Heath Howard

There’s a lot of information on installing TweetDeck in Linux.  But I had yet to find anything to explain how you might move your preferences from a Windows machine to a Linux machine (turns out, it’s similar to Linux…so I’ll explain all three).  Here’s what we’re hoping to accomplish:

1.  Install Adobe AIR
2.  Install TweetDeck
3.  Move over our existing Preferences from Windows to Linux (or another Windows Installation)

First, let’s go through installing TweetDeck on Linux (Yes, you can probably use Aptitude for this as well.  But seeing as how you’ll need a GUI to view TweetDeck…why bother?).

1.  Install Adobe AIR.

TweetDeck runs on the Adobe AIR development platform.  Thus, if you haven’t already installed it, you will need to.  You can download Adobe Air by pointing your favorite browser to:

http://get.adobe.com/air

Once on the page, make sure the top of the page lists Linux under “Adobe AIR X.X.X Installer”.  Then hit the download button.  You should be downloading AdobeAIRInstaller.bin.  For the rest of these instructions, I’m going to assume that you save the file to your Desktop.  Otherwise, you’ll need to adjust accordingly.

Once the installer is downloaded, open up a Terminal Window (Applications > Accessories > Terminal).  You need to go to where you saved the installer and give it execute permissions.  To do this, type in the following commands:

cd ~/Desktop

chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

Now, to run the installer, type:

sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

[sudo] password for XXXXX: <Type your password here>

Adobe AIR should now be installing.  When complete, you can close the installer and delete it.

2.  Install TweetDeck

Now to install TweetDeck.

Point your favorite browser to:

http://www.tweetdeck.com/

Below the screenshot of TweetDeck, you see “Version X.XX”, where X.XX is the current version number.  Click on this link to download the TweetDeck Adobe AIR Installer (again, putting it on your Desktop).

Once downloaded, double-click on “TweetDeck_X_XX_manual.air”, where X_XX is the version number from the link above.  This will run through the installer for TweetDeck.

After installing TweetDeck, I discovered that there was no icon for TweetDeck in my Applications menu.  If you’d like to add one, keep reading.  Otherwise, you’re done.

Right-click on the Applications button and select “Edit Menus”.  Click on “Internet” (or your preferred menu category), then click “New Item” on the far right.  This will bring up the Create Launcher window.  Fill it in as follows (feel free to change the name or icon if you like):

Name:  TweetDeck
Command:  /opt/TweetDeck/bin/TweetDeck
<Click on the icon button on the left>:
To use the official TweetDeck icon:
Click “Browse” and Browse to /opt/TweetDeck/share/icons and click “Open”.  Then select the icon you’d like to use for TweetDeck

You can now run TweetDeck from your Applications menu!

3.  Move Over Your Preferences

Moving over your preference is really very easy.  The main thing to remember is the location at which your TweetDeck preferences are stored:

* To view the locations below, you will need to turn on the ability to view hidden files.  See below for instructions! *

Windows XP [As I don’t have an XP installation handy, I’m guessing]:
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\TweetDeckFast.XXX\Local Store\ (where XXX is a randomly-generated string and USERNAME is your username.)

Windows Vista:  C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\TweetDeckFast.XXX\Local Store\ (where XXX is a randomly-generated string and USERNAME is your username.)

Ubuntu 9.04 (Linux):  /home/USERNAME/.appdata/TweetDeckFast.XXX/Local Store/ (where XXX is a randomly-generated string and USERNAME is your username.)

Now, all you need to do is copy preferences_TWITTERUSERNAME.xml and td_26_TWITTERUSERNAME.db from your current OS to your new OS (using the directories above), and you’ll be good to go!

Viewing Hidden Files:

Windows XP: Go to the Start Menu > My Computer to open your file browser.  Click on Tools > Folder Options. Go to the “View” tab and click “Show hidden files and folders”.

Windows Vista: Go to the Start Menu > Computer to open your file browser.  Click on Organize > Folder and Search Options. Go to the “View” tab and click “Show hidden files and folders”.

Ubuntu 9.04: Go to Places > Computer to open the File Browser.  In the View Menu, click Show Hidden Files.  Then browse to the directory above to get/put your TweetDeck preference files.