MX-21 RC1 feedback (Xfce)

[Senpai]

Hi:
During the installation in the window where you see the active services, it seems that there is a problem with the Spanish accents, it only happens in that window. Attached image.

By necessity from MX Tweak in "Appearance ->Letter" I increase to "125" the PPP, the tabs and buttons of MX Tweak and the Welcome box are not resized well, and the text inside the buttons and tabs is cut. Although when restarting it is corrected...
EDITED:
This same problem is seen in RC1 installation with Fluxbox in Spanish.

Greetings from Senpai

[dr-kart]

just first impressions

1. (in fonts tab) incorrect dpi resolution automatically detected for my 27' display (beta antix 21 does it correctly though)

2. hopelessly hoping to have this option that isn't available for mx21 yet (both antix21 and antix19 have it)

[fladd]

I think the default theme is pretty bad. Both visually (that is of course subjective, as I just don't like this modern flat design), but also ergonomically (which is objective). So let's focus on the ergonomic ones:

1. There seems to only be a 1 px border around the windows at which the cursor changes such that the window can be resized. Why not just make this area large, especially in the corners?
2. Moving (and enlarging) windows to the right leaves a 5 px border on the right (tested with the terminal). Why not allow the window to be fully to the right?
3. It would be great to also have a default light theme. The current hybrid default is very confusing, especially since there is no visual separation between the window title bar and the menu.
4. Xfce mixes normal window title bars (e.g. file manger, terminal) with CSD window title bars (e.g. the settings panel).
5. Even worse, there are Gnome3 applications included (e.g. the archive manager), which come even with their own hamburger menus and the general phone optimized UI. I am, however, not using MX on a phone, but on a desktop/laptop. It would be better for consistency, to not mix vastly different paradigms here.

[mdintisar]

So far I faced the following issues:

1. Touchpad did not support reverse scrolling. I had to use synclient to fix it.
2. Redshift-gtk needed geoclue 2 to fix location.
3. Virtualbox did not follow the global theme but vlc did.
4. After trying kvantum Virtualbox followed theme but all mx tools stopped following theme.
5. Mx grub theme looks too old.
7. Could not change the cursor size.
8. Needed to use compton with plank to remove a bar like glitch. But then screen tearing issues emerged. I used

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/compton --backend glx --paint-on-overlay --vsync opengl-swc

in the startup to fix compton.

using mx linux 21 rc1 on real hardware.

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[code]
System:    Host: <filter> Kernel: 5.10.0-8-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-8-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel, plank wm: xfwm4 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21_rc1_x64 Wildflower October 5  2021 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 5459 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0F1J0W v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.9.0 date: 09/07/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 3.1 Wh condition: 3.1/32.6 Wh (10%) volts: 16.6/14.8 
           model: LGC-LGC2.8 DELL VN3N047 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i7-6500U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake 
           family: 6 model-id: 4E (78) stepping: 3 microcode: EA L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20799 
           Speed: 500 MHz min/max: 400/3100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 500 2: 500 3: 500 4: 500 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, 
           STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:1916 
           Device-2: AMD Sun XT [Radeon HD 8670A/8670M/8690M / R5 M330 / M430 / Radeon 520 
           Mobile] 
           vendor: Dell driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 1002:6660 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: ati,modesetting,radeon 
           unloaded: fbdev,vesa compositor: compton v: 1 resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.5 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9d70 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.0-8-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wireless 3160 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 02:00.0 
           chip ID: 8086:08b3 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Dell driver: r8169 
           v: kernel port: d000 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8136 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 436.36 GiB (46.8%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB size: 931.51 GiB 
           block size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm 
           serial: <filter> rev: 0003 scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 90.00 GiB size: 88.03 GiB (97.81%) used: 13.57 GiB (15.4%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda7 
           ID-2: /home raw size: 82.00 GiB size: 80.16 GiB (97.75%) used: 1.70 GiB (2.1%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda9 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60) 
           cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/sda8 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: 42.0 C sodimm: 39.0 C gpu: radeon temp: 47 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://mirror.0x.sg/debian/ bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://mirror.0x.sg/debian/ bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in/mx-mirror/packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mxpitemp.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/onlyoffice.list 
           1: deb https://download.onlyoffice.com/repo/debian squeeze main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main
Info:      Processes: 274 Uptime: 1h 43m Memory: 7.66 GiB used: 1.68 GiB (22.0%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 alt: 10 Shell: quick-system-in 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

[/code]

[SwampRabbit]

2. hopelessly hoping to have this option that isn't available for mx21 yet (both antix21 and antix19 have it)

"hopelessly"?

I see antiX has a alsamixer-equalizer-antix package, not sure if this has anything to do with it or not?
@anticapitalista do you know if this provides a "Pre-Amp option" per the linked post above?

I can work on packaging this over to MX in the next few days.

[bigbenaugust]

Is it normal for PulseAudio to take a nap when the screen is locked? In a fresh install of MX21RC1 Xfce, upon unlocking the screen, xfce4-mixer shows as muted with a message that it can't contact the PulseAudio server. Click on the systray icon after a few seconds and it comes right back to normal.

I installed awesome and pnmixer to see if it was an Xfce-only thing, and got a window from pnmixer that reads:

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Warning: Connection to sound system failed 
Do you want to re-initialize the audio connection?
If you do not, you will either need to restart PNMixer or select the 'Reload Audio' option in the right-click menu in order for PNMixer to function.

I've not seen that behavior on unlock in any other distro before.

[dolphin_oracle]

I think the default theme is pretty bad. Both visually (that is of course subjective, as I just don't like this modern flat design), but also ergonomically (which is objective). So let's focus on the ergonomic ones:

1. There seems to only be a 1 px border around the windows at which the cursor changes such that the window can be resized. Why not just make this area large, especially in the corners?
2. Moving (and enlarging) windows to the right leaves a 5 px border on the right (tested with the terminal). Why not allow the window to be fully to the right?
3. It would be great to also have a default light theme. The current hybrid default is very confusing, especially since there is no visual separation between the window title bar and the menu.
4. Xfce mixes normal window title bars (e.g. file manger, terminal) with CSD window title bars (e.g. the settings panel).
5. Even worse, there are Gnome3 applications included (e.g. the archive manager), which come even with their own hamburger menus and the general phone optimized UI. I am, however, not using MX on a phone, but on a desktop/laptop. It would be better for consistency, to not mix vastly different paradigms here.

Thanks for the comments

1. there are thick-border variants of the window manager theme available.

2. I could use a screenshot of #2. I snap to right and left all the time and I haven't seen any gaps, but I haven't been looking for them either. I'm not seeing a gap with thunar or terminal, but maybe I'm not catching what you are throwing

3. there are plenty of alternate themes available preinstalled. tweak even has a few extra theme sets defined if folks want to switch to something like greybird or greybird dark across all the various settings (gtk, wm, icons). the current default (mx-comfort) is home grown, and is light with dark accents (panel, menubars).

4. yes, yes it does.

5. except for the Xfce settings apps (not
thunar and terminal) I don't think any other apps changed their use of CSD between mx19 and mx21. (even between mx17 and mx21). I agree that the Qt world is a little more consistent than the gtk world.

[entropyfoe]

fladd...I have to agree the default theme is not that pretty for my taste.
I don't like how some of the elements are red, which usually denotes something wrong.

But it is easy to change, and tonight I will try some different themes. I did some trials in the betas and found some more to my taste.

The narrow window edge for grabbing has been seen in MX 19, and there are fixes on the forum as I recall.

I agree with title bars, they need an edge to visually separate them when windows overlap and the title bars merge, creating a visually hard to decode view of where one window begins and the other ends. Again, I think trying different themes can address this.

I did not list these theme items as problems as they are subject to personal preferences and easy to change with selecting different themes or using some tweaks.

But they could influence some who try MX the first time or for superficial reviewers.

[fladd]

I think the default theme is pretty bad. Both visually (that is of course subjective, as I just don't like this modern flat design), but also ergonomically (which is objective). So let's focus on the ergonomic ones:

1. There seems to only be a 1 px border around the windows at which the cursor changes such that the window can be resized. Why not just make this area large, especially in the corners?
2. Moving (and enlarging) windows to the right leaves a 5 px border on the right (tested with the terminal). Why not allow the window to be fully to the right?
3. It would be great to also have a default light theme. The current hybrid default is very confusing, especially since there is no visual separation between the window title bar and the menu.
4. Xfce mixes normal window title bars (e.g. file manger, terminal) with CSD window title bars (e.g. the settings panel).
5. Even worse, there are Gnome3 applications included (e.g. the archive manager), which come even with their own hamburger menus and the general phone optimized UI. I am, however, not using MX on a phone, but on a desktop/laptop. It would be better for consistency, to not mix vastly different paradigms here.

Thanks for the comments

1. there are thick-border variants of the window manager theme available.

2. I could use a screenshot of #2. I snap to right and left all the time and I haven't seen any gaps, but I haven't been looking for them either. I'm not seeing a gap with thunar or terminal, but maybe I'm not catching what you are throwing

3. there are plenty of alternate themes available preinstalled. tweak even has a few extra theme sets defined if folks want to switch to something like greybird or greybird dark across all the various settings (gtk, wm, icons). the current default (mx-comfort) is home grown, and is light with dark accents (panel, menubars).

4. yes, yes it does.

5. except for the Xfce settings apps (not
thunar and terminal) I don't think any other apps changed their use of CSD between mx19 and mx21. (even between mx17 and mx21). I agree that the Qt world is a little more consistent than the gtk world.

1. If it is even available, why would this not be the default? Also, the thick-border theme is buggy (look at the left and right sides): https://imgur.com/gLKa5rQ
2. https://imgur.com/LQAxozo
5. As mentioned, archive manager has. And even since several versions of MX. There are non-Gnome3 alternatives available, such as Xarchiver. One of those alternatives should be the default. It would add a lot for a consistent desktop.

I also just found another issue: When the panel is switched to horizontal, then in the default theme the blue and orange markers for which application is active and how many windows it has, stay on the sides (i.e. they are still vertical bars, instead of horizontal ones).

[SwampRabbit]

fladd...I have to agree the default theme is not that pretty for my taste.
I don't like how some of the elements are red, which usually denotes something wrong.

This was discussed a bit just before the RC release, the "red" elements seem to be isolated to Qt apps (least what I saw).

The mx-comfort themes (as already stated) are home grown, they need some refinement, but in due time as there really was only one person working on it.
Would be nice to have some folks who know Gtk themes and CSS ... offered to help.