MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Wed Nov 15, 2023 8:43 pm**

<This is both an announcement and a feedback thread>

A much improved alpha2 is now available at the same location.

After more than 2 months of development, we are making available the first alpha of our official Raspberry Pi OS MX respin for public testing and commentary. It is the flagship version of MX-23.1, based on Raspberry PI OS & Debian Bookworm, with Xfce 4.18.

Background
--designed for and tested on Pi 4, Pi 400 and Pi 5
--download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mx-lin ... pi_respin/
--right-click the compressed (zip) file > open with Archive Manager
--to check integrity against the file in the download folder, open a terminal where you extracted it and enter

Code: Select all

md5sum mx23.1_alpha1_rpi.iso

Installation
--easiest to use RPi’s Imager to install extracted image to an SD card or USB stick (16 GB recommended minimum size). Imager can be downloaded as a deb
https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/image ... _amd64.deb or flatpak (can use MX Package Installer)
NOTE 1) we recommend you do not use Imager’s “OS Customization” to preload information such as user name, wireless etc. In our testing of alpha1 doing so interferes with our boot process, making it longer and more difficult.
NOTE 2) a great guide to Imager—but ignore the directions after that first section that mostly do not apply to MX: https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... -pi-imager
--the boot process will show a couple of screens with lines of code, the screen will blank for a few seconds and then restart to bring up a stripped-down version of MX Installer.
--when you have finished entering information into the Installer, the system will reboot again and drop you on either the login page or the desktop, depending on whether you selected “autologin” in the Installer. From there on, anyone familiar with MX will feel at home.

Testing
--first of all: please tell us which device you were using when reporting results
--this is the first alpha, so it would be most helpful to address what is in it rather than what is not
--do not install from outside the repos unless you are prepared to break your installation. Because of the problems that arose earlier, we have taken great pains to not mix armhf packages with the base architecture arm64.
--there WILL be problems with many of the apps in MX Package Installer at this early stage.

And we're off ...

Posted: **Wed Nov 15, 2023 8:47 pm**

I'll start with a couple of smaller things I noticed early this morning:

1. that notification on first boot about wifi being available etc. did not show up; it's pretty handy for first-timers
2. the conky also did not show up. I started it with Conky Manager, but after log out/in it again was not showing

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 8:09 am**

Since Raspberry Pi OS for Pi 5 comes with LibreOffice, I installed using synaptic

libreoffice-core
libreoffice-calc
libreoffice-gtk3
libreoffice-impress
libreoffice-writer

Glad to see that it all installs and, from a quick glance, runs correctly.

EDIT: From what I saw, all the major packages were arm64.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 9:51 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 8:09 am Since Raspberry Pi OS for Pi 5 comes with LibreOffice, I installed using synaptic

libreoffice-core
libreoffice-calc
libreoffice-gtk3
libreoffice-impress
libreoffice-writer

Glad to see that it all installs and, from a quick glance, runs correctly.

EDIT: From what I saw, all the major packages were arm64.

I installed LO metapackage from the Package Installer, but that missed the GTK3 theming. I've added libreoffice-gtk3, and it works fine.

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:19 am**

Glad to see you're testing this, need your careful eye. Are you using a Pi 400?

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:29 am**

I wrote the image to an SD card using my preferred utility - gnome-disks. It booted fine. The initial setup screens were a little basic in appearance, but worked OK.
There was no option in the Locales section to change from US, but I was able to change to GB using the MX tool.
After installing LibreOffice, my test USB stick with many common file types on was used to see if files opened in appropriate apps. Some image files opened in ImageMagik, others didn't open, so I installed gThumb. Common images then opened OK, although not .psd or heif/heic. That was expected as not all Linux image viewers open them. (Nomacs does, but there is no ARM version as far as I can see.)
All video and document types opened as expected.

I know how much work as gone into this, primarily by @Jerry3904 and @dolphin_oracle , so very well done on getting so far with it. When it first booted to the MX-23 background and panel, I actually started to laugh as it seemed funny to see that on a Pi.

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:32 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:19 am Glad to see you're texting this, need your careful eye. Are you using a Pi 400?

I'm on a Pi 4 at the moment, but have a 400 I can use if there would be a benefit. I don't have a Pi 5 as I don't have a use case to justify getting one. (I would rather they started production of the last version of the 3, because that is more useful for some projects.)

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:56 am**

I installed LO metapackage from the Package Installer, but that missed the GTK3 theming.

On the Pi 5 I had no LO metapackage. @dolphin_oracle That lireoffice-gtk3 package appears to be important to include, according to posts on the RPi Forum.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 11:55 am**

we *could* put the entire default application set for the Xfce edition on the img if that's what folks want.

major item is figuring out what doesn't install from mxpi -> popular apps. there are a crap-ton of entries.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:20 pm**

The five I installed seem pretty functional so far, people could add themselves what else they wanted.

Could exclude Impress too.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:38 pm**

chrispop99 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:29 am...Nomacs does, but there is no ARM version as far as I can see...

There is now. Just added an arm64 deb to the repo.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:00 pm**

chrispop99 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:29 am I wrote the image to an SD card using my preferred utility - gnome-disks. It booted fine. The initial setup screens were a little basic in appearance, but worked OK.
There was no option in the Locales section to change from US, but I was able to change to GB using the MX tool.
After installing LibreOffice, my test USB stick with many common file types on was used to see if files opened in appropriate apps. Some image files opened in ImageMagik, others didn't open, so I installed gThumb. Common images then opened OK, although not .psd or heif/heic. That was expected as not all Linux image viewers open them. (Nomacs does, but there is no ARM version as far as I can see.)
All video and document types opened as expected.

I know how much work as gone into this, primarily by @Jerry3904 and @dolphin_oracle , so very well done on getting so far with it. When it first booted to the MX-23 background and panel, I actually started to laugh as it seemed funny to see that on a Pi.

Chris

Good point on not being to use the Locales section to change from US, let's flag it to make sure @dolphin_oracle sees it.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:02 pm**

It is "a little basic" but it works! The front end needs probably the most work over the alpha period IMO.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:03 pm**

timkb4cq wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:38 pm
chrispop99 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:29 am...Nomacs does, but there is no ARM version as far as I can see...
There is now. Just added an arm64 deb to the repo.

Thanks, @timkb4cq -- much appreciated.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:13 pm**

timkb4cq wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:38 pm
chrispop99 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:29 am...Nomacs does, but there is no ARM version as far as I can see...
There is now. Just added an arm64 deb to the repo.

Many thanks; will test.

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:16 pm**

Thought I would try to get printing working.
From Synaptic I installed CUPS and everything that came with, then I installed system-config-printer. Using the Print Settings tool both my networked printers were foune, and worked.

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:24 pm**

Same experience here.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:43 pm**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:00 pm
chrispop99 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:29 am I wrote the image to an SD card using my preferred utility - gnome-disks. It booted fine. The initial setup screens were a little basic in appearance, but worked OK.
There was no option in the Locales section to change from US, but I was able to change to GB using the MX tool.
After installing LibreOffice, my test USB stick with many common file types on was used to see if files opened in appropriate apps. Some image files opened in ImageMagik, others didn't open, so I installed gThumb. Common images then opened OK, although not .psd or heif/heic. That was expected as not all Linux image viewers open them. (Nomacs does, but there is no ARM version as far as I can see.)
All video and document types opened as expected.

I know how much work as gone into this, primarily by @Jerry3904 and @dolphin_oracle , so very well done on getting so far with it. When it first booted to the MX-23 background and panel, I actually started to laugh as it seemed funny to see that on a Pi.

Chris
Good point on not being to use the Locales section to change from US, let's flag it to make sure @dolphin_oracle sees it.

I can probably set up our usual set of locales. raspberry pi os lite doesn't even have the US locale configured, just LANG=C.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:15 pm**

I noticed you mentioned :
designed for and tested on Pi 4, Pi 400 and Pi 5

Any chance that will run on an older Pi? (I dont recall if I have a 3 or before.. I think it is a 3 )

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:23 pm**

From what I've seen on the RPi Forum it seems unlikely but I've not looked into it. Of course, there's one easy way to find out yourself...

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:25 pm**

chrispop99 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:13 pm
timkb4cq wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:38 pm
chrispop99 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:29 am...Nomacs does, but there is no ARM version as far as I can see...
There is now. Just added an arm64 deb to the repo.
Many thanks; will test.

Chris

Attempting to install Nomacs from Synaptic gives this error:

Screenshot_2023-11-16_19-21-01.png

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:25 pm**

I shall put testing it out on my list :-) ty

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:28 pm**

The RPi 3 series has a 64bit processor so there's a chance. The max 1GB ram for the Pi3 would probably rule it out as a general purpose desktop but it's worth a try.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:29 pm**

CharlesV wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:15 pm I noticed you mentioned :
designed for and tested on Pi 4, Pi 400 and Pi 5

Any chance that will run on an older Pi? (I dont recall if I have a 3 or before.. I think it is a 3 )

I intend to test this at some point, but if it works it would be very slow.

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:37 pm**

chrispop99 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:25 pm Attempting to install Nomacs from Synaptic gives this error...

Looks like qt-heif-image-plugin is the stumbling block. I just built & uploaded an arm64 version of it to the repository, so please update & try again.

Posted: **Thu Nov 16, 2023 3:15 pm**

Supposedly the kernel in place will work with a pi3. But the desktop experience won’t be great.

Posted: **Fri Nov 17, 2023 5:44 am**

timkb4cq wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:37 pm
chrispop99 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 2:25 pm Attempting to install Nomacs from Synaptic gives this error...
Looks like qt-heif-image-plugin is the stumbling block. I just built & uploaded an arm64 version of it to the repository, so please update & try again.

Now looks like it's missing localisation files; I get this from a terminal:

Code: Select all

 nomacs : Depends: nomacs-l10n (= 3.17.2206+git20230315-0mx23+1) but it is not installable

Chris

Posted: **Fri Nov 17, 2023 5:55 am**

I just saw that too...

Posted: **Fri Nov 17, 2023 12:34 pm**

chrispop99 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 5:44 am
Code: Select all
 nomacs : Depends: nomacs-l10n (= 3.17.2206+git20230315-0mx23+1) but it is not installable

Added l10n deb to the repo

Posted: **Fri Nov 17, 2023 12:50 pm**

Thanks again

Posted: **Fri Nov 17, 2023 2:32 pm**

Thank you @timkb4cq ; Nomacs installs and runs great.

Chris

Posted: **Fri Nov 17, 2023 3:16 pm**

I've been wondering which RPi apps we might consider including, so I went through the menu of the official RPi OS for Pi 5 looking for candidates. What I found is a pretty good collection IMO:

--piclone: very handy & very quick SD card copier; could use a help somewhere about which device and partition [ the -b one! ] to use on the target SD
--raspi-config: critical IMO
--agnostics: RPi diagnostics, extensible. Only has one test in there ATM (SD read/write speed), but I would bet my bottom dollar that there are more coming
--Not there: Documentation; link to the superb https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/
I created a desktop file for that earlier, and I think it already went through translation.

I imagine all these populating a new menu section "Raspberry Pi"

-------------------
--lxtask is also there: limited (20 or so) processes. I wouldn't want to use a lx product, but I like very much the idea of a small readable app. I imagine we could create a tool (MX Top Tasks?) ourselves with maybe the top 10 tasks that included a button "More" linking to the Xfce app.

Posted: **Fri Nov 17, 2023 3:22 pm**

chrispop99 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 2:32 pm Thank you @timkb4cq ; Nomacs installs and runs great.

Chris

Confirmed on the Pi 5

Posted: **Fri Nov 17, 2023 6:33 pm**

Hi,

I noticed the flatpaks tab of mx-packageinstaller isn't displaying any flatpaks.
(mx23.1_alpha1_rpi.img, Raspberry Pi 4 2GB Model B)
--

Separately, an mx-tweak for enabling zram might be a useful feature to consider, I know I'd make use of it on my 2gb board.

FWIW RetroPie added a zram toggle to their raspbiantools script:
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/pull/3636

Posted: **Fri Nov 17, 2023 6:46 pm**

Thanks for the feedback! I noticed the blank flatpack tab but am assuming it's just been postponed for now.

The zram toggle is DB interesting thought.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 5:25 am**

9to5 Linux has a well-done overview with valuable comments (which I hope he will transfer over here...):

https://9to5linux.com/hands-on-with-mx- ... berry-pi-5

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:21 am**

I don't know what is possible or what @dolphin_oracle or someone else can or would want to do, but I'd like to see us revise the look of the installer version being used here before Final.

My own personal reactions:
-- It is huge on my display, taking up the entire screen with lots of empty space on all of its pages, so I think it would look much better if it were reduced and floated against a background.
-- the gigantic non-spinning spinner on the first welcome screen has no function on this version and could perhaps be replaced with the MX logo, since we have neither *GRUB* nor splash. Maybe that logo could be continued as a light watermark on the remaining pages, not sure.

But is this necessary? Not really, but it seems to me that an aesthetic upgrade would look more professional and blend better with our Xfce desktop.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:37 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:21 am I don't know what is possible or what @dolphin_oracle or someone else can or would want to do, but I'd like to see us revise the look of the installer version being used here before Final.

My own personal reactions:
-- It is huge on my display, taking up the entire screen with lots of empty space on all of its pages, so I think it would look much better if it were reduced and floated against a background.
-- the gigantic non-spinning spinner on the first welcome screen has no function on this version and could perhaps be replaced with the MX logo, since we have neither *GRUB* nor splash. Maybe that logo could be continued as a light watermark on the remaining pages, not sure.

But is this necessary? Not really, but it seems to me that an aesthetic upgrade would look more professional and blend better with our Xfce desktop.

I concur with both these points, although of course functionality is key.

Chris

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:47 am**

Note to self: will need a "touchscreen" doc somewhere, revising one with MXFBPi (e.g., no long press). Include with piclone et al I listed above.since this runs very well on the Official Display.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 10:07 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:02 pm It is "a little basic" but it works! The front end needs probably the most work over the alpha period IMO.

the "front-end" is our main installer's pc and user configuraton setup and its not going to change. Keep in mind that when that setup runs, there is no window manager, no display manager, and no desktop. Just a basic X server.

if something else is needed, focus should shift to determining how the base OS ships so that our image can be reset and all the raspberrypiOS first run stuff works. I could not figure it out, and it is not well documented from what I can see. I was often stuck in endless loops.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 10:22 am**

Working on the flatpak stuff right now.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 10:59 am**

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:25 am**

Two follow-up points:

1) I wasn't interested in changing the function of the "front-end," just its look--as I spelled out this morning a couple of posts back.
2) Are you talking about piwiz? If yes, I see a post on StackExchange where somebody asks himself how he would start it up automatically at next boot, and answers himself:

creating a file in /etc/xdg/autostart, the image comes with piwiz.desktop in that directory.

Is that of any relevance to your question?

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:38 am**

no, once we are logged in its too late. the usual pi startup happens before login and lets you choose a user name, etc... its how the current spin's user account in now "demo" rather than "raspberrypi"

for the record, working on the pi spin is very labor intensive, so if I take a suggestion wrong its because I just see more work for myself.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 12:23 pm**

That's how I understood it.

So maybe we should just stop for a while. We have a working alpha and we can always come back at some later point if still interested.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:21 pm**

here is a link to a biuld of mx-packageinstaller that should enable flatpaks on the arm64 arch. please test.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uQHhSP ... drive_link

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:25 pm**

here is the code for the colors in the oobe:

Code: Select all

const bool defskin = (!getenv("QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME") && !getenv("XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP"));
    if (defskin) {
        // The default style in the OOBE environment is hideous and unusable.
        QApplication::setStyle("cde"); // Qt docs say do this before the QApplication instance.
        QPalette pal;
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Window, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::WindowText, Qt::white);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Base, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::AlternateBase, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Text, Qt::white);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Button, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::ButtonText, Qt::white);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::BrightText, Qt::white);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Disabled, QPalette::Text, Qt::darkGray);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Disabled, QPalette::WindowText, Qt::darkGray);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Disabled, QPalette::ButtonText, Qt::darkGray);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Highlight, Qt::lightGray);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::HighlightedText, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::ToolTipBase, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::ToolTipText, Qt::white);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Link, Qt::cyan);
        QApplication::setPalette(pal); // Qt docs say do this after setting the style.
    }

as you can see its mostly white and blacks, with some darkgray thrown in for disabled items. I think the values are pretty self-explanatory, so feel free to suggest alternates.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:47 pm**

attached are the two translated raspi-config and rasp-documentation desktop files.

I presume at least the raspi-config one should depend on the raspi-config package. what about the rasp-documentation one?

and is "sudo raspi-config" correct? might be, but I'm not sure, raspberrypiOS does weird things with sudo.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 2:08 pm**

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:47 pm attached are the two translated raspi-config and rasp-documentation desktop files.

I presume at least the raspi-config one should depend on the raspi-config package. what about the rasp-documentation one?

and is "sudo raspi-config" correct? might be, but I'm not sure, raspberrypiOS does weird things with sudo.

raspi-documentation just launches a browser to the documentation website, and sudo raspi-config is correct, thanks.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 2:25 pm**

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:25 pm here is the code for the colors in the oobe:

Code: Select all

const bool defskin = (!getenv("QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME") && !getenv("XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP"));
    if (defskin) {
        // The default style in the OOBE environment is hideous and unusable.
        QApplication::setStyle("cde"); // Qt docs say do this before the QApplication instance.
        QPalette pal;
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Window, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::WindowText, Qt::white);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Base, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::AlternateBase, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Text, Qt::white);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Button, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::ButtonText, Qt::white);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::BrightText, Qt::white);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Disabled, QPalette::Text, Qt::darkGray);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Disabled, QPalette::WindowText, Qt::darkGray);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Disabled, QPalette::ButtonText, Qt::darkGray);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Highlight, Qt::lightGray);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::HighlightedText, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::ToolTipBase, Qt::black);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::ToolTipText, Qt::white);
        pal.setColor(QPalette::Link, Qt::cyan);
        QApplication::setPalette(pal); // Qt docs say do this after setting the style.
    }

as you can see its mostly white and blacks, with some darkgray thrown in for disabled items. I think the values are pretty self-explanatory, so feel free to suggest alternates.

Thanks for that challenging data, I will take a look. Just as a reminder: the only two issues Chris and I raised were %screen of window (=less than 100%) and image replacement of first screen (logo instead of spinner).

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 2:36 pm**

Change the spinner is non-trivial. It is in fact a progress indicator. And in a pi400 still shows that something is happening while the system loads.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 2:49 pm**

OK. Reducing the window share of the screen will reduce its impact.

New mxpi works as expected: the deb installs, Flatpak tab is populated and I was able to install Aisleriot with it. All good.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 3:04 pm**

What is your screen resolution

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 3:43 pm**

1280x1024

Been outside doing heave yard work, glad to take a break. Beautiful but cold Saturday.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 3:46 pm**

BTW: I wonder if @fehlix might see something about what triggers the piwiz, always good to get a second pair of eyes. I also want to pose the question on the Pi Forum, not yet sure of wording.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 3:52 pm**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 3:46 pm BTW: I wonder if @fehlix might see something about what triggers the piwiz, always good to get a second pair of eyes. I also want to pose the question on the Pi Forum, not yet sure of wording.

good idea.

I also want to identify cached and other data that can be eliminated from final builds. like apt cache data and the like. build-iso gives a pretty good template there.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 3:54 pm**

Back to OOBE: if this line controls the window frame

Code: Select all

     pal.setColor(QPalette::Window, Qt::black);

then maybe using the (comfort?) blue of the default desktop instead would give it a bit of life and tie it to the desktop and anticipate the theme color. Hard to say of course without seeing it...what do you think?

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:27 pm**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 3:54 pm Back to OOBE: if this line controls the window frame
Code: Select all
     pal.setColor(QPalette::Window, Qt::black);
then maybe using the (comfort?) blue of the default desktop instead would give it a bit of life and tie it to the desktop and anticipate the theme color. Hard to say of course without seeing it...what do you think?

turns out that's the window fill color, not just the frame. I don't thing a frame or border is defined. usually that would be by the window manager, but there isn't one when oobe runs.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:55 pm**

I have figured how to reduce the size of the oobe window. I'm playing with about screen height/width divided by 1.5 for the window size.

the window is not resizeable at this stage. that should be using around 44% of the screen real estate, whatever the screen is.

Posted: **Sun Nov 19, 2023 12:44 am**

Promising.

Posted: **Sun Nov 19, 2023 10:18 am**

Hi everybody!!! Playing with the alpha version on my rpi4 8GB model...the system is very responsive and i have installed many packages successfully so far. One thing i noticed is that some packages from the test repo don't upgrade. Spesificly tried celuloid, falkon, geany and krita and the first two did not upgrade. Geany and krita did. Talking about the installer , it is a problem the thing it fills the hole screen. On my monitor 1920x1080 resolution does not fit exactly(the screen size of the os is a little bigger that monitor) but managed to install in the end. Then after the installation i changed the resolution to 1680x1050 and now it fits fine. But i have the same with raspberry pi os so its normal, but it would be nice the installer to be smaller so it floats in the middle of the screen.

Posted: **Sun Nov 19, 2023 10:43 am**

rhinomick wrote: ↑Sun Nov 19, 2023 10:18 am Hi everybody!!! Playing with the alpha version on my rpi4 8GB model...the system is very responsive and i have installed many packages successfully so far. One thing i noticed is that some packages from the test repo don't upgrade. Spesificly tried celuloid, falkon, geany and krita and the first two did not upgrade. Geany and krita did. Talking about the installer , it is a problem the thing it fills the hole screen. On my monitor 1920x1080 resolution does not fit exactly(the screen size of the os is a little bigger that monitor) but managed to install in the end. Then after the installation i changed the resolution to 1680x1050 and now it fits fine. But i have the same with raspberry pi os so its normal, but it would be nice the installer to be smaller so it floats in the middle of the screen.

Thanks for testing. The appearance of the installer is being worked on.

Chris

Posted: **Sun Nov 19, 2023 10:52 am**

Also tested the new version of the mxpi ... the flatpaks section works fine...

Posted: **Sun Nov 19, 2023 11:25 am**

thanks, again!

Posted: **Sun Nov 19, 2023 11:57 am**

Running on the Official Display: glad to report that screen inversion works very using Xfce's Display and the change survives logout/reboot. That's only for the desktop, so the login page remains upside down but I seem to remember that can be set with a kernel command at boot--will look it up and revise this post.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2023 8:22 am**

a new alpha2 img has been uploaded to source forge. same link as in first post.

changes:

all updates through November 19, including flatpak fixes in mx-packageinstaller
more locales at user creation available
user setup on first boot will take up less screen space (this has not be rolled out into the main repos, want to see reaction first, as this will effect some oem users.)
menu entries for pi documentation and raspi-config utility.
conky should autostart now

things that haven't changed: mx-packaeginstaller popular apps entries are untested at the moment. most will likely work fine, some will likely fail. due to changes in mx-packageinstaller's architecture filtering, a few previously working entries might now be missing. Feel free to comment on working/non-working/missing entries.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:42 am**

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2023 8:22 am
things that haven't changed: mx-packaeginstaller popular apps entries are untested at the moment. most will likely work fine, some will likely fail. due to changes in mx-packageinstaller's architecture filtering, a few previously working entries might now be missing. Feel free to comment on working/non-working/missing entries.

I'm about half way through test installing everything from the Popular Applications tab. (It's pretty tedious!) I will post my notes here when completed.

Chris

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:46 am**

This is great, thanks! I'm on the road so won't see it until tomorrow.

Any need for people on Alpha 1 to reinstall or will upgrade take care of it?

Should we start a clean thread?

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:53 am**

chrispop99 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:42 am
dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2023 8:22 am
things that haven't changed: mx-packaeginstaller popular apps entries are untested at the moment. most will likely work fine, some will likely fail. due to changes in mx-packageinstaller's architecture filtering, a few previously working entries might now be missing. Feel free to comment on working/non-working/missing entries.
I'm about half way through test installing everything from the Popular Applications tab. (It's pretty tedious!) I will post my notes here when completed.

Chris

it is very tedious, and highly appreciated! I did it for the mainline releases, and still missed some!

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:54 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2023 9:46 am This is great, thanks! I'm on the road so won't see it until tomorrow.

Any need for people on Alpha 1 to reinstall or will upgrade take care of it?

Should we start a clean thread?

they won't get the user setup screen change quite yet, but they don't need it either. the desktop files for the raspi utilities wont' be there either. there might be one or two missing packages, I would have to check my notes, but no operations wise it would be fine.

alphas will not see their versioning changed. so alpha1 will always say alpha1.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2023 10:20 am**

I think we can keep comments here. alpha1 isn't really mentioned in the title, and its easy to track the comments.

might edit the first post to indicate alpha2 is available. I can't do that.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2023 10:44 am**

@chrispop99 Really useful work you're doing, thanks a lot!

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2023 5:20 pm**

Installer was perfect on the 7in screen; no BT so borrowed a keyboard at the front desk and was able to complete installation. Will post pics and more tomorrow when I can.

Well done, DO.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2023 6:16 pm**

Notice how nicely it floats correctly on this miniature screen

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2023 7:58 pm**

And here's a complete screenshot, with oversized conky, undersized wallpaper and reduced systray (screen is inverted)

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2023 9:37 am**

Sitting in the airport, will start my question list from first look last night

1. Only wired keyboard for Installer?
2. MXPI link on desktop?
3. Change default background to make less imposing, especially on smaller screens?
4. Links on FF bookmark bar to MX and RPi Forums?
5. Short vid link on desktop?

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2023 11:32 am**

Attached are my notes on test-installing everything from the Package Installer.

Chris

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2023 11:41 am**

chrispop99 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 11:32 am Attached are my notes on test-installing everything from the Package Installer.

Chris

that will work thanks!!!

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2023 2:08 pm**

Greetings, Using Pi 4 with 4GB ram, I’m a rookie, but here goes. In summary: video, sound, network, bluetooth, and K400 plus wireless media keyboard all worked OOTB.
Added packages without issue: Epson print driver, system-config-printer, lp-connection-editor, simple-scan, Lollypop music player, keepassxc, menulibre.
Network printer Epson WF-3540 works after adding chrispop99’s suggested packages. Scanner recognized by simple-scan and works too.It’s already about what I need for daily use if I wanted. :)
For reference, I am connected via an hdmi hub to a 55” panasonic dumb tv which is then connected via optical audio cable to a vizio soundbar so I expected something to not work. What a nice surprise that everything did! I did change xrandr scaling to 1.4 for my eyes. Thanks for all the effort on this!

Here are the only two issues I had so far:

1.Panel was too narrow for the clock display by a few pixels. Easily fixed though.
2.This was my biggest hurdle, but may matter little to others: The discovered Guest wifi network was found and connected without issue but I could not find an option to add the regular network(which is hidden) manually. ‘Edit connections’ from the nm-tray icon doesn’t open anything. Solved by installing lp-connection-editor, which didn’t show up in Applications Menu but it ran from terminal. I used menulibre to add to menu.

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2023 9:05 pm**

Thanks for the useful report. Hidden networks can be troublesome for me.ás well sometimes.

.

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2023 9:14 pm**

looking at a few adjustments:

rpiOS now package firefox. they are up to 119 version. bringing it in force installs pipewire, but doesn't remove pulseaudio, so looking at removing pulseaudio and going with pipewire, same as on other releases. seems to work OK on the pi400.

also thinking to replace nm-tray with the full nm-applet that we have on the Xfce and fluxbox releases, along with the usual connection editor. nm-tray allows for connection editing, but it expect a ncurses based tool and the .conf file that is supposed to allow customization of the command apparently has no effect.

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2023 10:31 pm**

Oh great! Now the Web Browser forces the system Audio server!? Talk about the tail wagging the dog...

I beg MX to not start doing this with Firefox Distro-wide

I'll shut up now...

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2023 7:33 am**

I think that raspberry pi os runs pipewire...pulse is installed but dont see it in lxtask.

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2023 8:21 am**

AVLinux wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 10:31 pm Oh great! Now the Web Browser forces the system Audio server!? Talk about the tail wagging the dog... I beg MX to not start doing this with Firefox Distro-wide

I'll shut up now...

debian did the same thing with pulseaudio and firefox, once upon a time...

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2023 8:37 am**

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 9:14 pm ...
also thinking to replace nm-tray with the full nm-applet that we have on the Xfce and fluxbox releases, along with the usual connection editor. nm-tray allows for connection editing, but it expect a ncurses based tool and the .conf file that is supposed to allow customization of the command apparently has no effect.

I think that would be a good idea. I'm out in MN and can not get wireless to work unless I go through Imager, and then the first boot process gets a bit wonky--it turns off instead of rebooting after the standard first short boot to set some parameters. It's not a question of AP or password, since I'm on it right now. I tried using raspi-config when unable to connect, but it kept reporting an error.

And then the first time I made a mistake with the password there was no way I could find to forget or correct the AP (I suppose I could have used ifconfig, but I have long since forgotten most of what I used to know there...

BTW: I found a workaround to no-BT-with-Installer problem: I used the mouse to copy a word from the the running help on the left, then pasted it into the username, ticked autologin and clicked next. Installer asked me if I really wanted to have no password, I clicked yes, after a wait it rebooted and finished on the desktop.

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2023 2:01 pm**

Just an FYI; it won't boot on a Pi 3, it hangs at the multi-coloured screen

Chris

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2023 3:02 pm**

Good to know for sure.

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 4:23 am**

amazing...
Tonight (not in the mood for sleeping) I installed MX23_RPI on a Pi 5. I expected some difficulties and loads of DuckDuckGoing. Neither of the two happened...
All went smooth like a hot knife through the butter.
Compliments to the developers of this spin off!
All the programs I use on a daily basis work like a charm. To mention a small glitch, my mouse pointer has the shivers... (I realize that there could be many causes for this occurrence)
Cheers!

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 4:38 am**

Excellent, thanks.

Mouse: Bluetooth?

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 5:00 am**

Fixed mouse USB

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 5:11 am**

To be more concrete: mouse in USB2 port...

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 7:55 am**

Good. We only have one Pi 5, mine, so might PM you if we need corroboration on something.

BTW: what size memory do you have?

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 9:32 am**

Before I start stuffing my face this Thanksgiving, I want to lay out what I see as a TOP PRIORITY:

The most important item IMO to try to solve before going to Beta is the failure to reboot after the beginning boot sequence when info--of any kind in my testing, even just wireless data--has been entered into Imager's Advanced Options (name?) before flashing the OS to a SD. It is not only confusing to the user but seems so amateurish. I have some questions to try to get a handle on the actual question:

1. Is it just a Pi 5 problem? Has anyone confirmed it on a Pi 4 or 400?
2. I gather that the handoff (as I call it) comes when the initial system parameter set has been made using the first partition, and then the system turns to launching the OS using the second. Can we find the trigger for that reboot?
3. Is there a log for the early boot procedure?
4. Is there anything about MX in particular (the Live option, for instance) that might interfere with the boot partition's process?
5. Does MX get involved with the handoff in any way?

I find this very hard to understand since it does not happen with any other image I have tried.

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 10:01 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 23, 2023 9:32 am Before I start stuffing my face this Thanksgiving, I want to lay out what I see as a TOP PRIORITY:

The most important item IMO to try to solve before going to Beta is the failure to reboot after the beginning boot sequence when info--of any kind in my testing, even just wireless data--has been entered into Imager's Advanced Options (name?) before flashing the OS to a SD. It is not only confusing to the user but seems so amateurish. I have some questions to try to get a handle on the actual question:

1. Is it just a Pi 5 problem? Has anyone confirmed it on a Pi 4 or 400?
2. I gather that the handoff (as I call it) comes when the initial system parameter set has been made using the first partition, and then the system turns to launching the OS using the second. Can we find the trigger for that reboot?
3. Is there a log for the early boot procedure?
4. Is there anything about MX in particular (the Live option, for instance) that might interfere with the boot partition's process?
5. Does MX get involved with the handoff in any way?

I find this very hard to understand since it does not happen with any other image I have tried.

I don't use Imager, so can't answer this straight away. I will try to do a test using Imager in the next couple of days.

Happy Thanksgiving - don't eat too much!

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 10:11 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 23, 2023 9:32 am Before I start stuffing my face this Thanksgiving, I want to lay out what I see as a TOP PRIORITY:

The most important item IMO to try to solve before going to Beta is the failure to reboot after the beginning boot sequence when info--of any kind in my testing, even just wireless data--has been entered into Imager's Advanced Options (name?) before flashing the OS to a SD. It is not only confusing to the user but seems so amateurish. I have some questions to try to get a handle on the actual question:

1. Is it just a Pi 5 problem? Has anyone confirmed it on a Pi 4 or 400?
2. I gather that the handoff (as I call it) comes when the initial system parameter set has been made using the first partition, and then the system turns to launching the OS using the second. Can we find the trigger for that reboot?
3. Is there a log for the early boot procedure?
4. Is there anything about MX in particular (the Live option, for instance) that might interfere with the boot partition's process?
5. Does MX get involved with the handoff in any way?

I find this very hard to understand since it does not happen with any other image I have tried.

its important to remember that the advanced features of pi-imager are designed to work with a shipping piOS. you also don't have to use pi-imager at all. I don't know about amateurish, what other system do you ever set up a user and wifi before you ever boot? except for the mx-tools, and the oobe setup, there isn't much different from the regular raspberrypi OS, other than the fact that the firstboot routines are already done.

one thing to eliminate: there are no live options on the pi image. the live system is in no way installed. what special first-launch stuff we do have happens after the user is logged in.

one thing to examine: the default user is different. piOS ships with raspberrypi as the default user. we use demo, which allows the oobe to work as intended. I've noticed that certain parts of the first boot routine fail if that user is not present. that could cause a hang and the system just sit there. part of the firstboot routines disables the firstboot routine, so a reboot might work there. I suspect that to be able to use the advanced setup in pi imager, we would need to abandon oobe and figure out how to reset piOS to its shipping condition. I don't know how difficult it would be to keep that default username, as piOS forces the user to change the default user name at first boot, so keeping the raspberrypi user name will be tricky at minimum. and that default user must be UID 1000, or other parts of the pi firstboot setup will fail, so just creating a second user as was done on an earlier img will not work either.

its sort of the same way that a personal snaphsot is different from shipping mx iso, but not really.

as far as I know there are no logs, but if they are anywhere they would be some where on the bootfs partition.

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 11:00 am**

Thanks for the detailed response. I'll try to see those logs, but not today.

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 11:21 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 23, 2023 11:00 am Thanks for the detailed response. I'll try to see those logs, but not today.

its super tricky, like complicated to be complicated. makes sense if you are setting up a headless device, like many pi kits do, as you would never need a physical screen. just boot and ssh in.

makes less sense on a desktop os.

turkey is in the bag and in the oven...thanksgiving comes to my house!

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 11:47 am**

it just dawned on me that most of the pi set up stuff happens with systemd services and/or some stuff in rc.local. there is a boot log generated in rootfs under /var/log/boot.log.

I didn't see any logs in bootfs.

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 12:08 pm**

might be a /var/log/firstboot.log file as well, if customizations are attempted.

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 12:17 pm**

Kitchen is humming here, too. Rachel is doing a "spatchcocked" turkey for the first time: all spayed out by the butcher, fast in the oven.

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 1:18 pm**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 23, 2023 12:17 pm Kitchen is humming here, too. Rachel is doing a "spatchcocked" turkey for the first time: all spayed out by the butcher, fast in the oven.

Enjoy! Makes me wish we had Thanksgiving in the UK!

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 2:05 pm**

Early in the install process there is an option to change the keyboard layout. A separate dialogue appears. You can select a different layout, but when you click Apply, it fails with this message:

Code: Select all

Failed to open file: /etc/default/keyboard

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 2:08 pm**

@Jerry3904

I tested an install using an SD card created using Imager, with modifications made, and the failure to reboot happens with a Pi 4 too.

As an aside, Imager won't install on an MX-21 machine; it fails with dependency errors.

Chris

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 3:11 pm**

Thanks

Posted: **Thu Nov 23, 2023 7:16 pm**

Nice! The A2 was downloaded over 65 times today, total now 200... Not that I would ever check, just happened to see it

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 7:43 am**

<updated 23.11.29>

I have begun a document called "Raspberry Pi Tips." (I'm thinking of proposing a single desktop icon "Help" with the Manual, Faq and this--maybe also an intro vid--inside it to clear up desktop crowding due to the very large default background.) Here's what I have so far:

1. General
2. Software
3. Bluetooth
4. Screen
5. Netflix

1. Use the MX Forum for questions about the distro and its operation, and the Raspberry Pi Forum for all questions about that OS.

The "FAQ" document answers many common questions from new users, such as how to move the panel, how to change or remove the conky (desktop system display), etc.

Be sure to launch Menu > MX Tools to become familiar with this signature feature of the distro.

2. MX-23 RPi Respin ships with basic apps installed but leaves to the user the decision to add other desktop software such as email client, particular music app, etc. The fast and convenient MX Package Installer > Common Apps tab is highly recommended; Raspberry Pi packages can be installed on the Enabled repos tab.

Note: be very careful about adding software from outside the default repositories to avoid package failure or even system instability.

3. To enable Bluetooth:
--Left-click its icon in the systray
--Choose if you want it to be activated automatically on boot
--Make your device discoverable
--Launch Menu > Bluetooth Manager and click the "Search" button
--Right-click the icon of your device (or use the button bar) > Pair
--Right-click again > Trust
--Log out and back in and test whether you device is working
--If not, right-click your device's icon > Connect.
--For musical devices, you may need to launch PulseAudio Volume Control and clikc on the Output Devices or Playback tab to change the settings

4. Use Menu > Display to easily change screen traits such as resolution, orientation, selection etc. Changing orientation will affect both the desktop and the mouse. For details, consult Menu > Raspberry Pi Documentation.
--To change the touchcreen rotation as well you need to change the file /boot/firmware/config.txt as explained in the RPi Documenetation: http://rptl.io/configtxt
--To change orientation of the login screen, finally, add this line anywhere in the "[Seat:*]" section of /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf:

greeter-setup-script=xrandr --output DSI-1 --auto --rotate [value]

Make sure to replace "[value]" with the orientation you want: left, right or inverted

5. To view Netflix you need an account, of course. Then install chromium-browser, rpi-chromium-mods and libwidevinecmd0 and it should work (tested on Pi 5 8G and Pi 4b 8G). You probably could use Firefox (not tested) by installing a current version along with rpi-firefox-mods and libwidevinecmd0.

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 11:18 am**

I started testing installation of the other RPi default packages such as Thonny and Raspberry Pi Diagnostics (can't remember any others off hand, will check once home). Made me wonder if we might want to consider having a small meta-package or install command of them available somewhere/somehow.

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 12:53 pm**

@dolphin_oracle Did you intentionally omit pi-clone?

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 3:11 pm**

I didn’t add it. Didn’t I haven’t added any new applications at all.

Pertaining to more stuff on the desktop. Please keep in mind there is no default desktop directory in etc/skel. And there can’t be if we want to keep it localized, which we do. Anything new that is rpi respin specific require updating the tool the populates the localized desktop folder. I’m not opposed just need to remind how this stuff works.

On the name. I am thinking rpi respin.

There are a couple of ways to deal with more apps. We can do entries in mxpi popular apps specific to the arm64 architecture now so they won’t show up on x86 systems. We could do a metapackage as well.

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 4:29 pm**

Good reminder, I tend to forget and get carried away.

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 5:37 pm**

Forgot: IMO pi-clone is by far the easiest backup option and should be included by default.

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 5:54 pm**

I’ll add it

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 7:36 pm**

Got our usual bookmarks now for Firefox now too.

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 8:22 pm**

Good,

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 8:54 pm**

about orage:

--clicked on calendar: nada b/c not installed
--quickly discovered that not installable from enabled repos
--went to trixie, downloaded both orage and orage-data
--installed with dpkg
--now click on calendar works as expected

Conslusion: we should either look at backporting [(mention]Stevo[/mention] ?) or substitute gsimplecal

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 9:58 pm**

@timkb4cq orage-data needs moved into the arm64 lists.

@Jerry3904 will have orage preinstalled. you can download orage-data from here: https://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/pool/main/o/ ... 23_all.deb

and install it, then orage will be installable via apt. we already have a arm64 build.

Posted: **Fri Nov 24, 2023 10:55 pm**

Ok, thanks

Posted: **Sat Nov 25, 2023 12:41 pm**

whole bunch of mesa updates yesterday. pi5 users should check to see if mx-viewer launches.

Posted: **Sat Nov 25, 2023 12:45 pm**

Home tomorrow, will do.

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 9:16 am**

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2023 12:41 pm whole bunch of mesa updates yesterday. pi5 users should check to see if mx-viewer launches.

MX Viewer is the same as it has been since the beginning--GUI OK, but @Adrian not working. In terminal

Code: Select all

$ mx-viewer
[1759:1:1126/093040.328506:FATAL:page_allocator_internals_posix.h(169)] Check failed: . : Invalid argument (22)
[1766:1:1126/093041.084308:FATAL:page_allocator_internals_posix.h(169)] Check failed: . : Invalid argument (22)
Error : "https://duckduckgo.com"

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 9:24 am**

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Fri Nov 24, 2023 5:54 pm I’ll add it

The package is actually called piclone (no hyphen)

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 10:22 am**

Someone here said they could not boot from an SSD or USB on the Pi 5--can't find it again--and I said I would look at it when I got home. Now home, and I see on the RPi Forum this thread that says the problem is inherent to the Pi 5:

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=358826

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 11:02 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 10:22 am Someone here said they could not boot from an SSD or USB on the Pi 5--can't find it again--and I said I would look at it when I got home. Now home, and I see on the RPi Forum this thread that says the problem is inherent to the Pi 5:

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=358826

That's pretty disappointing after all the time it took to get USB booting on the Pi 4. At least we know it's not just us.

Chris

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 11:06 am**

Hopefully the RPi Devs will fix it at some point.

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 12:49 pm**

Hey: leepsvideo has done a 23-min and useful review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K7RnvsLadI

He loves the conkies and spends a lot of time on various games; notes that Chromium is smoother and faster than Firefox (my own conclusion as well); makes a couple of good suggestions for pi additions and--catch this--notes (along with others in the comments) that booting from USB/SSD does not work.

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 1:23 pm**

According to
https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... erry-pi-5
a 5V/5A power supply might be needed to boot from USB,
otherwise one would get a warning during boot like this:

Code: Select all

USB boot requires a high current (5V 5A) power supply.
To disable this check set usb_max_current_enable=1 in config.txt
or press the power button to temporarily enable usb_max_current_enable
and continue booting.
See https://rptl.io/rp5-power_supply for more information

as mentioned here https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... r-supplies

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 2:16 pm**

Thanks. Lee said he tried that, as have posters on that thread above (where there are a couple of code changes proposed).

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 3:53 pm**

chrispop99 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 11:32 am Attached are my notes on test-installing everything from the Package Installer.

Chris

chris, when you say the items don't show as installed, do you mean they don't show as checked in popular apps?

what about after a restart of mxpi?

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:01 pm**

@timkb4cq can you get the following into the arm64 lists?

advert-block-antix
plasma-modified-defaults-mx
plasma-look-and-feel-theme-mx
mx15-artwork
mx16-artwork

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:10 pm**

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 3:53 pm
chrispop99 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 11:32 am Attached are my notes on test-installing everything from the Package Installer.

Chris
chris, when you say the items don't show as installed, do you mean they don't show as checked in popular apps?

what about after a restart of mxpi?

Yes, they don't show as checked.

I didn't restart mxpi during testing to see if the check mark then appeared, and I have written over the SD card since, so I tested again on a fresh install with just an install of MOC, which was one that had the problem. Restarting mxpi did not show the mark.

Chris

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:19 pm**

chrispop99 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:10 pm
dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 3:53 pm
chrispop99 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2023 11:32 am Attached are my notes on test-installing everything from the Package Installer.

Chris
chris, when you say the items don't show as installed, do you mean they don't show as checked in popular apps?

what about after a restart of mxpi?
Yes, they don't show as checked.

I didn't restart mxpi during testing to see if the check mark then appeared, and I have written over the SD card since, so I tested again on a fresh install with just an install of MOC, which was one that had the problem. Restarting mxpi did not show the mark.

Chris

can you send the mxpi.log file for that moc install?

this could coveivably be related to the changes in mxpi lately but i'm not sure. nohting is jumping out as to why they wouldn't get marked. I assume other items were marked?

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:33 pm**

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:01 pm @timkb4cq can you get the following into the arm64 lists? ...

Done

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:44 pm**

timkb4cq wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:33 pm
dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:01 pm @timkb4cq can you get the following into the arm64 lists? ...
Done

great thanks!

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:19 pm
chrispop99 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 4:10 pm
dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 3:53 pm

chris, when you say the items don't show as installed, do you mean they don't show as checked in popular apps?

what about after a restart of mxpi?
Yes, they don't show as checked.

I didn't restart mxpi during testing to see if the check mark then appeared, and I have written over the SD card since, so I tested again on a fresh install with just an install of MOC, which was one that had the problem. Restarting mxpi did not show the mark.

Chris
can you send the mxpi.log file for that moc install?

this could coveivably be related to the changes in mxpi lately but i'm not sure. nohting is jumping out as to why they wouldn't get marked. I assume other items were marked?

never mind that log file, I think I know what's going on. or at least have an idea.

Posted: **Sun Nov 26, 2023 7:55 pm**

@chrispop99 most of the marking as installed issues were due to mxpi not knowning to filter the arm64 architecture properly. that should be fixed in a general update soon.

kodi was a little different. raspian's packaging of kodi differs from debian's and their main kodi package conflicts with one of debian's support packages (kodi-repository-kodi). that issue should be corrected in an update to mx-packageinstaller-pkglist.

thanks for the testing!

Posted: **Tue Nov 28, 2023 4:37 pm**

I've taken a look at what could be causing the mx-viewer failure, searching on the error message

Code: Select all

FATAL:page_allocator_internals_posix.h(169)] Check failed: . : Invalid argument (22)

. So far, only found one possibility in a 2021 Qt Forum post: https://forum.qt.io/topic/132036/qt6-mi ... chitecture
where the sole response was:

Did you build the example for aarch64 yourself?

Don't know if Adrian did build it himself or if that question is even useful.

Looking forward: if mx-viewer is not going go work on the Pi 5 then we should probably take it out I guess.

Posted: **Tue Nov 28, 2023 7:54 pm**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 28, 2023 4:37 pm I've taken a look at what could be causing the mx-viewer failure, searching on the error message
Code: Select all
FATAL:page_allocator_internals_posix.h(169)] Check failed: . : Invalid argument (22)
. So far, only found one possibility in a 2021 Qt Forum post: https://forum.qt.io/topic/132036/qt6-mi ... chitecture
where the sole response was:
Did you build the example for aarch64 yourself?
Don't know if Adrian did build it himself or if that question is even useful.

Looking forward: if mx-viewer is not going go work on the Pi 5 then we should probably take it out I guess.

I think I built the original arm64 packages but I don't remember what the settings were.

here is a bookworm specific build: https://download.opensuse.org/repositor ... _arm64.deb

Posted: **Tue Nov 28, 2023 8:17 pm**

Thanks for the effort, but same error code. App appears, flashes and freezes. I can enter another URL, but nothing happens.

Posted: **Tue Nov 28, 2023 9:04 pm**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 28, 2023 8:17 pm Thanks for the effort, but same error code. App appears, flashes and freezes. I can enter another URL, but nothing happens.

ok I don't think it will matter, but here's a version built on a pi rather than in pbuilder or obs.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 7:10 am**

Same diff. Before installing it I purged the last one and renamed the conf file, but nada.
-----
On a positive note: to answer a question on leepsvideo, I got Netflix to work. Need to install Chromium or update Firefox, then install two small files (details in my running Pi Tips).

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 10:46 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 7:10 am Same diff. Before installing it I purged the last one and renamed the conf file, but nada.
-----
On a positive note: to answer a question on leepsvideo, I got Netflix to work. Need to install Chromium or update Firefox, then install two small files (details in my running Pi Tips).

ok. pretty sure its a fault in qtwebengine5. possibly the pi5's graphics set isn't quite compatible.

I'll remove mx-viewer from the default list. sucks though because the major browsers take a lot longer to load on the pi4.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 11:41 am**

Could we leave it for Pi 4 and 400, but Pi 5 would use a browser, with something like this:

Code: Select all

mx-viewer | sensible-browser

Then if mx-viewer gets updated and works on the Pi we wouldn't need to recode?

(Or does this make no sense whatsoever?)

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 12:01 pm**

its the same build. I would have to do two builds to have mx-viewer present on one and not the other. its not a dependency issue.

the mx apps are already set to use xdg-open if mx-viewer is not present. so all we need to do is not include it.

unless the problem is on the rpi side of things, I don't think this will get fixed, as qtwebengine5 is pretty much in maintenance mode at this point, with development gung ho on the qt6 stuff.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 12:07 pm**

Turning now to your questions, here's my thinking:

Desktop icons. I do want the "Pi Tips" available but think it might be much better as a Wiki entry--which has a translation button--so we can easily edit, expand, etc. I propose not putting the link with the other two, but creating a desktop file with the RPi logo (as I did for Raspberry Pi Documentation) and make it a "Favorite" in Whisker so it would be easily seen.

Apps. Here's my list of additions I would like to see:
--Galculator
--Geany
--Libreoffice Writer (284 megs) -- I can't see excluding a word processor from a desktop OS (except Fluxbox, which is a different kettle of fish), but leave installing the rest of the suite up to the user
--RPi Diagnostics (agnostics) -- thinking of the future
All install and run fine on the Pi 5.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 12:17 pm**

I'm not sure I understand your Desktop Icons statement, but we can put want you want on the desktop by modifying some existing packages so that the icons show up on first login.

modifying the favorites menu will require doing some kind of new desktop-defaults package to replace, provide, and conflict with desktop-defaults-mx-xfce-desktop. otherwise existing files will be in conflict during upgrades.

will add the apps.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 12:28 pm**

we can put want you want on the desktop by modifying some existing packages so that the icons show up on first login

Good. The Favorites idea sounds way too complicated and is not necessary.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 2:36 pm**

Here's the Wiki link: https://mxlinux.org/wiki/rpi-tips/

@chrispop99 When you have time and inclination, could you pls read through that for errors and omissions? I'm going to add some images in the next couple of days.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 5:50 pm**

And here's the desktop file--I'm not totally sure the name is correct...maybe rpi2mx would be better?

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 5:57 pm**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 5:50 pm And here's the desktop file--I'm not totally sure the name is correct...maybe rpi2mx would be better?

as long as the Name= field inside the desktop file is OK, the name of the file doesn't matter. but I don't want to upload to transifex until that Name= and the Comment= are set.

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 6:32 pm**

OK, I'm changing it to "RPI-MX Tips"

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 8:10 pm**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 6:32 pm OK, I'm changing it to "RPI-MX Tips"

strings are up on transifex

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 9:16 pm**

Thanks

Posted: **Wed Nov 29, 2023 9:59 pm**

I'm not adding agnostics.

it drags in yet another text editor (mousepad), as a full depend, so I think its not quite baked yet.

Posted: **Thu Nov 30, 2023 12:53 am**

Sounds good

Posted: **Thu Nov 30, 2023 6:00 am**

We have nala available as an option in the apt-notifier.conf, but nala is not installed. Should be included IMO--and I'm hoping someday we can make it default.

Posted: **Thu Nov 30, 2023 6:37 am**

BTW: over 300 downloads of the alpha2 by this morning, glad to see the interest.

Posted: **Thu Nov 30, 2023 8:42 am**

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2023 8:10 pm strings are up on transifex

I'm not seeing them yet (searching on "RPI-MX") and there's been no activity reported.

Posted: **Thu Nov 30, 2023 8:47 am**

https://app.transifex.com/anticapitalis ... top-files/

several already done.

French - 100% translated
French (Belgium) - 100% translated
Swedish - 100% translated
Portuguese - 100% translated
Spanish (Spain) - 100% translated
Spanish - 100% translated
Japanese - 100% translated [/code]

Posted: **Thu Nov 30, 2023 8:51 am**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 6:00 am We have nala available as an option in the apt-notifier.conf, but nala is not installed. Should be included IMO--and I'm hoping someday we can make it default.

will add nala. assuming its in the repo.

Posted: **Thu Nov 30, 2023 9:49 am**

dolphin_oracle wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 8:47 am https://app.transifex.com/anticapitalis ... top-files/

several already done.

French - 100% translated
French (Belgium) - 100% translated
Swedish - 100% translated
Portuguese - 100% translated
Spanish (Spain) - 100% translated
Spanish - 100% translated
Japanese - 100% translated [/code]
Oh. I saw that but didn't realize it contained those strings and was searching for "RPI-MX"--thanks.

Posted: **Thu Nov 30, 2023 9:49 am**

nala is in the repo, installed it this morning on the Pi 5

Posted: **Thu Nov 30, 2023 10:14 pm**

Jerry3904 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 9:49 am nala is in the repo, installed it this morning on the Pi 5

@timkb4cq can we get the mx build of nala in the arm64 repo ?

Posted: **Fri Dec 01, 2023 12:00 am**

Posted: **Sun Dec 03, 2023 6:05 pm**

Another one: menulibre, which we mention multiple times. Fine with me if that was an actual decision.

Ran that, got a notice of parsing errors

Posted: **Sun Dec 03, 2023 7:26 pm**

the java one should be fixed on the beta1.

the magnus one is a mistake and I'll move it. there shouldn't be a desktop entry for magnus-autostart under .local/share/applications. its supposed to be in .config/autostart.

Posted: **Sun Dec 03, 2023 7:50 pm**

@timkb4cq

Please move libreoffice-firefox-compat into arm64

Posted: **Sun Dec 03, 2023 8:49 pm**

Posted: **Wed Dec 06, 2023 8:39 pm**

I only discovered MX Rpi recently..and am so glad to see it still alive and being developed - unlike some RPi systems that have stalled or disappeared.

Wot I think is fantastic is as a learning OS, a beginner or Rpi user could quickly adapt to using any desktop PC with MX.

Going back to the official RPi system felt like going back to the 1990s in comparison...so quickly returned to MX-23 RPi. (Im using the RPi 400.)

..so big THANK YOU from me!!

MX Linux Forum

MX-23 Raspberry Pi comes out of the garage

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