MX-23_KDE alpha2 feedback thread

[edvard69]

Google translate (rus, ukr -> eng).
Hello.
I've been using MX-23 KDE alpha2 for about a week now. Experience with Linux systems is not great. On my 10 year old HP 4740s ProBook laptop with 8 GB of RAM and SSD (instead of HDD) MX-23 KDE alpha2 works fast, I have not found any significant problems yet. My little observations (may be useful to someone). All of the following is my IMHO.
1. Booting MX-23 KDE alpha2 (iso file) from a multi-bootable USB stick written with Ventoy does not work. Booting from a USB flash drive written to Rufus worked fine (UEFI is enabled in BIOS, GPT in Rufus: Patition scheme, target system is UEFI). Then everything loads fine.
2. Somewhere on the Internet I met that in order to improve WiFi performance, it is better to disable LAN in the settings (if you constantly use WiFi and LAN is not needed). Disabled. Time will tell how WiFi will work.
3. More about WiFi. If WiFi does not turn on after booting the computer, indicate that this connection (WiFi) can be used by all users (“Setting up network connections” - “General configuration” - “All users can connect to this network” - “Apply”). Something like this.
4. I did not find where TimeShift is (or it is not here). There is a snapshot, but this is IMHO different.
4.1. TimeShift helps to get back to a certain point in a WORKING system because TimeShift works when the system itself is working properly. If the system does not work at all (for example, it does not boot), I do not know if TimeShift will help in this case.
4.2. It seems that Snapshot should help when the system does NOT work at all (for example, it does not boot). But I have not yet figured out how to restore the system using the created Snapshot file.
4.3. Now when I'm experimenting a bit and tweaking the system, in order to save the system image and return to a working system (if something went wrong) I make an image of the logical disk on which the MX-23 KDE alpha2 is installed, using external programs that can do image of logical disks by booting from a USB flash drive and running this program. A little long (about 10 minutes in total), but I worked a lot with such programs, I know how they work and this method helps me.
Good luck everyone.
UPD.
1. Today the sound card disappeared from the settings :-(, there is no sound. Where she went, I don't know.
2. After exiting sleep mode, the screen is green and stretched. You need to reboot to restore normal mode.

[Dearth]

My few thoughts:
1. Strawberry should for sure replace Clementine. Clementine's last release was in 2016 and it is basically abandoned, Strawberry is actively maintained and gets better with every release. Strawberry is IMHO a much better and feature-rich application than Audacious. Other Qt audio player I would consider is Sayonara: https://sayonara-player.com/
2. As a firewall, have you considered having OpenSnitch (https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch) installed by default?
3. I always install nala as the first thing on the new system. It is great and should be there by default.
4. plasma-browser-integration is another thing I always use and I think it should be there.
5. Include SMPlayer by default instead of VLC. It is a much better player than VLC, no visual and audio artifacts. One thing to consider is changing the skin to "Black" as the default one looks very bad.
6. KRename can be there by default.
7. Double Commander (Qt) could be there by default.
8. I would have only Kate installed by default, no KWrite.
9. Perhaps Qalculate (Qt) by default?

[Dearth]

Some other suggestions:
1. There is a CLI metadata cleaner app called mat2: https://0xacab.org/jvoisin/mat2. It has an option to integrate it with Dolphin: https://0xacab.org/jvoisin/mat2/-/tree/master/dolphin. Maybe this could be done by default in MX-23?
2. CopyQ (https://hluk.github.io/CopyQ/) as the default clipboard manager.
3. Spectacle (https://apps.kde.org/spectacle/) as the default screenshot tool. It has gained a lot of useful features in the latest release.
4. Fastfetch (https://github.com/LinusDierheimer/fastfetch) as the default fetch app.
5. maza (https://github.com/tanrax/maza-ad-blocking) installed and by configured in cron to update daily/weekly by default.

[Dearth]

I also think that TimeShift should be there by default. Maybe perhaps it could be added to the welcome screen that asks user, if he wants to set up a backup schedule with TimeShift, especially when installed on a BTRFS partition.

[andy]

I vote for the Timeshift too, and I would like to know what needs to be in place, to have the same backup-restore functionality as in Linux Mint, when used with BTRFS.
I have deemed BTRFS a SSD life eater (quite substantial volume written per unit of time, even in PC idle states), but, with availability of modern SSDs with huge TBW, I am reconsidering it now.

I would like to have snapshots of root, and installer to support subvolume layout required for Timeshift to work on BTRFS. Also on top of LUKS.
Is that feasible?

EDIT: just to reiterate main points of Timeshift on BTRFS - ability to change which subvolue will be mounted as root, with a mere click, no overwriting of data. If system is screwed, you can do that from live rescue environment.
And the "screwed" version will be kept, available to future usage.

[dolphin_oracle]

The installer does that now.

[andy]

The installer does that now.

Do you mean, that if I choose BTRFS on root, the subvolume layout will be same as on Ubuntu, using "@", and I can switch between different snapshots with Timeshift?
(I have read, that Timeshift requires this type of subvolume layot, to support this on "fast" switching, and to use BTRFS snapshots. If I already have BTRFS root volume, I want to avoid rsync.)

[dolphin_oracle]

The installer does that now.

Do you mean, that if I choose BTRFS on root, the subvolume layout will be same as on Ubuntu, using "@", and I can switch between different snapshots with Timeshift?
(I have read, that Timeshift requires this type of subvolume layout, to support this on "fast" switching, and to use BTRFS snapshots. If I already have BTRFS root volume, I want to avoid rsync.)

You might have to add the subvolume (right click the partition that is to be formatted btrfs), but if you make it the target for root, yes its "@". to work with timeshift.

[andy]

The installer does that now.

Do you mean, that if I choose BTRFS on root, the subvolume layout will be same as on Ubuntu, using "@", and I can switch between different snapshots with Timeshift?
(I have read, that Timeshift requires this type of subvolume layout, to support this on "fast" switching, and to use BTRFS snapshots. If I already have BTRFS root volume, I want to avoid rsync.)

You might have to add the subvolume (right click the partition that is to be formatted btrfs), but if you make it the target for root, yes its "@". to work with timeshift.

This is excellent information!
Since when is this functionality available? I have still been using classic EXT4 root + EXT4 backup "news" FS type, together with Rsync, not knowing that BTRFS stuff it is possible already.

[dolphin_oracle]

A long time. I have a video about it as well