MX Linux Forum

I wonder how often people use MX Live environment, I tried to provide a spectrum of choices starting from 0 (never, only to install MX) to 5 (use only as a Live OS).

By live I mean of course booting from USB, or perhaps frugal installation too since it's very similar to Live.

I aslo wonder if people use remastering and persistency, but I didn't want to add more confusing options to this poll.

I keep live media as back-up build environments when I can't make pbuilder work, and keep a separate update-as-you-go live-usb as backup installation media. I tend to customize a live-usb rather than make snapshots of installed systems.

dolphin_oracle wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 6:27 pm I tend to customize a live-usb rather than make snapshots of installed systems.

It's not in keeping with the spirit of the question, but the easiest way to install MX Linux in a ZFS-on-root setup is to unsquash the live ISO file system (/live/boot-dev/antiX/linuxfs) to a mounted ZFS dataset and customize it from there with chroot. So in a sense, I use a live version of MX every day, just not from a DVD or USB drive.

I keep a Live version up to date and use it mostly when I travel or to fix/adjust things

Adrian wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 6:04 pm By live I mean of course booting from USB, or perhaps frugal installation too since it's very similar to Live.
I aslo wonder if people use remastering and persistency, but I didn't want to add more confusing options to this poll.

i'm doing exactly these two things all the time and love mx linux / antiX for making this so easy and fun. everything is so smooth and consistent that its unbelievable.

By time to time I mean at least several times a month. I always use MX Live USB after creating a snapshot to make sure I have everything I need (and especially that it is encrypted) and I make a snapshot everytime I make major changes and occasionally for experimenting.

The MX tools are great and I appreciate their usefulness and thoughtful design.

Once per month I make a snapshot of my installed system. Then make a live USB from the resulting iSO to keep a backup of my installed system.

I use antiX instead. Just used to it. This is to fix things. I don't make live snapshots and run them. I just try and not break things.

Like right now I am posting from this. I trip out I am on login screen the second I hit the power button. If I used auto login. Wonder if Icewm would show up instead

The survey should have been a check box, not a radio :-) ..

I use live systems in four different ways:

First, I now have four clients that use liveUSB's to boot up their computers (19 in total). The usb's are custom built for each office, to run basically Thunderbird, libreoffice and firefox and links to onsite apps / data area. These do not have persistence. (I do have a data area on board each stick.)

Second, I create snapshots every month for all my machines. (restore purposes, and again, no persistence.)

Third, I carry to live USB which are used to help recovery computers (windows usually), and / or coy data over to new machines when I upgrade office computers.

And last, I use liveUSB's to create my next machine installs. In a VM, I build my next machine with the next MX version, and get everything the way I want it, test it on machines, including my next one... and then when I am comfortable it all is working as I want it, I install to my new computer.

MX Snapshot and LiveUSB are the best tools I have *ever* found on *any* linux distro. These two things are amazing utilities and tools!!

I mainly use the MX and MX Workbench live to sort out problems.

And whenever a new MX release is out, to make a snapshot of my PC installation after it's customised to install on my laptop.

Besides having them in thumb drives, I also save the iso files of MX and Workbench into a separate "iso" partition in the PC together with Clonezilla and a few other isos. I have custom grub entries in the PC so I can boot live into any of these isos.

I use it only to install, and to help out with things on OTHER folks' computers (which happen to run windows).

richb wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 8:29 pm Once per month I make a snapshot of my installed system. Then make a live USB from the resulting iSO to keep a backup of my installed system.

===> Same goes for me (1x/month)

Also,

CharlesV wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 10:51 pm
Third, I carry to live USB which are used to help recovery computers (windows usually), and/or copy data over to new machines when I upgrade office computers.

===> Same goes for me (1-2x/month)

And, I hope some day soon that I will become proficient in doing this:

CharlesV wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 10:51 pm
And last, I use liveUSB's to create my next machine installs. In a VM, I build my next machine with the next MX version, and get everything the way I want it, test it on machines, including my next one... and then when I am comfortable it all is working as I want it, I install to my new computer.

===> Just started trying this out, especially with the Betas & RCs!

And, finally, I concur:

CharlesV wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 10:51 pm MX Snapshot and LiveUSB are the best tools I have *ever* found on *any* linux distro. These two things are amazing utilities and tools!!

CharlesV wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 10:51 pm MX Snapshot and LiveUSB are the best tools I have *ever* found on *any* linux distro. These two things are amazing utilities and tools!!

If I had to pick one main reason of using MX Linux, over all the other positives - this would be it. The seamless and effortless way these tools work completely changed the way I approach Linux environments, and had a big impact on how I use computers in general. So yeah, in short (I've described it in some other discussions as well lately) I keep a master installation of a pretty heavily customized MX/Debian in a VM, and keep that installation up to date and backed up. Then I use it by booting up a snapshot of it on any system I need. Ah, incidentally though, just today I did a bare metal installation on my Thinkpad X280 (naturally from a snapshot like this), as I got the Debian 12 migrated version 100% ready for my liking and wanted to install it onto that computer all fresh

Thank you, everyone who is making this possible. In so many ways, MX Linux just has a great vibe to it

As others have said, the poll should've allowed more than one option as MX's Live USB concept together with persistence is so flexible that it allows all sorts of nice things, perhaps even some its makers never intended... not sure whether or is the more appropriate emoji.

Around 2016 I started to work with Porteus and CentOS for a while with a view to replace Windows in the medium term. But when I discovered MX17, quickly followed by 18, and its frugal install/persistence, I was sold. Still am.

So to this day I have not once installed MX other than frugal. This install (literally the same few files) does duty in all PCs under my control (and works perfectly well) and is also on my rescue USB SSD. And, as something that always blows away my Windows acquaintances, this very same USB SSD also allows me to work on almost any run-of-the-mill PC with all my files on tap, even the two Windows VMs (I don't claim that it's running very fast... but it works). I have also installed a frugal version of MX19 on a couple of friends' PCs... they're now happily dual-booting.

In the past I used a live USB 100% of the time on a mac laptop (worked great, btw),
but now I use it to back up my system about once every three weeks.

Besides installing or troubleshooting I sometimes start the live system to marvel at new or unused options or to figure things out (to make up my mind, to plan things ahead, to confirm my choices ...).

And, not the least, I start it just because I can! :-)

sorry - i buggered that one up and clicked 5 instead of two

use it to install and troubleshoot from time to time

junoluna wrote: Thu Jul 27, 2023 10:36 pm sorry - i buggered that one up and clicked 5 instead of two

use it to install and troubleshoot from time to time

No worries, it's not scientific research :) I was just curious how people are using it.

I use it a lot to rescue peoples data off Winblows machines, it just utterly amazes them I can do that with MX, but they refuse to even try it.

I use Live MX Linux every time that I need to largely re-partitioning my disks with KDE Partition Manager.

Not a "persistent Pendrive"; just a recently "burned" DVD with KDE ISO. (Yes, I use to include a DVD unit when I assemble a new PC).

When I was working my 8 year semi-retirement big box job as a tech I would always have a MX boot USB on me for two purposes:

1) To see instantly if an intake PC with a no boot complaint was indeed bootable. MX even flagged the odd boot controller failure!

2) like all retailers it was a revolving door of students, many in CS degree tracks at Princeton or Rutgers. Most were amazed of MX in ability and speed. I also ran it on the demo table on new models showing which ones supported Linux well.

I took advantage of the captive audience as closers all had to wait for the cash office closeout before we could leave.

Adrian wrote: Thu Jul 27, 2023 10:42 pm
No worries, it's not scientific research :) I was just curious how people are using it.

oh goodo :)

I was worried I had contaminated the results

I've been using MX as my main distro since version 16 and have created and used dozens of bootable Live USBs with it. I always boot and use it 'Live' and in that time have only installed it on one machine, for a friend. I modified GRUB to offer two Live boot modes: Full Persistence (persist_all) and Zero Persistence, a true kiosk mode where I can even remove the bootable flash drive if wanted.

I use this Zero-persist mode to test out new packages or updates or for the times I let the young grandkids or anyone else use the laptop and don't want to worry about the condition they leave it in, because NOTHING is saved to the flashdrive. And, because everything is copied to and run from RAM in this mode, it is fast, fast, fast.

In the Full-persist mode, any changes to home are saved in real time and, when shutting down, the choice is given to save or not save any root changes that might have taken place. Even this mode is plenty fast because whatever is run is cached along the way.

I like being able to keep the two (one for Data) micro USBs (Lexar S47) in a pill holder on my keychain when I leave the house without the laptop, given the ability to plug it in and run on almost any other computer.

Backing up, cloning or creating a system snapshot is quick and easy. By simply copying over the ~2GB linuxfs, 1GB rootfs and 1GB homefs files to another bootable drive, a second drive is all ready to go. And Snapshots can make a quick (<2min.) ISO backup as well.

I frankly haven't seen any reason to NOT continue using the Live mode due to the flexibility and performance it provides.

I use Live MX Linux whenever I need to manage disks and partitions.

richb wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 8:29 pm Once per month I make a snapshot of my installed system. Then make a live USB from the resulting iSO to keep a backup of my installed system.

+1
Also: How do I reply to the poll?

Looks like it was closed to further votes.

I'm a little late to this thread, but the ONLY way I use MX21 is as a live USB with persistence. Once loaded up it is as fast as an SSD in real world use.

I keep a half dozen usb sticks with MX21 installed on each one. Each burned at a different point in time, so I always have backups in case anything goes wrong, which it doesn't.

Great when at home. Perfect for travel because I can carry an entire customized operating system on a USB stick in my money belt. And if every single thing was stolen from where I am staying, I can buy a new laptop and be up and running just like before in about 60-seconds. Everything is on the USB stick, and encrypted.

So, please do NOT drop support for the MX most excellent live USB with persistence.

I agree with CharlesV about the type of selections.
I checked the radio button for half the time and while not strictly accurate, its the closest I could find.

My Daily driver is a full install and I keep two 128GB USB-SATA drives as a Live USB with persistence on hand for tasks that may otherwise require software changes to my machine. Each USB SATA flash drive is for different purposes, one for customer machines, the other for personal.

On my personal one, when I want to test something for usability or run a program I do not wish to keep on my daily driver, I use the Live-USB with persistence, but instead of logging into persistence, I do not choose it at bootup it and use it as a standard Live-USB. Running as a regular Live-USB without the persistence files in operation, I install, test, use as required, then dump the changes by shutting down, sometimes, I might keep something I was working on while running live so I use the accompanying Live-usb-storage folder to retain my work.

When I need to have my "toolkit" available, I choose the option to use persistence and I have all I need at my disposal, including a different desktop layout so there's no mistaking where I am. Amongst other things, I copied my .mozilla folder from my daily driver into the persistence demo account and all the logins I want saved are in there along with my encrypted password vault for anything else I need.

About once a month, I boot without persistence, install the updates and remaster the Live-USB. This keeps both environments up to date, whether I'm running with, or without persistence.

I know others that use Persistence will say there is an easier way, but I do it this way to ensure I don't have a brain fart and hit save root persistence when I do not want to.

Well I guess I'm too late for the poll, but i use Live as much as possible. I create my own custom ISO image using the Snapshot program and then just boot from that. I love the security and stability it gives me! I do also boot into Fedora or Windows for most video editing work but otherwise I love MX. Been using it since it was MEPIS....

Sorry, I set up a time limit for this poll. Thanks for your input fellow MEPIS-er

I think I will make soon anther poll persistence options...