MX Linux Forum

Hi AVL'ers and MX'ers!

Screenshot from Live ISO boot: Full size: http://bandshed.net/images/screenshots/ ... -41-33.jpg

It's been a busy couple of weeks and the past few days have closed the gap considerably on getting the next AV Linux MX Edition ISO out the door (based on Bookworm/MX-23). Things were almost ready to deploy and the release of PipeWire 1.0.0 forced me to to do a rethink about PipeWire and with some help from @dolphin_oracle I've managed to get a pretty good live PipeWire setup going, a last crucial piece will be to have PipeWire 1.0.0 on the Live ISO (right now the testing phase has been the default Debian 0.3.65 version) and that is in the works and so far testing with installing PipeWire 1.0.0 from MX-Test (installed afterward) it's looking very promising! Big shoutouts go to @Stevo and @timkb4cq for getting a lot of great AV updates into the MX Repos and also @Melber for taking my sharp-sticks-and-flint PipeWire metadata tool and making it both look good and function well!

A LOT has changed!

- Enlightenment + Thunar + many new handy custom actions.
- Custom Actions also for Enlightenment File Manager!
- An uncharacteristic light and modern palette for Enlightenment (with classic dark skeumorphic options!)
- 4K ready (I've been testing in 4K and Enlightenment looks great and scales very well (unlike XFCE4...)
- Liquorix 6.6.3 Kernel
- PipeWire JACK all set up by default, cold boot, start Reaper/Ardour/Mixbus with 'JACK' backend and get to work!
- A suite of handy PipeWire tools (including qpwgraph) to ease the transition from JACK..
- Additions of Openshot and all the major DAW's and NLE's have been updated + loads and loads of fresh Plugins..
- Added Tonetwist, SocalLabs WaveTable, ChowDSP, Vaporizer2... maybe more (I'm losing track..)...?
- As usual yabridge and Wine-Staging all ready to host your Windows VST Plugins
- We lose WineASIO, it is broken upstream with Wine 8.2+ and I'm done chasing it..
- Fully functional and supported Ardour 8.1 version from ardour.org and Demo versions of Reaper 7 and Harrison Mixbus 9.2
- Lots of hidden Easter Eggs!

TODO, The switch to Enlightenment and PipeWire has made my established User Manual pretty obsolete, I'm considering a Video User Manual but whether it Text or Video the documentation will be a killer..

Beta1 Test ISO's hopefully coming soon, too soon to tell if we'll get this baby under the Christmas Tree this year or not...

Comments and Questions welcomed, aside from PipeWire upgraded to 1.0.0 to be clear I consider this point of development to be frozen, the changes and improvements so far have been hard fought and I need to move my focus toward documentation...

Best, Glen

Looks great, can't wait to try it.

Looks great, can't wait to try it.

yay...I am so happy pipewire got in...why? I use appimages for most of my applications, so most of the time updates are not necessary for me as everything is working...

so now pipewire got in, I can freeze updates on my system (unless there is a critical audio bug, which I doubt because of the spartan testing @AVLinux puts them through) for a long time till the next AVL MXE iso release (which is becoming less often)

what necessitated the addition of openshot?

also @AVLinux @Stevo is there any linux firewall gui program as simple and easy to use as simplewall?

Aceediq wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 6:38 pm what necessitated the addition of openshot?

also @AVLinux @Stevo is there any linux firewall gui program as simple and easy to use as simplewall?

Don't know much about firewalls, I ship gufw because that seems to be the MX default.. Some people who aren't experienced with Video editing like Openshot, it is simpler to get started with than Kdenlive and Cinelerra-GG. I prefer Cinelerra-GG myself and have used it for many years but AVL is geared to all types of Users. As always the Package Manager can remove anything you don't use..

AVLinux wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:24 pm

Aceediq wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 6:38 pm what necessitated the addition of openshot?

also @AVLinux @Stevo is there any linux firewall gui program as simple and easy to use as simplewall?

Don't know much about firewalls, I ship gufw because that seems to be the MX default.. Some people who aren't experienced with Video editing like Openshot, it is simpler to get started with than Kdenlive and Cinelerra-GG. I prefer Cinelerra-GG myself and have used it for many years but AVL is geared to all types of Users. As always the Package Manager can remove anything you don't use..

The MX Linux firewall gui program - summary.

MX Linux 23 User Manual wrote:4.5.1 Uncomplicated Firewall configuration

The "Firewall Configuration" is a GUI app used for the configuration of the "Uncomplicated Firewall",
aka UFW. This makes it a simple task for novice users to configure their firewall. This GUI app
(gufw) is installed by default in Xfce and Fluxbox only. KDE users can search in MXPI for the
package named ‘gufw’ to get the same "Firewall Configuration" app.

Good news ! I'm surprised Pipewire made it.

It will be appreciated in some situations ! Tx in advance.

That's great news Glen! Can't wait to install it ^_^

Glen if you need a beta tester, to use on my troublesome laptop ,i stand ready to install:) other versions true live usb . greetings jan

@AVLinux is there a way to have Zyn fusion on AVL MXE?

Hi,

I no longer include the KX Studio Repos but people can usually safely cherry pick stuff after installing from this page here: https://kx.studio/Repositories:Plugins

Some of the KX stuff is maintained regularly some is not maintained at all, I provide the popular 'Distrho-ports' Plugins but I'm not going any further down that road.. Plugins are an endless, limitless and a thankless task...lol

FullScale4Me wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 12:58 am

AVLinux wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:24 pm

Aceediq wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 6:38 pm what necessitated the addition of openshot?

also @AVLinux @Stevo is there any linux firewall gui program as simple and easy to use as simplewall?

Don't know much about firewalls, I ship gufw because that seems to be the MX default.. Some people who aren't experienced with Video editing like Openshot, it is simpler to get started with than Kdenlive and Cinelerra-GG. I prefer Cinelerra-GG myself and have used it for many years but AVL is geared to all types of Users. As always the Package Manager can remove anything you don't use..

The MX Linux firewall gui program - summary.

MX Linux 23 User Manual wrote:4.5.1 Uncomplicated Firewall configuration

The "Firewall Configuration" is a GUI app used for the configuration of the "Uncomplicated Firewall",
aka UFW. This makes it a simple task for novice users to configure their firewall. This GUI app
(gufw) is installed by default in Xfce and Fluxbox only. KDE users can search in MXPI for the
package named ‘gufw’ to get the same "Firewall Configuration" app.

Gufw/firewall configuration does meet my needs...I need a firewall app that can limit internet connection on a per app basis...for example, my system is connected to the net through wifi but let me say chrome is not able to access the net, other app can...

AVLinux wrote: Mon Dec 18, 2023 1:45 pm Hi,

I no longer include the KX Studio Repos but people can usually safely cherry pick stuff after installing from this page here: https://kx.studio/Repositories:Plugins

Some of the KX stuff is maintained regularly some is not maintained at all, I provide the popular 'Distrho-ports' Plugins but I'm not going any further down that road.. Plugins are an endless, limitless and a thankless task...lol

Thanks

Aceediq wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2023 6:49 am

FullScale4Me wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 12:58 am

AVLinux wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:24 pm

Don't know much about firewalls, I ship gufw because that seems to be the MX default.. Some people who aren't experienced with Video editing like Openshot, it is simpler to get started with than Kdenlive and Cinelerra-GG. I prefer Cinelerra-GG myself and have used it for many years but AVL is geared to all types of Users. As always the Package Manager can remove anything you don't use..

The MX Linux firewall gui program - summary.

MX Linux 23 User Manual wrote:4.5.1 Uncomplicated Firewall configuration

The "Firewall Configuration" is a GUI app used for the configuration of the "Uncomplicated Firewall",
aka UFW. This makes it a simple task for novice users to configure their firewall. This GUI app
(gufw) is installed by default in Xfce and Fluxbox only. KDE users can search in MXPI for the
package named ‘gufw’ to get the same "Firewall Configuration" app.

Gufw/firewall configuration does meet my needs...I need a firewall app that can limit internet connection on a per app basis...for example, my system is connected to the net through wifi but let me say chrome is not able to access the net, other app can...

In MX Program Installer is a firewall called Opensnitch that can be 'trained' on an app by app basis. After a rule is made in the training it can be turned on/off at will without having to be recreated each time.

Dedicate a significant amount of time for first training as EVERY app that tries to access anything off machine will trigger a rule creation (training).

Hi, just an update..

I've hit a couple of snags, one is a long-running peculiarity of Enlightenment and it has shown me another error in my own methodology regarding Icons..

Anyone who has installed my previous MXDE-EFL Enlightenment spin had probably noticed that when the system was installed the nice default Icon set disappeared and were replaced by the horrid Enlightenment-X defaults and then had to be reset, not a big deal but an annoying Quality Control detail and I sweat the details... the last 2% of pretty much every AV Linux release has just about killed me, this one is even worse because this ISO will have a much larger audience than MXDE and Enlightenment is a dark horse in a world of better known and loved Desktop Environments...

The Icons theme being forgotten not appearing issue is a deep-seated quirk of Enlightenment and how it uses the system hostname within it's Icon caching system, I won't bore you further with the geekly details... System Icons are a personal choice and the issue is that the default 'Enlightenment-X' Icon theme is missing Icons for MANY common programs and it certainly is missing them for specialized Custom AV Linux Packages and Utilities so on the first boot of the installed system about 60% of the Icons are missing... now if you know AV Linux and you've used Enlightenment before then it's trivial to select and restore the nice custom AVL Evolvere theme but if you've never laid eyes on either you're going to think it looks like crap and not know how to fix it... Several install tests have indicated to me that all my work on dozens of Custom Icons for the intended Evolvere Icon theme has been a bit misguided, if you use AVL with my intended theme it looks very tidy and cohesive with all default apps covered by matching Icons but even though Enlightenment-X is an extremely poor and basic theme pretty much switching to any other Icon theme (even Papirus) is going to miss many Icons for a lot of the AV Linux Custom Actions, Utilities and other specialized Packaging so I need to go back to the drawing board and come up with a dedicated set of Icons that get installed by default with the dozens of AVL-specific packages. This is the best future-proofing for giving people the freedom to choose whatever Icon theme they want.. I should have known better but I was really hyper focused on curating and perfecting the custom Evolvere theme.

I have made a start on a set of Icons that will get installed with the AVL Custom Packaging and they should blend fairly nicely with other themes but will also have a distinct appearance to help the User understand they are using AVL custom apps and utilities. It's a slow start and there are probably 40 or more Icons to be made. Unfortunately this is going to take a lot of spare time and delay things further...

*EDIT - Update to original Icon screenie, got into a more 'lights and shadows' idea that fits Enlightenment better..

Just as you are wrapping things up, Enlightenment puts out a new version.


Enlightenment 0.26 Released With Various Improvements
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Enlighten ... 6-Released

siamhie wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2023 12:09 am Just as you are wrapping things up, Enlightenment puts out a new version.


Enlightenment 0.26 Released With Various Improvements
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Enlighten ... 6-Released

Hmmm, well it's a nice thought but after the trouble I've caused with asking for PipeWire 1.0.0 in MX Main I'm not going to wear out my welcome, I think I'll be content with the current E version in Debian Stable... I think the best case scenario is possibly Enlightenment 0.26 would get in to MX-23 Test and AVL and MX Enlightenment Enthusiasts could upgrade from there at their own discretion...

AVLinux wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2023 2:01 pm

siamhie wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2023 12:09 am Just as you are wrapping things up, Enlightenment puts out a new version.


Enlightenment 0.26 Released With Various Improvements
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Enlighten ... 6-Released

Hmmm, well it's a nice thought but after the trouble I've caused with asking for PipeWire 1.0.0 in MX Main I'm not going to wear out my welcome, I think I'll be content with the current E version in Debian Stable... I think the best case scenario is possibly Enlightenment 0.26 would get in to MX-23 Test and AVL and MX Enlightenment Enthusiasts could upgrade from there at their own discretion...

Seeing as 0.26 was just released, I probably wouldn't worry about it. Even Sid still has 0.25.4 in their repo and nothing in the experimental repo.
https://packages.debian.org/search?suit ... ightenment

'YADbridge" is now separated from the need for AVL-MXE theming and Icons has it's own Icon set, perhaps in the future this will help allow some of the AV Linux tools to get into the MX Repos, lots to do yet but making some headway and the Icons list is getting worked through.. I've been heavily leaning on my subscription to the noun-project which has great resources for custom Icons!

Just wondering when an install version will be released...I think I am ready to try it again, but I'd rather not download an existing version, only to then have to do a re-install shortly after that.

pax-eterna wrote: Wed Dec 27, 2023 2:55 pm Just wondering when an install version will be released...I think I am ready to try it again, but I'd rather not download an existing version, only to then have to do a re-install shortly after that.

Can't give an ETA, I was pretty close and had a big rethink about 'theme independence' hopefully by the end of January, a lot of customizing and testing to redo yet and it's all spare time stuff..

AVLinux wrote: Wed Dec 27, 2023 3:06 pm

pax-eterna wrote: Wed Dec 27, 2023 2:55 pm Just wondering when an install version will be released...I think I am ready to try it again, but I'd rather not download an existing version, only to then have to do a re-install shortly after that.

Can't give an ETA, I was pretty close and had a big rethink about 'theme independence' hopefully by the end of January, a lot of customizing and testing to redo yet and it's all spare time stuff..

Ok thx, fair enough too!