MX Linux (AVL) and Touchscreens?

[pax-eterna]

Does anyone know if Touchscreens will work with MX Linux? (in this case AVL)?
I have one coming soon and it is vital for my plan to use the PC live.

Thanks

[JayM]

MX offers AHS and KDE variants but nothing called AVL. Are you talking about AVLinux's respin?

[fenimore]

Hi pax-eterna,
Yes, MX-Linux has tablet-PC/touchscreen capabilities, but it will also depend on your hardware.
One example: I have installed MX-Linux 19.4 AHS on an Acer Switch Alpha 12 tablet PC.
It took about 20 minutes (with a custom partition scheme and localization) and MX-Linux was working at first boot:
- External KB: OK
- Trackpad: OK (multi-gesture: OK)
- Touchscreen: OK (pen: OK) - calibration: OK
- Network: Wi-Fi (Ath10K): OK - both 2,5 and 5Ghz (no cable interface)
- Display: OK (but tiny at startup, native resolution is 2160x1440 on a 12" display)
- USB: type-C (3.2): OK - typa-A (3.2): OK
- Battery: recognized (5-6 hours autonomy, status @89%)
- Fn keys (display backlight, sound volume, mute, ...): OK
Nothing exceptional to report, just working well.

BUT:
I also tried on a MS Surface Pro 4 and experienced some difficulties: MS Pro 4 needs a specific kernel (Linux-Surface) to enable all tablet/touch components and work as expected. I did a three step installation:
- adapt the boot sequence, in the BIOS (surprisingly, the BIOS interface is a touch one, use your finger to modify values)
- install MX-Linux 19.4 and update to latest versions
- install Linux-surface (from https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface ) and some additional drivers (as for pen drive).

Sorry not to be more precise, but given you don't describe your hardware so much (I guess AVL is the brand of your display, but it doesn't tell me so much about what's inside and nothing about the workstation it's connected to), it's difficult to give a more personalized answer.

hope this will be of some help,

Regards,

fenimore

[pianokeyjoe]

@pax-eterna if you already have your computer hardware, and can boot MX Linux or AVL-MXE(AVLinux MX edition)from usb or DVD disc, please go to mx tools, and quick system info. A terminal will open and will display all your system info in the terminal and auto copy the info to the clipboard. You do not need to copy the info yourself. All you then need to do is come here to your thread, and right click in the reply window and select paste. The info will be pasted here in the proper format. This will give us all the info needed to be able to help answer your question. Now as for the touch screen itself. If it is an external device like a Touch monitor with a USB interface it needs to be plugged in before you do click Quick system info in mx tools, so the sensors can detect it and output what it is, and who makes it. I for instance have a stack of all in one LCD touch computers that use eGalax USB touch screen which requires you to download the latest LINUX driver from their website and install it to get it to work on MX or AVL-MXE. I have a thread specific to the eGalax touchscreen. If it is ELO or 3M Microtouch, Linux already has drivers for those built in the Linux firmware set of packages and X org packages as well. We need info though to be able to help.

[pax-eterna]

@pianokeyjoe thx pkj - sorry for late reply, been somewhat otherwise distracted...
info is:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: <filter> Kernel: 5.10.0-5mx-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-5mx-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-19.4_ahs_x64 patito feo March 31  2021 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Mini-pc System: Intel Client Systems product: NUC8i7HNK v: J71486-604 
           serial: <filter> Chassis: Intel Corporation type: 35 v: 2.0 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Intel model: NUC8i7HNB v: J68197-603 serial: <filter> UEFI: Intel 
           v: HNKBLi70.86A.0067.2021.0528.1339 date: 05/28/2021 
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse MX Master 3 serial: <filter> 
           charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-8705G bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake 
           family: 6 model-id: 9E (158) stepping: 9 microcode: EA L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 49599 
           Speed: 807 MHz min/max: 800/4100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 809 2: 842 3: 843 4: 841 
           5: 844 6: 843 7: 846 8: 891 
           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 HD Graphics 630 driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           chip ID: 8086:591b 
           Device-2: AMD Polaris 22 XL [Radeon RX Vega M GL] vendor: Intel driver: amdgpu 
           v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 1002:694e 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: amdgpu,ati,modesetting 
           unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD VEGAM (DRM 3.40.0 5.10.0-5mx-amd64 LLVM 11.0.1) 
           v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.4 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel CM238 HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
           chip ID: 8086:a171 
           Device-2: AMD Polaris 22 HDMI Audio vendor: Intel driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 1002:ab08 
           Device-3: PreSonus Audio type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio bus ID: 1-12:5 
           chip ID: 194f:0109 serial: <filter> 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.0-5mx-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM driver: e1000e v: kernel port: f040 bus ID: 00:1f.6 
           chip ID: 8086:15b7 
           IF: eth1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel I210 Gigabit Network driver: igb v: kernel port: b000 bus ID: 05:00.0 
           chip ID: 8086:157b 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-3: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: b000 
           bus ID: 06:00.0 chip ID: 8086:24fd 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.36 TiB used: 1.14 TiB (83.3%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Crucial model: CT500P1SSD8 size: 465.76 GiB block size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> 
           rev: P3CR021 scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Crucial model: CT500P1SSD8 size: 465.76 GiB block size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> 
           rev: P3CR021 scheme: GPT 
           ID-3: /dev/sda type: USB model: lvfan External Disk 3.0 size: 931.51 GiB block size: 
           physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B serial: <filter> rev: 0204 scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 123.71 GiB size: 120.77 GiB (97.62%) used: 6.19 GiB (5.1%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 52.0 C mobo: 29.8 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 41 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
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://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mx.debian.nz/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           2: deb http://mx.debian.nz/mx/repo/ buster ahs
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 294 Uptime: 1h 07m Memory: 15.56 GiB used: 1.22 GiB (7.8%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: quick-system-in 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

[pianokeyjoe]

No worries. Well looking at the info, it is a NUC mini pc but no mention of usb connected devices or input devices so from this you do not have a touch screen plugged in yet? If you are needing to know if a touch screen you are thinking of buying or using will work, we will need the make, model and type of touchscreen, so we can go by those specs and find out if there is a driver needed or if MX will make it work out of the box. Like I said before, the MOST popular modern touch screen has the eGalax controller and DOES require a driver download and setup from their website. If it is ELO or 3M microtouch, depending on the vintage of the touchscreen, it has drivers in Debian and therefore MX. But if it is any of the newer touchscreens or is some obscure device, it may need drivers and as such knowing what you intend to use, will help alot. Though indeed, thankyou for posting the quick system info!