MX Linux Forum

Hi, I have created a respin with Cinnamon. I have removed XFCE. However, after a modification I wanted to remaster the respin again and got the error message "problem starting mksquashfs. Could not get PID".
Apparently I could execute remaster right after removing XFCE, but not after a reboot. I suspect that some important package was removed with XFCE?
How can this problem be solved?
Thanks in advance for the help
Anna

the remaster script throws out that error when it can't find a PID (process ID) for the run-mksquashfs process. that script runs in a terminal called with "x-terminal-emulator".

see if you can run "x-terminal-emulator" and if you get a working terminal. On a basic MX install, that command opens xfce4-terminal.

with Cinnamon DE it's easier you use LMDE3, add MX-repos and install some MX-Tools. It's a systemd system.

Other way is purging xfce, add LMDE3 repos to MX-Linux and install cinnamon, nemo, mint-artwork, mint-x-icons, mint-y-icons, mintsources, mint-mirrors, mint-wallpapers-tara. Have tried this for a while. Looks exactly like Linux Mint, the best cinnamon experience.

For the snapshot packages mx-snapshot, mx-remaster, mx-iso-template, mx-installer must be installed. Other packages are dependencies like squashfs-tools, syslinux, syslinux-utils

with Cinnamon DE it's easier you use LMDE3, add MX-repos and install some MX-Tools. It's a systemd system.

Other way is purging xfce, add LMDE3 repos to MX-Linux and install cinnamon, nemo, mint-artwork, mint-x-icons, mint-y-icons, mint-themes, mint-backgrounds-tara. Have tried this for a while. Looks exactly like Linux Mint, the best cinnamon experience.

For the snapshot packages mx-snapshot, mx-remaster, mx-iso-template, mx-installer must be installed. Other packages are dependencies like squashfs-tools, syslinux, syslinux-utils, xorriso

Thanks for the answers.
LMDE is not really an option for me because I need the new kernel.
I have also tried to (re-)install the XFCE terminal, but it does not seem to help.
I will try that other way though, I think - adding the Mint Debian repos.

well, I didn't say to reinstall the xfce4-terminal, I said to check and see if x-terminal-emulator gets you a terminal. its different. and with the adding and subtracting of software, its very possible that the x-terminal-emulator is pointed at the wrong terminal, and that likely won't change when adding other sources.

you can also check with the "alternatives-configuration" in the menu, if its still install.

I had same problem with Gnome respin (without Xfce). Try the command line instead of MX Snapshot icon.

su-to-root -X -c mx-snapshot

well x-terminal-emulator calls up the gnome terminal, this is also the (only) choice that is shown in alternatives-configuration unter x-terminal-emulator

@rasat: I do not understand. the problem is not snapshot but remaster.

btw: how do I add the LMDE repo to MX?

ok, now make sure that squashfs-tools is still installed.

squashfs-tools is installed

stranger and stranger.

do you still have the apt history available from mx-updater->right click->History ?

Sorry, thought its about snapshot. For my information, why to remaster when snapshot its much easier and gives two options: (1) Personal backup, and (2) For distribution for others.

rasat wrote: Thu Feb 21, 2019 2:31 pm Sorry, thought its about snapshot. For my information, why to remaster when snapshot its much easier and gives two options: (1) Personal backup, and (2) For distribution for others.

because remaster works to remaster a live-USB without installing and doing a snapshot.

as part of my testing, I downloaded this spin from a community member:

https://faitfranco.wordpress.com/2018/1 ... mon-remix/

that spin is cinnamon, and works fine with remaster. AFAICT Xfce has also been removed from that spin.

unfortunately I do not have the history any more. I already deleted the "original" live system form the pendrive. Now I only have it as a snapshot (iso).
I do not know if this helps but a few days ago I made a respin with Gnome. When I uninstalled XFCE Konsole was installed automatically and remasterig works. I uninstalled Konsole. Remastering did not work any more. I re-installed Konsole, remaster worked. If I remember correctly. But I think this time I tried it with Konsole as well and it did not help.

For now, you can work around this bug by running the following in a terminal window:

BTW, I think the problem is that gnome-terminal doesn't support the --title option, at least it does not appear in the gnome-terminal man page. Running from a terminal window like I suggested above should still work.

BTW, you can try this fix by editing /usr/local/bin/live-remaster. Comment out line 371: and then add this line to replace it:

Thank you @BitJam, that was it! Remastering works now. In the remaster progress window the progress is always shown as 0% - but of course that is not a big deal.

dphn wrote: Thu Feb 21, 2019 8:33 am with Cinnamon DE it's easier you use LMDE3, add MX-repos and install some MX-Tools. It's a systemd system.

Wait a minute. Even though MX Linux uses SysV as its init software, you're saying the Cinnamon desktop environment itself
also installs systemd to replace it?

Please tell me I misunderstood you.

It's not necessary to boot MX with systemd to use either the Stretch Cinnamon or the 3.8 Cinnamon currently in our test repo.

why to remaster when snapshot its much easier and gives two options: (1) Personal backup, and (2) For distribution for others.

because remaster works to remaster a live-USB without installing and doing a snapshot.

The snapshot tool is available for use during liveboot, so I'm confused at reading the quoted reply.

gbhollr wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2019 2:44 pm

dphn wrote: Thu Feb 21, 2019 8:33 am with Cinnamon DE it's easier you use LMDE3, add MX-repos and install some MX-Tools. It's a systemd system.

Wait a minute. Even though MX Linux uses SysV as its init software, you're saying the Cinnamon desktop environment itself
also installs systemd to replace it?

Please tell me I misunderstood you.

It's the easiest way for using cinnamon directly from the cinnamon devs. Of course, this isn't a MX-System. Remastering with the snapshot tool is not possible, but you can use some other MX-tools and backported packages from MX/antiX Repos for Debian stretch. Note: LMDE uses deb-multimedia per default. For backported MX packages you can disable this, add MX/antiX repos and follow the instructions here.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=227270

it is still sysv not systemd that is used when running cinnamon, I checked the system info
mx snapshot is also functional

edit: never mind, I think I misunderstood something

Cinnamon 4 is now available in the MX test repo. It seems to run OK in my limited testing. It does not require systemd to be running.

Stevo wrote: Sun Mar 24, 2019 6:23 pm Cinnamon 4 is now available in the MX test repo. It seems to run OK in my limited testing. It does not require systemd to be running.

That's a relief. And you updated it since we last talked about it? Sweet! I'll check it out as soon as possible.

gbhollr wrote: Mon Mar 25, 2019 12:22 pm

Stevo wrote: Sun Mar 24, 2019 6:23 pm Cinnamon 4 is now available in the MX test repo. It seems to run OK in my limited testing. It does not require systemd to be running.

That's a relief. And you updated it since we last talked about it? Sweet! I'll check it out as soon as possible.

Yes, I also did some wacom library updates. I think Mint might be using kde-config-tablet as the setting applet in their settings, so I updated that as far as I could, too.

So yeah, remind me. Alongside Cinnamon, what else should I install?
Thanks.

Stevo wrote: Sun Mar 24, 2019 6:23 pm Cinnamon 4 is now available in the MX test repo. It seems to run OK in my limited testing. It does not require systemd to be running.

Friend of mine asked to change Linux Mint to MX with Cinnamon. I am planning to modify the Gnome buster respin, to have an early start with MX 19. Do you recommend MX test repo 4.0 or buster 3.8.8?

4.0 seems to be running as well as 3.8.8 in my testing.

Mint seems to like using Xapps like Pix, Xviewer, Xreader, etc. with their Cinnamon release, so I built those for the test repo too. Maybe adding mintstick to a Cinnamon version would also be nice. Kde-config-tablet from the test repo might help with the Wacom tablet setup.

Hello Stevo.
I don't know if you checked up on this thread
viewtopic.php?f=134&t=46993

but I tried the newer version of Cinnamon on a liveboot of MX Linux along with kde-config-tablet and xserver-xorg-input-wacom
yet it still didn't recognise my Cintiq as a graphics tablet.

Also, today I checked out AntiX and found out Cinnamon was in its main repository so I installed it in a liveboot to see if that works any better than in MX Linux.
Guess what, AntiX's Cinnamon DE did recognise my graphics tablet and allow me to calibrate but whenever I click my pen on one of the crosshairs, it exited it out completely because it treated it as my clicking outside the tablet since the cursor is way off centre.