration in a KDE upgrade.  That has meant a lot of work to reconstruct it.  What configuration file is it that I need to backup and then re-activate after the upgrade-- where is it located?  Any tips about how to do that?

2.  While I'm at it-- just checking so I don't bork my setup...  Is there anything additional I need to do to install the upgrade to 4.9.5-- update notifier's error message may indicate the repos / sources are not right again (?)

I'm doing an online distance ed math course that requires Maple (on Windows), so I've been away from my first love (PCLOS) for the last month and a half and may have missed some things.

Hey, thanks so much!

[DeBaas]

Back-Up your /home folder
when something goes higwire your desktop icons are in:
/home/[user]/Desktop/
KDE user settings in
/home/[user]/.kde4/
Hidden maps and files can made visible with Alt+. (dot), that is Alt and dot at the same time.
The /home/[user]/. (dot) maps contain user settings as for Firefox, Thunderbird, kde and many others.

[sling-shot]

Regarding settings, follow DeBaas as per his post above.
------
While updating, please look carefully at the list of packages to be removed and compare with the packages to be installed or upgraded.
It is possible that some important packages may be in the list of packages to be removed but not replaced. This might lead to some difficulty such as loss of GUI if an important core KDE package is lost.
If that seems to be the case, make a note of such packages and re-install them immediately after completing the total update but BEFORE a reboot.

[Grisen]

Back-Up your /home folder
when something goes higwire your desktop icons are in:
/home/[user]/Desktop/
KDE user settings in
/home/[user]/.kde4/
Hidden maps and files can made visible with Alt+. (dot), that is Alt and dot at the same time.
The /home/[user]/. (dot) maps contain user settings as for Firefox, Thunderbird, kde and many others.

Thanks, now which of those many files that I backed up in the .kde folder are responsible for startup menu, look and feel, etc.-- that a person would want to retain?  Or should I just copy back the old .kde folder and rename the new one?

I appreciate the help! 

[sling-shot]

It should be the .kde4 directory.

If you were happy with your old setup, delete / rename the new one and copy the .kde4 from your backup.

The changes will be visible only after logout / login.