This section may look pointless, as there are many backup & restore programs (I regularly use one). But there are alternatives that may come in handy.
Installed applications are stored in /data/apps/, which is
inaccessible on unrooted devices. You can, however, backup your
.apk files using Ghost Commander or the adb backup
command. I prefer the former, which is way faster and more convenient
(IMHO).
Start Ghost Commander and select a directory on the internal storage;
for example, /mnt/sdcard/Tmp. Move to the other pane, select
``Home'', then ``Applications''. Select the applications you want to
backup, the select ``Copy''. Please note that all applications will be
listed, including system applications.
To copy the selected .apk to your Linux box, all you have to
do is:
Linux~/backups/apk$ adb pull /mnt/sdcard/Tmp/
To restore, say, foo.apk, use this command:
Linux~/backups/apk$ adb push foo.apk /mnt/sdcard/Tmp/
Then open Ghost Commander, move to /mnt/sdcard/Tmp/, and tap
on foo.apk to install it.
As explained in Section
Main Directories in the Internal Storage, applications data is stored in directories
under /mnt/sdcard/Android/data. You already have all the
information you need to back up these directories!