Wise to upgrade from 19.4 to 21?

[FrSu]

First of all a big "thank you" to the developers. Using Linux since 2008 and after trying a lot of other distro's MXLinux became my favorite.

On my older Asus Vivobook ( and other PC's) I use MXLinux 19.4 and it works fine. Is it wise to do an upgrade (clean install) to 21?

Reasons for me could be:

- Security better
- Running faster
- Lower system load

On other features I have no wishes.

What could be your recommendation?

[xaol]

mx 19's full support ends in june. i plan to upgrade in the next couple of months for that reason, though according to this thread that doesn't mean your 19.4 install will stop working viewtopic.php?p=668803#p668803

[Solon]

I can't answer your question, but I can tell you the first thing that those who can will request is that you put your "Quick System Info" into your post.
This gives them not only a full readout of your OS, but also shows them the state of your hardware, and its capabilities.
To do this:

1. Click on your Application Menu button and bring up your basic menu of everything.
2. Click on the icon of a monitor, with a blue screen containing a white circle with the letter "i" inside. (Or search under: MX Tools for "Quick System Info" (may have to scroll down) and click upon it.)
3. At that point a black pop-up window will show all of your computer/OS data.
4. It will state at the bottom that it is copied to your clipboard, ready for use at the forum. You can close out the pop-up window since the info is on your clipboard at this point.
5. Come back here and either Edit your first post, or start a new one with the box at the bottom.
6. Once Editing your first post, or in a new one, just select a good location within the text, and use "Paste" (Cntl "V", or right click and select "Paste"), and all that Information will be entered into a useful "window" within the posting.

And you are done, and your query will be addressed shortly, by the experts!

[baldyeti]

mx 19's full support ends in june. i plan to upgrade in the next couple of months for that reason, though according to this thread that doesn't mean your 19.4 install will stop working viewtopic.php?p=668803#p668803

As mentioned in the linked thread, debian LTS support for their v10 "buster" upon which MX19 is based is extended until 2024-06, so no rush upgrading.

I skipped MX19/buster myself and kept using MX17/stretch as it worked so well, then upgraded to MX21/bullseye.

A newer release will not magically run faster or use les resources.

When it comes to security, i would advise running the stock debian kernel if it supports your HW well. This is the linux-image-amd64 package, which gets regular security patches and fixes (whilst remaining on 4.19-x for buster)

[FrSu]

My system now:

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-6-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel, plank wm: xfwm 4.14.0 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-19.4_x64 patito feo October 21  2019 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: X202E v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X202E v: 1.0 serial: <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends 
           v: X202E.206 date: 11/06/2012 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 20.6 Wh (97.2%) condition: 21.2/38.0 Wh (55.7%) volts: 7.4 
           min: 7.4 model: ASUSTek X202-51 type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: Unknown 
           Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M315/M235 serial: <filter> 
           charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-3217U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge 
           family: 6 model-id: 3A (58) stepping: 9 microcode: 21 cache: L2: 3 MiB 
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 14367 
           Speed: 799 MHz min/max: 800/1800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 799 2: 954 3: 806 4: 805 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, 
           STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 
           v: kernel bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0166 class-ID: 0300 
           Device-2: IMC Networks type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.2:4 chip-ID: 13d3:5188 
           class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter> 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.14.0 driver: 
           loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.2x8.0") 
           s-diag: 414mm (16.3") 
           Monitor-1: LVDS-1 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 136 size: 256x144mm (10.1x5.7") 
           diag: 294mm (11.6") 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile v: 4.2 Mesa 18.3.6 compat-v: 3.0 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio 
           vendor: ASUSTeK VivoBook X202EV driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 
           chip-ID: 8086:1e20 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 12.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Lite-On 
           driver: ath9k v: kernel modules: wl port: f040 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:0032 
           class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8162 Fast Ethernet vendor: ASUSTeK driver: alx v: kernel 
           port: e000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 1969:1090 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Lite-On Atheros Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-1.1:22 
           chip-ID: 04ca:3005 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter> 
           Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 9 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.0 
           sub-v: 1 hci-v: 4.0 rev: 102 
           Info: acl-mtu: 1022:8 sco-mtu: 183:5 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff 
           link-mode: slave accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 16.22 GiB (3.5%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST500LT012-9WS142 size: 465.76 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5400 
           serial: <filter> rev: SDM1 scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 97.66 GiB size: 95.62 GiB (97.92%) used: 16.22 GiB (17.0%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 
Swap:      Alert: No swap data was found. 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 60.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 3300 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 2006 lib: 1009 flatpak: 0 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 221 Uptime: 19h 46m wakeups: 9 Memory: 3.74 GiB used: 1.53 GiB (40.8%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 
           alt: 8 Shell: quick-system-in default: Bash v: 5.0.3 running-in: quick-system-in 
           inxi: 3.3.06 

[j2mcgreg]

I've got an Acer Aspire of that era and MX 21 runs like a champ. If the Seagate ST500LT012-9WS142 is the laptop's original HDD, I think that you should access the bios and determine it's SMART status there. Nine years of age is ancient for a hard drive and if the SMART utility says anything but 'good', I advise you to replace it and then install MX 21. If the HDD is OK, go ahead and install MX 21

[baldyeti]

Again: you do not have to upgrade unless you want to, there is no huge benefit when MX19/buster is supported for another 2+ years. But in buster the kernel is currently at 4.19.0-19, not 4.19.0-6. Security-wise, it would a good idea to stick to the default.

[MadMax]

I'm in a similar situation with 19.4 on my main system, but I'm in no rush to update and it runs like a champ. As stated, Debian LTS will provide security updates until 2024. The MX team will also provide updates for critical software like the browser at least until Debian LTS ends.

If you are ok with your system and have no need for newer versions of certain software (for features) or a newer kernel (e.g. due to a hardware upgrade, which you won't do on a laptop), there's no imminent need to upgrade.

[uncle mark]

I'm firmly in the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" crowd. There really isn't any reason I can think of that would push me to moving from my current MX19KDE install to v21. But that's just me. It certainly wouldn't do any harm.

You've got a dual core with 4G RAM and a slow spinner drive. Without upgrading your hardware, no performance related improvements could be expected from any software/OS updating. And even with bumped RAM and an SSD, that processor is going to be a bottleneck. I'd suggest you start planning on getting new(er) hardware and then go with the most recent MX on that kit.

[FrSu]

Thx everyone for the feedback. I will keep my current 19.4 as it works just fine on my Asus Vivobook. Very happy with it. Thx again!