MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:54 am**

First off, I have to say that MX-15 is a near perfect distro - so a huge thanks to all who made it happen!

A couple of nice touches in MX not always found in other distros: the built-in exFAT support and the inclusion of spotify in the excellent MX Package Installer.

Now, before I settled on AntiX MX as my Linux OS of choice, I tried several other distros and inevitably there were a few things I noticed on the way which could be added to MX:

1. The best default boot loader I have seen so far is the one used in Manjaro Linux. My PC dual boots with Windows 10 and Manjaro correctly lists it as "Windows 10 (loader)" in the Grub menu whereas MX is calling it "Windows Recovery Environment (loader)". But the really nice thing about the Manjaro boot loader is that it remembers what you last booted and offers that as the default rather than always reverting to the first option. I know that non-newbies will figure out that they can fix things with the (thoughtfully included) Grub Customiser but I would suggest that "previous booted entry" should be pre-set when installing MX and that the Windows entry got right immediately.

2. The start panel after installing - What's nice in Linux Lite is that it prompts you straight away to click on a highlighted "Install Updates - Do this first" button on the Welcome panel. On first using MX I wanted to install Beyond Compare but that needed Lintian installing first, so natuarally I brought up terminal to do sudo apt-get update, upgrade, install etc. Only later I realised some of that was already available by right clicking the synaptic icon in the taskbar. I think being prompted to install updates straight after installation would be a good thing,

3. I'm getting a non-working bluetooth icon appearing in my taskbar - but I don't even have bluetooth on my PC !

4. I am seeing occasional window lockups and other weird refresh failures - very odd because my PC should be plenty powerful enough (Quad core i7, 16GB, nVidia GK106)

5. My machine has two drives, a 256GB SSD to host Windows 10 and MX Linux plus a 2TB HDD. Why am I always being asked for my root password to access the HDD and sometimes to access the Win10 partition and even some but not all USB flash sticks? Is there somewhere I can turn this unwanted check off?

But again, these are just a few gripes - overall, this is a very, very nice distro, congratulations!

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:27 am**

Nice points.

1. My windows 10 does the same thing, so +1 on that. Less sure about the "boot last OS" option.

2. This is an excellent point, and probably would fit well into the welcome screen.

3. The bluetooth manager launches even if you don't have bluetooth hardware. This can be disabled in Session & Startup. It would be nice if that was handled automatically. Or blueman set to not autostart.

4. ?? no clue.

5. I wrote a wiki article about this one, at least for internal partitions. Maybe it will help. suffice to say that its a "feature" not a "bug" in the debian world, but it can be modified. http://www.mepiscommunity.org/wiki/syst ... t-password

With the usb keys, it might depend on the particular filesystem. If you want to pursue that, start a thread dedicated to that issue.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:29 am**

djh wrote:1. The best default boot loader I have seen so far is the one used in Manjaro Linux. My PC dual boots with Windows 10 and Manjaro correctly lists it as "Windows 10 (loader)" in the Grub menu whereas MX is calling it "Windows Recovery Environment (loader)".

I have Win 8.1 here. In the Grub menu the entry is "Windows Boot Manager (on /dev/sda2)", I think that's what osprober came up with. sda2 is the ESP (EFI System Partition).
Maybe Manjaro has an updated (or customized) version of osprober that more closely identifies the Windows version?
I'm not sure if it's all that important to identify the exact Windows version anyway.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:30 am**

4. I am seeing occasional window lockups and other weird refresh failures - very odd because my PC should be plenty powerful enough (Quad core i7, 16GB, nVidia GK106)

Can you please post the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -G

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 8:45 am**

@dolphin_oracle
Indeed, thanks! I hadn't noticed Session & Startup. But yes, it would be better if blueman was only enabled/started if bluetooth hardware is actually detected.

@kmathern
I could live with "Windows (loader)" but "Windows Recovery Environment (loader)" is just plain clunky.

@Jerry3904
$ inxi -G
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GK106 [GeForce GTX 650 Ti]
Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1200@59.95hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NVE6 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 9:13 am**

$ inxi -G
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GK106 [GeForce GTX 650 Ti]
Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1200@59.95hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NVE6 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2

Thanks. A number of us have had better performance from the proprietary nvidia driver which we install by using sgfxi.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 9:34 am**

Jerry3904 wrote:Thanks. A number of us have had better performance from the proprietary nvidia driver which we install by using sgfxi.

Thanks, that worked and I now have this:
$ inxi -G
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GK106 [GeForce GTX 650 Ti]
Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 driver: nvidia
Resolution: 1920x1200@59.95hz
GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 650 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 361.28

Note: I think the guide needs updating - after running sgfxi for a second time, it came up with a prompt to "start-desktop" which I did. Stuff happened and then I was dropped back in a full screen terminal. I logged in for a third and final time as root and then manually ran "startx" which put me back into root's desktop. I rebooted, logged in as myself and all was fine with the new driver setup as above.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 9:36 am**

I will look again, thanks. I just changed it but maybe I missed something.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 9:41 am**

One strange thing - after doing the sgfxi stuff, my desktop reverted back to the lake side default instead of the nice black cat I had selected. Is this normal?

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 9:57 am**

During the install on MX-15, we are offered a chance to control what services are installed.
For desktop machines, I un-check the bluetooth and spam assassin.

I have not need for those services, so less installed, less chances for a security hole.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 10:11 am**

entropyfoe wrote:During the install on MX-15, we are offered a chance to control what services are installed.
For desktop machines, I un-check the bluetooth and spam assassin.

Thanks, I didn't notice that option while installing. Still think a bit a smart auto-detection would be good.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 10:17 am**

Still think a bit a smart auto-detection would be good.

Yup.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 11:30 am**

djh
Welcome to the forums. You will enjoy the MX/AnitX/Mepis forums, fantastic attitude, great technical depth.

Yes the option to disable services is not that obvious during the install.

It is a small check box with a warming something like "for expert users". I guess the fear is one could disable some critical service if you don't know what you are doing.

It's been a few months since I did a new install (MX is so stable, and all my machines are runnig it now)so I can't remember which screen it is on, but is there.

-Jay

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 11:37 am**

Screen-by-screen in the Users Manual

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 11:54 am**

Your user manual is really first rate! I have to admit that because I have now installed quite a few different distros, I was too lazy to read yours carefully before I installed MX. Having said that, the MX installer probably could do with a little tightening. For example, it looks a bit dangerous that the "Preserve data in /home (when upgrading)" option is not checked by default - didn't affect me as I was doing a clean install, but some poor inattentive user might be left a bit tearful...

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:01 pm**

There is a warning pop-up that says it will format /home and destroy any data that's there. The default behavior was carefully chosen because most of the time it's not a good idea to save home.
The only recommended way is to save home and use a different User. Then transfer data that may be needed. Most of the settings and customizations will cause problems if transferred/saved.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:04 pm**

djh wrote:Your user manual is really first rate! I have to admit that because I have now installed quite a few different distros, I was too lazy to read yours carefully before I installed MX. Having said that, the MX installer probably could do with a little tightening. For example, it looks a bit dangerous that the "Preserve data in /home (when upgrading)" option is not checked by default - didn't affect me as I was doing a clean install, but some poor inattentive user might be left a bit tearful...

Alot of people prefer not to preserve home when upgrading and just do a clean install. This way it prevents possible conflicts with old file configs so I feel the default of unchecked is a wise decision. I would hope that when someone is doing an install that they are paying careful attention to the details and if they happen to mess something up, like overwrite their /home when they didn't want to, it is at least a learning experience and no one elses fault, but their own. And hope they have backups.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:07 pm**

Fair enough, point taken.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:16 pm**

The services selection appears on Figure 2-20: Installer Screen 6.
As Jerry 3904 posted in the manual's screen by screen from the install.

Service settings (Advanced).

Here you can enable/disable a host of services to your liking.

Posted: **Fri Mar 11, 2016 3:08 pm**

I don't have anything bluetooth. I forgot to uncheck both spam-assassin and bluetooth during install. I unchecked them later in "Session & Startup" and then did a restart. No sign of them now.

Kern

Posted: **Wed Mar 16, 2016 10:37 pm**

1. .... But the really nice thing about the Manjaro boot loader is that it remembers what you last booted and offers that as the default rather than always reverting to the first option. I know that non-newbies will figure out that they can fix things with the (thoughtfully included) Grub Customiser but I would suggest that "previous booted entry" should be pre-set when installing MX and that the Windows entry got right immediately.

In fstab, need to make the following changes as root for GRUB_DEFAULT & GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT:

Code: Select all

GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
# GRUB_DEFAULT="MX GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.1-7.dmz.1-686-pae (sda2)"
. . . 
#GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="false"
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="true"

and then it will select the last booted OS,
and boot after the timeout, unless you change it manually before the timeout.

Posted: **Wed Mar 16, 2016 10:42 pm**

Have you looked at grub-customizer?

Posted: **Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:28 pm**

No, hadn't ever noticed that section.
Kinda neat.

In Environment Setup, mine says I have no "/boot/grub/device.map"?
Google says it's not setup up by Grub2.
Any thoughts?

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 5:58 am**

Are you using grub as installed by MX-14 or MX-15?

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:04 am**

djh wrote:...

... But the really nice thing about the Manjaro boot loader is that it remembers what you last booted and offers that as the default rather than always reverting to the first option. I know that non-newbies will figure out that they can fix things with the (thoughtfully included) Grub Customiser but I would suggest that "previous booted entry" should be pre-set when installing MX and that the Windows entry got right immediately....

I'm one of those who would prefer that "previous booted entry" not be pre-set as default behaviour for grub menu.

Manjaro's bootloader controls my personal laptop and I'm fine with that behaviour there.

However, my desktop PC is used by family members and guests as well. Because it holds lots of distros, I would want it to always default to the first option, which is the newbie-friendly *Mint. For instance, I wouldn't want them to boot up, go get a coffee, and return to find themselves in an openbox distro because that was what I last used. Even Gnome 3 was initially confusing to my sister - who's very comfortable with tech and computers - when she visited recently.

With grub-customizer, users do have the option to change the default behaviour.

* I'm not saying MX is not newbie-friendly, but Mint controls grub on my desktop and MX14 and MX15 are hidden within a mass of grub and distro entries.

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 7:57 am**

First-on-the-list does seem to me the more logical default setting.

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 8:40 am**

I prefer GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="true". While my daily driver is at the top of the list, I may be playing with another distro. After major changes, like a kernel upgrade for instance, I like to reboot just to be sure everything's okay. I can walk away while it's rebooting and return to find it where I left it.

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 8:58 am**

DBeckett wrote:
I prefer GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="true". While my daily driver is at the top of the list, I may be playing with another distro. After major changes, like a kernel upgrade for instance, I like to reboot just to be sure everything's okay. I can walk away while it's rebooting and return to find it where I left it.

Are you using chainloading entries in the main grub menu for your other distros?

Because for me, when another distro has a kernel upgrade, I have to reboot back to the distro that controls grub (ie, the first in the list) in order to update-grub.

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 9:07 am**

richb wrote:Are you using grub as installed by MX-14 or MX-15?

MX-15 Boot Repair.

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 9:32 am**

Curious. I do have an entry in the environment map.

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 9:58 am**

DBeckett wrote:
I prefer GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="true". While my daily driver is at the top of the list, I may be playing with another distro. After major changes, like a kernel upgrade for instance, I like to reboot just to be sure everything's okay. I can walk away while it's rebooting and return to find it where I left it.

Yeah, as always different users tend to have different preferences. When we establish default preferences during development, we attempt to select reasonable values for the average user.

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 10:46 am**

It is curious. Possibly something else broke it.

I installed antiX-16a1 and set it to MBR,
later changed back to MX-15 via Boot Repair.

Presently at boot, grub only shows 1 boot line: MX-15
Strange. :)

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 10:51 am**

Richard wrote:It is curious. Possibly something else broke it.

I installed antiX-16a1 and set it to MBR,
later changed back to MX-15 via Boot Repair.

Presently at boot, grub only shows 1 boot line: MX-15
Strange. :)

I have also noticed this happen, but unfortunately didn't look into it further at the time because I was wiping that distro and expanding my home partition to fill the space. I'll have to play around with it abit more this weekend.

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 11:27 am**

I added back another boot line for another kernel of MX-15 which shows and boots
but update-grub doesn't pick up the WIN partition nor the antiX partition. Curious.

I'll leave it alone for a while to see if someone has an idea.
Well, a little while. Changed grub as follows:
# GRUB_DEFAULT="saved"
GRUB_DEFAULT="MX GNU/Linux, with Linux 4.1-7.dmz.1-686-pae (sda2)"
. . .
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="false"
# GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="true"

then # update-grub to see what happens?

NOTE: Same result; update-grub doesn't pick up the other installed partitions.

Posted: **Thu Mar 17, 2016 11:55 am**

@v3g4n

I have also noticed this happen, but unfortunately didn't look into it further at the time...

I too have experienced similar type confusion in the past that seemed to derive from over-zealous use of grub-customizer, but I was not sure just what configuration caused it and so, finally, reinstalled.

MX Linux Forum

Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX

Re: Some minor improvement ideas for MX