I've been doing detective work -- lots of searches of the Amarok forum to figure this out, but I'm still stumped.  Obviously, to back up my music collection I need to backup all my music files.  Done. 

Now just gotta back up Amarok's database.  Can't be too hard, right?  Post after post in the archives say I need to back up these two things:

directory---> ~/.kde/share/apps/amarok/
file---> ~/.kde/share/config/amarokrc

That's great, but I can find no such directory and file in the file system.  I've tried searching with Ubuntu's search tool, with the SQLite database tool I downloaded and installed, and with the command line.  I'm not finding these things.  Frustrating.  I suspect that it may have to do with the fact that I'm using Ubuntu 7.10, which must not be KDE based.  I don't understand the significance of the tilde, slash, and dot before these links.  I do remember the Amarok help system was not automatically installed under Ubuntu.  I had to install that separately. 

I have found what seem to me to be the closest equivalents to what was recommended in the archives.  If my hypothesis is correct, this is what I need to backup:

this directory ---> /usr/share/apps/amarok
and this file ---> /etc/kde3/amarokrc

Am I correct?  Or is there something else I need to back up? 

I also intend to install Ubuntu and Amarok on my main PC that's wire-networked to my jukebox one.  The plan will be to do all my organizing and work to the database files on my main computer that's more powerful and in a more comfortable place to use, then transfer all the changes via the network to the older clunkier machine that serves as the juke box.  Any comments on what I should watch out for to make this work smoothly are welcome. 

Many thanks for any help offered. 

Once I get more solid at Linux and Amarok I may try my hand at writing a utility that easily backs this stuff up.  I have a BASIC programming background.  I've never written for Linux, but a language I know (REALbasic) will compile for Linux. 

Regardless of the window manager you're using, Amarok's personal settings (those things that are user-specific) are stored in your home directory.
Are you perhaps running a backup script as a different user to the one who runs Amarok?
If so, instead of using ~/.kde/share/apps/amarok/ try /home//.kde/share/apps/amarok (and the same for the amarokrc file).

Tom_ZeCat wrote:I don't understand the significance of the tilde, slash, and dot before these links.

Tilde (~) = The home directory of the current user, usually /home/username (eg /home/hans). Try "cd ~" without quotation marks  in a terminal (cd somewhere else first if you already are in /home/username.)
Dot (.) before (file)name = Hidden file/directory.

Here, .kde is a hidden directory in your home directory where various KDE related files are stored, for example the settings of Amarok (the file ~/.kde/share/config/amarokrc, or if you like /home/username/.kde/share/config/amarokrc).

Note that this isn't KDE specific but very common in Linux/Unix.

Tom_ZeCat wrote:Once I get more solid at Linux and Amarok I may try my hand at writing a utility that easily backs this stuff up.  I have a BASIC programming background.  I've never written for Linux, but a language I know (REALbasic) will compile for Linux. 

You might want to make a script that does the job. There already is one which makes a copy of your database, available for download here.

Many thanks for your help.  That did the trick.  I found everything and backed it all up.  Your help is greatly appreciated. 

My next step will be to install Ubuntu and Amarok on my main PC and network it with my jukebox PC (the one we've been talking about).  Actually, it's already networked, but as a Windows XP and Linux network.  It's a simple wired network. 

I think I'll do this.  When I install Ubuntu and Amarok on my main PC, I'll use an identical user name and password and all identical directories to the jukebox PC.  Then hopefully transferring data from one to another should be as simple as possible.  Sound like a good plan?