"Refresh" Kubuntu instead of a complete reinstall

[Serenova]

Just gonna start with my computer info:

Operating System: Kubuntu 24.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.12
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 6.8.0-62-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 16 × Intel® Core™ i9-9880H CPU @ 2.30GHz
Memory: 31.2 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080/PCIe/SSE2
Manufacturer: HP
Product Name: OMEN by HP Laptop 17-cb0xxx

Not really having any problems per se however I'm starting to have certain issues with it.

It started with a piece of software I'd installed with Wine just.... refusing to open. Which lead to trying to reinstall Wine and Winetricks to reinstall the software.

That lead to trying to completely refresh Wine

To realizing that there were a lot of leftover bits and bobs on my system of things I've tried on my system, haven't liked, and/or haven't even worked, and I just want to refresh everything.

I've got broken shortcuts in my start menu (or application launcher or whatever it's called - I'm a recovering Windows user, so some of my terminology is probably off - sorry)

I've got leftover folders willy-nilly... some of these I know what they're from and can delete them (and have) but I've also got random folders named things that don't seem to correlate to anything I currently still have installed, and I'm pretty sure they're leftover from something, but I can't, for the life of me, figure out what, and I don't want to delete them by accident if they're system critical.

And I just.... kinda want a clean start WITHOUT having to completely reinstall from scratch. Part of that is because I've got a VM setup that I don't want to have to set up again. I mean... I will if i have to, but I'd really rather prefer not to.

I found a few articles that hint at Ubuntu being able to reinstall without affecting your personal files, but I don't know if Kubuntu can do the same.

So.... here's me asking if this is even a thing that's possible to do.

I'm willing, and able, to reinstall if a "refresh" isn't possible, but I'd legit just like to know.

Thanks!

[skyfishgoo]

if you are worried about clutter in your /home directory that's a solvable issue (more below)

if you are worried about clutter in any of the other directories, then you shouldn't because randomly deleting folders out there is good way to bork your system... the best way to handle that is simply to uninstall things you don't need.

synaptic lets you "completely remove" installs and apt has the purge command to clean up user files that may have accumulated in your /home directories (to varying degrees of success) ... you can also use the apt autoremove command to uninstall other packages that are no longer needed by what you have installed.

as for the stuff in your /home directories, there is noting sacred there but you may loose configurations and settings for your installed software (like VMs) so tread carefully... using the built in kde backup system makes recovering from this kind of kind mistake rather painless, or backintime is another good alternative.

[Serenova]

That's good to know!

I've been trying to use apt autoremove when uninstall things via the terminal. I've been using the installed packages handler in Discover instead of Synaptic (which, honestly, I forgot about cause I haven't needed it much). I'm sure I've missed some stuff that could be removed via there that I've installed as an experiment.

I definitely fiddle with my computer and how it works way above the level of my actual knowledge.

I know that's partly how you learn, but I also know that's how you royally bork something as well, and to be frank my physical hardware know how outstrips my software know how.

I'll definitely go down the list in Synaptic first before doing anything drastic!

[skyfishgoo]

if you haven't already, you should also install timeshift and give it a dedicated partition space to make snapshots (preferably on a separate drive) so in case you really screw something up, then you can restore your last working snapshot of the operating system, even from a live USB in case it so bad your system won't even boot.

not good for /home dir stuff, but really good at restoring your system to working status... and always take a new snapshot before you go tinkering.

[Serenova]

That's a good idea as well! Thank you!