MX-19 Beta 3 Feedback

[JayM]

I'm talking about the change from 18.3 being now totally unable to install 19b3 snapshots created from other machines

If it helps, I've found that if I boot a snapshot USB and try to install it the Next button remains greyed out. If I open a root Thunar, show hidden files. navigate to / then delete .minstall, then close my root Thunar and run the installer again, it works normally. This is when trying to install a snapshot created on a particular machine onto a different machine. This is also on MX-18.3.

[Paul..]

I'm talking about the change from 18.3 being now totally unable to install 19b3 snapshots created from other machines and unable to install a "fresh" copy of 19b3 over the existing installation on the same machine.
You sound like you haven't even looked at the s/shots and logs I posted all over this thread.
And before rolling your eyes and lecturing me that Calamares is a "Debian installer for Buster", please do yourself a favor and read up here - https://calamares.io/about/
MX (Antix) installer is far too over-engineered "old school" swiss-knife installer for otherwise brilliant and excellent distro like MX

Mod Comment: Please tone it down...You have provided input on the installer to the dev team...and they have made changes accordingly...we are about to release MX-19 RC...If you want to continue to be useful, testing and commenting on that release would be more appropriate.

[AK-47]

Is it possible for MX to have 2 install options:
1) straight Calamares with "use the entire disk" auto-install, OR
2) minstall with "live kernel update", "fugal" / "persistence" and any other fancy bells & whistles for the "fork in the toaster" crowd?
This minstall saga is really not worth it for 80% of home users who just wantr a beautiful, stable debian distro with the snapshot.iso for recovery and distribution that really makes it stand out

So for MX to be useful for 80% of home users who just want a beautiful distro with snapshots, we need two installers. No worries.

The MX-19 is pretty much done for the final release, bar some minor cosmetic glitches. Slap the Calamares on it and tinker with the minstall in the background - no?

And before rolling your eyes and lecturing me that Calamares is a "Debian installer for Buster", please do yourself a favor and read up here - https://calamares.io/about/
MX (Antix) installer is far too over-engineered "old school" swiss-knife installer for otherwise brilliant and excellent distro like MX

Thanks for volunteering to do all of the installer stuff for us.

If the calamares stuff doesn't quite work out, you're more than welcome to unoverengineer our installer. You will need the qt5-defaults packages to build it:

Code: Select all

$ git clone https://github.com/gazelle-installer/gazelle-installer.git
$ cd gazelle-installer
$ qmake && make

For development I recommend using Qt Creator, and it helps to install qt-docs too.

[dolphin_oracle]

FWIW, we looked at calamares at one time, before we started the installer overhauls before MX17, and we would need to write a whole new modules for it because calamares isn't set up to deal with the antiX live system.

[bpr323]

If it helps, I've found that if I boot a snapshot USB and try to install it the Next button remains greyed out. If I open a root Thunar, show hidden files. navigate to / then delete .minstall, then close my root Thunar and run the installer again, it works normally. This is when trying to install a snapshot created on a particular machine onto a different machine. This is also on MX-18.3.

Good catch! That's exactly what I suspected. And then that corrupted .minstall gets written back to the installation boot USB!
My caveman solution was to re-image the install USB with factory ISO - then you have a chance to pull through with auto-install.

[Charon]

In the first MX installation was /home a separate partition or was /home part of the root partition?

I described the installation order - the partition "home" was separate and created by the 16th Lubuntu time. He survived all Xubuntu until 18.04.3, 8 and 9 Debian, last Mint (mate&cinnamon separately) and the first(!) MX installation. During the repeated (!) Installation of the MX, the section becomes inaccessible to the installer. With this, I can put any *buntu again without problems (it’s exactly what I have now (xubuntu 18) - the MX have problems with my sound card).The problem only appears when reinstalling with LiveCD and I always did the installation with LiveCD right after launch, using the desktop icon - as I usually do in other LiveCD-systems.
That is I never do markup at all - only formatting section ("/boot" (1024 Mb) and "/" (42Gb)) on the first partition, with reconnecting all section labels.

But if necessary - I can reinstall it twice (for the first time it is installed guaranteed normally) - all backups I have

[bpr323]

FWIW, we looked at calamares at one time, before we started the installer overhauls before MX17, and we would need to write a whole new modules for it because calamares isn't set up to deal with the antiX live system.

Cheers mate, appreciate your patience with me!
I'm just curious - when you say "to deal with antix live system", do you mean some constraints in replicating the snapshot ISO to target system disk (NVMe/SSD), or is this about somehow enabling various "frugal" features of the live desktop while it's on USB? These are two completely different use-cases, I'm not a developer, but to me it sounds like sitting on two chairs.

[JayM]

Maybe this will help to explain what the "antiX magic" live USB system is all about:
https://antixlinux.com/the-most-extensi ... he-planet/
Cheers!

[asqwerth]

From my simplistic understanding, the reason antix/MX's installer can save live desktop changes when carrying out the installation is because it is actually imaging the actual live desktop you are running and writing that to your hard drive or media.

All other installers just write the pre-existing/already-created image on the iso to the hard drive.

[bpr323]

So for MX to be useful for 80% of home users who just want a beautiful distro with snapshots, we need two installers. No worries.

Yes, we need a simple, robust, uncomplicated installation routine for the un-initiated home users trying to migrate from Windows.
If the other 20% of hard-core CLI-loving enthusiasts want a "fancy" installer - give it to them as an option.
Ie. pop up a question on the 1st splash-screen "Do you know how to use Gparted - Y/N" - if the answer is No - have mercy on them and kick off a no-brainer installer.