MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 7:05 am**

Good afternoon,
after backing up the laptop ssd, I'm in the process of installing MX23 but right at the start I run into me being a noob and not really having a clue.
First, what to achieve:
Install mx23, if possible without disturbing much on the existing mx21 installation, especially programs like vivaldi browser and other things where the owner of the laptop put a lot of personal data in it.
Start using a swap FILE instead of the partition, so that tad of space can be used for /home
Start using ZRAM as I hope it will improve the "snappiness" or at least the feel of this laptop, it often has 1+ GB written in swap
Can I use suspend and hibernation normally afterwards?
From previous tries there are quite some UEFI boot thingies - can I delete them here (screenshot) safely?

second, how to do that:
Shall I delete swap partition before I install?
Can I shrink / safely to about 25GB and use the additional space for home?
the migration tutorial says this:

3) install MX 23 OVER your current installation as you proceed:
a) at the beginning, select to make a “Custom” installation
b) choose the same user name that you used before
c) select to re-use the existing home directory

I don't know what to select after the "custom" option. Do I select the partitions again and say "use for" or should I leave everything empty?
How do I find out what I named the only user of this laptop again? The folder in /home is just called Dana - would that be it?

Other suggestions on what and how to do?
Thank you sincerely
Julian

Code: Select all

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=/antiX/vmlinuz quiet splasht nosplash lang=de_DE kbd=de tz=Europe/Berlin
    toram
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel 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: 28.7 Wh (94.4%) 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: 0x16
  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: 1047 high: 1194 min/max: 800/2800 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1194 2: 900 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: 1-7:3 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: 1-4:2 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: 1.35 GiB (0.6%)
  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:
  Message: No partition data found.
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 6 GiB used: 1.35 GiB (22.5%) priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda2
    maj-min: 8:2
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 52.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2046 libs: 1044 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://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
Info:
  Processes: 213 Uptime: 41m wakeups: 6 Memory: 3.65 GiB used: 3.48 GiB (95.3%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 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

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:44 am**

First – I cannot answer your swap vs swapfile, or zram related hibernation questions, although I'd suspect that they also have to be minimally as large as your ram in order to hibernate – as is required with a swap partition.

Regarding the UEFI entries:
MX Boot Options → Manage UEFI Boot Options
related: sudo efibootmgr -v

Also, what is your goal or your intent?
To upgrade from 21 to 23, to keep 21 and also install 23, to install 23 only?
Where do you plan on installing 21? Not much space left.
Not many options with a 120GB SSD.

I humbly suggest if possible – a larger SSD.
This way in the future you could keep 21 installed, and then also install 23 beside it.
Once 23 is working good, you could delete 21 if you wanted to.

Also, possibly create a separate data partition.

Good Luck

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:52 am**

Sorry for being unclear.

Install mx23. That's basically it.
The important part is keeping the data from programs intact (i.e. browser) or be able to recover them from the backup.

The windows installation shall be undisturbed (till warranty of laptop runs out next year or so)

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:15 am**

No, that's fine, and sorry for being so dense, but I'm still not sure what you want to do regarding these comments:

Install mx23, if possible without disturbing much on the existing mx21 installation, especially programs like vivaldi browser and other things where the owner of the laptop put a lot of personal data in it.

The important part is keeping the data from programs intact (i.e. browser) or be able to recover them from the backup.

Obviously, you could just export the bookmarks, but that won't keep the config files, e.g. Vivaldi's config files.

And I'm not really one to give any advise on this (and I have NO experience doing this specifically) but it seems like your options are:
1 Export bookmarks
2 Upgrade from 21 to 23 – which is risky and often "ill-advised" in this forum although it's offered as an option.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And I really don't know how to do the following– or I wouldn't be very confident in doing so.
3a – Install 23, then copy somes (maybe piece by piece, to check for potential problems) ~./config file from either your backups, of from an MX-Snapshot
[Just realized, probably wouldn't hurt to make an MX-Snapshot of the system before installing too, as another B.U.
3b – Install 23, then copy all or most ~./config files….
Again, I'm not the one to advise on option #2, and particularly on options 3a or 3b.

Hopefully, someone else will give better advise.

Again – good luck.

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:20 am**

I kind of was just following the migration tutorial linked up there in the forum info.
Which says install mx23 over 21

I guess I just kind of have to bite the bullet and just do it.
So far everything Linux worked out, unless I personally did something stupid.

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:44 am**

argonaut459 wrote: Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:52 am The windows installation shall be undisturbed (till warranty of laptop runs out next year or so)

I don't see a Windows installation in your screenshot.

argonaut459 wrote: Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:20 am I guess I just kind of have to bite the bullet and just do it.

Here's what I would do. I wouldn't try to keep the /home partition.

It looks like the MX root partition is on sda3 and the /home partition is on sda4. If you don't care about keeping MX-21, then boot it, run User Installed Packages > Create a list of of user installed packages > Save List, and keep that file somewhere safe. Then make a full backup of /home. It's about 50 GB, which is enough to fit on many common USB disks, especially if you compress it first.

Then delete sda3, sda4, and the sda2 swap partition. Create the partition structure you want, 30 GB for root, the rest for /home. That would give you about 25 GB for system files plus 5 GB for a big swap file. Install MX. Create your user account.

When MX is running, bring the /home data back as /home/dana.backup and copy into your new account everything under ~/.config that you specifically identify as something you need.

Add new software based on the obvious stuff that jumps out at you from the User Installed Packages list.

This way you have (a) a complete backup of /home, (b) a local copy of your user-specific bookmarks, savegames, and cat videos, and (c) no more swap partition. Then, when you want to upgrade to MX-25 or so, you can look into the "preserve home" option in the installer. You could theoretically use that option when replacing MX-21 with MX-23, but I've only tested it with btrfs and I'd still make a new user account because you have no idea what changed in the /etc/skel files.

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:47 am**

Yes you can delete the swap partition but after that you need to "move" the sda3 leftwards (to the "then" unollacted space.

Yes, then you can shrink sda3 if you like, in that case you can move sda4 to leftwards (again, to the opened unollocated space.). Finally you can resize (enlarge) home to the right-most.

Settings, preferences etc. are already in home, so, once you select to "preserve" it and/or backup beforehand, they'll be staying there, panel, desktop, browser pref. and bookmarks etc.

Yes, tick to use the zramswap ...

Yes, select / and /home for the relevant partitions under "Use For", just if you select "ext4" etc. under "Format" they'll be reformatted. So, under that column you can select preserve for home and ext4 for root

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 12:44 pm**

@argonaut459 wrote:

The windows installation shall be undisturbed (till warranty of laptop runs out next year or so)

The warranty on your laptop is for the hardware only. Installing MX or Linux in general will not affect it at all. See here:

https://www.google.com/search?q=does+in ... -serp#ip=1

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 2:16 pm**

The size of a swap partition is almost never required to match the size of the installed RAM for hibernation. It only needs to be big enough to match the size of RAM in use at the time of hibernation, and modern kernels compress the RAM image before being written to disk. The target is around 40% for most data...some may be incompressible, such as a DVD image in RAM or the like.

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

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 2:35 pm**

On phone during an ER hospital visit, so multiquote is a bit tedious
The windows partition is on the eMMC.

If you don't care about keeping MX-21, then boot it, run User Installed Packages > Create a list of of user installed packages > Save List, and keep that file somewhere safe. Then make a full backup of /home. It's about 50 GB, which is enough to fit on many common USB disks, especially if you compress it first.

Then delete sda3, sda4, and the sda2 swap partition. Create the partition structure you want, 30 GB for root, the rest for /home. That would give you about 25 GB for system files plus 5 GB for a big swap file. Install MX. Create your user account.

When MX is running, bring the /home data back as /home/dana.backup and copy into your new account everything under ~/.config that you specifically identify as something you need.

Add new software based on the obvious stuff that jumps out at you from the User Installed Packages list.

This way you have (a) a complete backup of /home, (b) a local copy of your user-specific bookmarks, savegames, and cat videos, and (c) no more swap partition. Then, when you want to upgrade to MX-25 or so, you can look into the "preserve home" option in the installer. You could theoretically use that option when replacing MX-21 with MX-23, but I've only tested it with btrfs and I'd still make a new user account because you have no idea what changed in the /etc/skel files.

That sounds like a good plan.

Charlie Browns idea how to resize the partitions sounds perfect, too
Still a bit unsure about if I should choose "preserve home" this time or rather next time.
Right now my guts tell me, make new to get rid of stuff you might have borked up last time.

Hmm mentioning zramswap.
I recall seeing a video of a low spec laptop, that did a set of tasks fastest when using swap + zram + zswap
Might that be an idea here to, or rather complicated stuff making little difference.

Stevo answered while I wrote this.

If that's the case .... Than maybe the
Swap file + zram + zswap
Might actually be an idea especially as this only takes the space it really needs and yet should provide suspend and hibernation nicely.

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?

Posted: **Tue Feb 27, 2024 8:17 pm**

argonaut459 wrote: Tue Feb 27, 2024 2:35 pm 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.

Posted: **Sat Mar 02, 2024 8:28 am**

Code: Select all

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?

Code: Select all

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

Posted: **Sat Mar 02, 2024 10:58 am**

Stevo wrote: Tue Feb 27, 2024 2:16 pm...
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)

Posted: **Sat Mar 02, 2024 4:59 pm**

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.

Posted: **Sun Mar 03, 2024 12:19 am**

MXRobo wrote: Sat Mar 02, 2024 4:59 pm 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

Posted: **Sun Mar 03, 2024 6:53 am**

argonaut459 wrote: Sat Mar 02, 2024 8:28 am 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.

Posted: **Sun Mar 03, 2024 10:17 am**

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.

Posted: **Sun Mar 03, 2024 12:13 pm**

DukeComposed wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2024 6:53 am 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?

Posted: **Sun Mar 03, 2024 1:34 pm**

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

Code: Select all

sudo dmesg --level=err,warn | less

Posted: **Mon Mar 04, 2024 12:16 pm**

xaol wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2024 1:34 pm
Code: Select all
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

Posted: **Mon Mar 04, 2024 12:44 pm**

argonaut459 wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2024 12:16 pm 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?

Not sure, but the first places I'd go looking for them would be under ~/.config, ~/.local, and maybe ~/.cache. As it turns out, there's a utility called chezmoi that, once you know where a dotfile you care about is kept, you can back it up and re-synchronize it with a different machine. I don't have any experience with it, but it looks promising.

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

Assuming Xfce: Session and Startup > Application Autostart > look for "Blueman" entries.

Posted: **Mon Mar 04, 2024 1:25 pm**

argonaut459 wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2024 12:16 pm 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.

Maybe try: sudo alsactl store after it's set to your liking.
You can search the forum for this too.

Posted: **Tue Mar 05, 2024 12:35 pm**

argonaut459 wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2024 12:16 pm 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 think i2c may often refer to an input device like a touchpad. if yours is working correctly after boot, then those could probably be ignored. this thread identifies a similar message as being related to a touchpad: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic. ... 3#p2336073

argonaut459 wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2024 12:16 pm 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

someone else already mentioned trying to use the alsactl store command. for both sysv and systemd, i believe there should be a service that runs at boot and shutdown to store that info and then restore it at boot. when using sysv, you could try checking this after boot to see if it has any info

Code: Select all

sudo grep -i alsa /var/log/syslog

with systemd you could check one or both of the following

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl status '*alsa*'
sudo journalctl -b | grep -i alsa

argonaut459 wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2024 12:16 pm 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

i usually uncheck the box that says "Enable Bluetooth Adapters on boot" in MX Tweak's Other tab.

Posted: **Sun Mar 10, 2024 8:03 am**

I think I got the Bluetooth thing worked out. It really was the setting in mx tweak.
Didn't got around to test the alsa saving setting, hopefully later today.

The Vivaldi account issues got fixed by
1 making sure ALL option got synched
2 copy the user account folder (see Vivaldi about page for location)
3 start new installed Vivaldi, close it.
4 copy over old user folder
5 start
6 input synch account credentials (never loose that password or all is lost)
7 close, restart all settings and accounts are working (mail, calendar, feeds, etc)

She is very happy with her new setup, it's really snappier now

Posted: **Sun Mar 10, 2024 8:12 am**

FYI: The latest Vivaldi is working well in my case. Apparently not universally from portions of this topic.

Posted: **Sun Mar 10, 2024 11:57 am**

xaol wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2024 12:35 pm
Code: Select all
sudo grep -i alsa /var/log/syslog
with systemd you could check one or both of the following
Code: Select all
sudo systemctl status '*alsa*'
sudo journalctl -b | grep -i alsa

Good afternoon, I adjusted alsa. performed sudo alsactl store and rebooted.
The changes didn't get saved, or at least not used on reboot.

Here the info of the systemD comands from above:

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl status '*alsa*'
[sudo] Passwort für Dana:     
● alsa-restore.service - Save/Restore Sound Card State
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/alsa-restore.ser>
     Active: active (exited) since Sun 2024-03-10 16:47:4>
       Docs: man:alsactl(1)
    Process: 873 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/alsactl -E HOME=/run>
   Main PID: 873 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 6ms

Mär 10 16:47:47 mxDana systemd[1]: Starting alsa-restore.>
Mär 10 16:47:47 mxDana systemd[1]: Finished alsa-restore.>
lines 1-10/10 (END)
Dana@mxDana:~
$ sudo journalctl -b | grep -i alsa
Mär 10 16:47:47 mxDana systemd[1]: alsa-state.service - Manage Sound Card State (restore and store) was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionPathExists=/etc/alsa/state-daemon.conf).
Mär 10 16:47:47 mxDana systemd[1]: Starting alsa-restore.service - Save/Restore Sound Card State...
Mär 10 16:47:47 mxDana systemd[1]: Finished alsa-restore.service - Save/Restore Sound Card State.
Mär 10 16:48:38 mxDana sudo[2386]:     Dana : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/Dana ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/systemctl status *alsa*
Mär 10 16:49:58 mxDana sudo[2736]:     Dana : TTY=pts/2 ; PWD=/home/Dana ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/systemctl status *alsa*

Action I do have to perform in alsamixer to hear sound:
1. Select Soundcard default:0 sof-essx.....
2. headphone from 0 to 100 if still muted or not doesn't matter, it works.
that's all that is needed.

Posted: **Sun Mar 10, 2024 12:07 pm**

FYI - I got a vivaldi-stable update on March 6th, (6.6.3271.48), so MAYBE? that Vivaldi issue has been resolved - don't know.
I posted (#14) problems on March 2nd.

Posted: **Mon Sep 02, 2024 5:20 am**

Going through my old posts.

The install went fine due to all the assistance here, and later on all other issues were mute points, or a plainly ignored or what ever by the owner of the laptop. In the end, the user is happier than ever before, and nothing was ever mentioned again.

Solved I guess :D

Thank you all very very much for the help and a great piece of software

Posted: **Mon Sep 02, 2024 5:43 am**

Please don't bump old topics, which is essentially what you are doing. It is nice you said thank you, but digging up from March for just that is a bit much.

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