What and how to select during install, noob question [Solved]

[DukeComposed]

But all this z compression, with this rather slow processor? Will it gain speed or "snappyness" or may it rather feel sluggish or diminish battery longevity?

You can have a high-performance system or you can have long battery life. One will reduce the other.

Your best bet sounds like installing MX-23 and then upgrading to one of the non-default Liquorix kernels. They are derived from newer mainline kernel versions and include a number of patches to improve the responsiveness of the OS. It's purely hearsay, but they seem to be quite popular on this forum for making people's machine feel faster. You can also investigate TLP, which is included in the base install, for managing battery settings. "sudo tlp bat" is enough to get you started.

[argonaut459]

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Snapshot created on: 20240215_1220
System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-18-amd64 [6.1.76-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-18-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro splash
    resume=UUID=<filter> resume_offset=5447680 quiet init=/lib/systemd/systemd
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel, plank wm: xfwm v: 4.18.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.26.0 Distro: MX-23.2_x64 Libretto February 15  2024 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: THOMSON product: GENEO14C-4WH128 v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Eii model: G116X1_1 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends
    v: E.G116X1_1_6.S4.E1.039 date: 07/28/2021
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 29.5 Wh (97.0%) condition: 30.4/30.4 Wh (100.0%) volts: 7.6 min: N/A
    model: GLK MRD Li-ion Battery type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Celeron N4020 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Goldmont Plus level: v2 built: 2017
    process: Intel 14nm family: 6 model-id: 0x7A (122) stepping: 8 microcode: 0x22
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 112 KiB desc: d-2x24 KiB; i-2x32 KiB
    L2: 4 MiB desc: 1x4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1210 high: 1216 min/max: 800/2800 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1204 2: 1216 bogomips: 4377
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not
    affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel GeminiLake [UHD Graphics 600] driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-9
    process: Intel 14n built: 2015-16 ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:3185 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: icSpring camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-7:4 chip-ID: 32e6:9005
    class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99") s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model-id: CS_ 0x5211 serial: <filter> built: 2013 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 67
    gamma: 1.2 size: 518x333mm (20.39x13.11") diag: 519mm (20.4") ratio: 3:2 modes: 1366x768
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 600 (GLK 2) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor High Definition Audio
    driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-apl alternate: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_skl, snd_sof_pci_intel_apl
    bus-ID: 00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:3198 class-ID: 0401
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-18-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Message: No PCI device data found.
  IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Realtek 802.11ac NIC type: USB driver: btusb,rtl8821cu bus-ID: 1-4:3 chip-ID: 0bda:c820
    class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.2
    sub-v: f098 hci-v: 4.2 rev: 75b8
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:8 sco-mtu: 255:12 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio,
    telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 234.48 GiB used: 28.39 GiB (12.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 maj-min: 179:0 vendor: Generic model: SLD128 size: 115.23 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0x8 scheme: GPT
  SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to generate data.
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Intenso model: N/A size: 119.24 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 9A0 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 29.75 GiB size: 29.11 GiB (97.87%) used: 13.61 GiB (46.7%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 89.24 GiB size: 87.29 GiB (97.81%) used: 14.79 GiB (16.9%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 5.65 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
  ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 256 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2140 libs: 1108 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0
  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 bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://nl.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:
  Processes: 230 Uptime: 3m wakeups: 1 Memory: 3.65 GiB used: 2 GiB (54.9%) Init: systemd v: 252
  target: graphical (5) default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

Good sunny afternoon everyone.
The reinstall, went uneventful.

But a few issues are still there.
First the copy of the vivaldi files only resulted in crashes and error messages. Have to wait till she digs up her vivaldi sync password and we'll try this way.
second: thunar didn't use any of the previous made settings - not the worst, they were done in a couple minutes anyway.
third: a bit more annoying is, that thunar doesn't show any of the links made to the online webdav and local NAS - how do I get these from the old backup?
fourth: sound is finally working after over a year :D --- BUT I have to adjust alsamixer to make it audible. These settings don't get saved. How do I save them and make sure they are loaded every boot / suspend / hibernate
fifth: I forgot how to turn off bluetooth at boot, but still showing the bluetooth icon so i can easily be turned on and connected
6th: found a zram option during the install. Does it work correctly? how do I increase the size of it? How big or small would be advisable?

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Dana@mxDana:~
$ swapon -s
Dateiname				Typ		Größe		Benutzt		Priorität
/swap/swap                              file		5925884		0		-2
/dev/zram0                              partition	262140		0		100
Dana@mxDana:~
$ free -h
              gesamt       benutzt     frei      gemns.  Puffer/Cache verfügbar
Speicher:      3,7Gi       2,0Gi       1,0Gi       319Mi       1,2Gi       1,6Gi
Swap:          5,9Gi          0B       5,9Gi

7th: The Antix Conky has a part for swap .... does this show only swap FILE used or rather zram and swap file usage?
8th: I cleaned up the UEFI boot option, but I'm a bit unsure if I can remove another entry:
the list is as follows:
boot0001* MX Linux
boot0007* MX 23
boot0000* Windows boot manager
boot0008* UEFI OS

Am I correct that 0001 MX Linux is the old MX21 ??

9th: I'm still getting some messages right after booting about something not working or so. How do I access these messages again?

a bit stupid question? How can I check if the microphone is working? I never did, together with sound, on any linux distro. So now that there is sound, a mic would be great for all these pesky online meetings :)

another one, I'm trying out the SystemD boot option as most current guides on things I found always assume you're running systemD ... is there anything in the current setup that might cause issues cause of using it?

All in all, the laptop now feels way more complete and really more snappy. LibreOffice, Firefox and such all load a tad quicker than on MX21. Really really happy that I chose MX as my (and her) first experience in Linux

[oops]

...
The old recommendations for sizes equal to or greater than RAM date back to the 90's; this is now the 2020's.

Not sure for the SSDs (and the trim functionality for the longevity)

[MXRobo]

FYI – Vivaldi, could be a coincidence, but since the new Vivaldi release (6.6.3271.45) with major changes, it's been crashing so often as to be difficult to keep it running. I use it for one specific purpose as it has DRM (or something) running by default.

[argonaut459]

FYI – Vivaldi, could be a coincidence, but since the new Vivaldi release (6.6.3271.45) with major changes, it's been crashing so often as to be difficult to keep it running. I use it for one specific purpose as it has DRM (or something) running by default.

Good to hear, I won't update than.

Found 2 posts that are about how to backup Vivaldi.
Both kind of confusing.
https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/instal ... f-vivaldi/

And

https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/51704/g ... xtra-steps

[DukeComposed]

The reinstall, went uneventful.

I'll take uneventful. Uneventful is good. Exciting installs are where the trouble lies.

6th: found a zram option during the install. Does it work correctly? how do I increase the size of it? How big or small would be advisable?

There's no definitive answer here. zram is just a conventional kind of ramdisk. You can use it for swap or you can use it for volatile storage. You've already run swapon. You can see how much swap space you're consuming with "vmstat -S M" or, better yet, run "top" and check the "MiB Swap:" statistics. Some of your swap will probably get used for caching. When you really need a lot of swap space is when you're doing intensive computing operations on large sets of data. Swap is used as a place to store stuff when you start running out of virtual memory.

This is a good reason to wonder why you'd reserve a large portion of your memory in a zram device to use as swap for... when you run out of memory. Ask yourself why you need a zram ramdisk and there's your answer.

7th: The Antix Conky has a part for swap .... does this show only swap FILE used or rather zram and swap file usage?

Compare what conky says about your swap with what top says about your swap, then trust top.

9th: I'm still getting some messages right after booting about something not working or so. How do I access these messages again?

Run "sudo dmesg | less" in the terminal.

a bit stupid question? How can I check if the microphone is working? I never did, together with sound, on any linux distro. So now that there is sound, a mic would be great for all these pesky online meetings :)

Try "pavucontrol" and go to Input Devices. Make sure the port says something like "Internal Microphone" and that the "Mute audio" option is disabled. You should see a little fluttering green bar that starts picking up ambient room noise.

another one, I'm trying out the SystemD boot option as most current guides on things I found always assume you're running systemD ... is there anything in the current setup that might cause issues cause of using it?

Running systemd is an issue in and of itself. Unless you have something configured as a systemd-only dependency, either sysvinit or systemd should be fine for booting your machine, loading the desktop, and starting your local services.

[MXRobo]

Maybe?? - sudo apt-mark hold vivaldi-stable – haven't used it before.
from: viewtopic.php?p=750758#p750758
I was considering doing this for myself, but I was too lazy and I didn't (don't) know if I'd miss vital security updates, plus it's already installed.

P.S. And it's crashing on two laptops.

[argonaut459]

Run "sudo dmesg | less" in the terminal.

This gave a very very long list of things, how do I find out what it is that flashed up as the laptop is booting?

[xaol]

adding the --level=err,warn option to your dmesg command should only show errors or warnings. that will hopefully cut out lots of the extra messages. dmesg shows a timestamp in seconds after boot began so anything you saw right after booting should have a fairly low timestamp. an example of that new command

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sudo dmesg --level=err,warn | less

[argonaut459]

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sudo dmesg --level=err,warn | less

needed to let this create a text file, as its quite lengthy.
But I think what I saw was these (and following)
[ 3.155373] i2c_hid_acpi i2c-HTIX5288:00: i2c_hid_get_input: incomplete report (27/261)
[ 3.156352] i2c_hid_acpi i2c-HTIX5288:00: i2c_hid_get_input: incomplete report (27/33030)

I'd of course be happy if all technical issues while loading could be remedied

I'm also happy for hints on these "issues"
3rd: a bit more annoying is, that thunar doesn't show any of the links made to the online webdav and local NAS - how do I get these from the old backup?
4th: sound is finally working after over a year :D --- BUT I have to adjust alsamixer to make it audible. These settings don't get saved. How do I save them and make sure they are loaded every boot / suspend / hibernate
5th: I forgot how to turn off bluetooth at boot, but still showing the bluetooth icon so i can easily be turned on and connected