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MX Linux

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Wiki Table of Contents

MX FAQs

  • Version: MX-14, MX-15, MX-16, MX-17, MX-18, and MX-19
  • Section: Help Files

NOTE: this is the base English version. Available translations can be found when running Live or installed in /usr/local/share/doc/ or from any browser in the repo: https://github.com/MX-Linux/mx-docs/tree/master/FAQ/tr

Table Of Contents

General

Is MX Linux a rolling distro?

No, but whenever possible migration details are made available to allow users to avoid reinstalling. When the Debian base has changed or a new Xfce version is released (both of which occurred with MX-19), then reinstalling is needed for continued reliable use. Details in Users Manual, Section 1.6, and the Wikipedia article.

What’s the MX release cycle?

We make an official release annually, and use that year for the release number (for instance, MX-18 was released at the end of 2018). Because we work closely with our sister distro antiX, and track Xfce developments as well, the release usually comes toward the end of the year.

What’s the best way to upgrade from one version of MX to another?

Instructions for migration of different MX versions can be found on the Migration page of the MX Community website.

How long will a version of MX be supported?

We are currently supporting versions of MX from 14 through 18.3 through the Forum. MX 14 is based on Debian Wheezy, and wheezy LTS ceased being supported on 31 May 2018. MX 15/16 will also be supported for several more years; currently we try and roll any new packages we can for that version too, but as it ages, that becomes less practical. General support information is available in the Users Manual Section 1.4.

Lots of other distros are dropping their 32-bit versions. What about MX?

MX has no plans to discontinue 32-bit releases for the foreseeable future.

Does MX Linux release other official versions?

No. There are many Community respins available, however; see the list on the Forum.

Can I use Flatpaks, Snaps and Appimages?

Stand-alone packages are different in that they are essentially independent from the particular OS and do not need to be installed. For details, consult these pages:

Does MX have any social media presence?

MX has very active sites, see this list for details.

Does MX Linux have an IRC channel?

No, we do not host an IRC Channel.

Obtaining and Installing an ISO

Why does my installation stop at 94%?

It’s waiting for you need to fill in the information being requested on the screen. Press Next to go through all information screens.

Can I buy a USB with MX Linux already installed?

Unfortunately, that option is no longer possible since the company providing that service has gone out of business.

Can I install MX Linux on a computer that has Windows?

If the machine already has Windows 8 or later installed, then special steps must be taken to deal with the presence of (U)EFI and its best known feature Secure Boot. Most users are urged to turn off Secure Boot by entering the BIOS as the machine starts to boot. The Installer will normally take care of the process, but, unfortunately, the exact procedure after that sometimes varies by manufacturer. If you have problems, check the links to videos and documents in the Users Manual, Section 2.4.1; or seek advice on the Forum.

There is no install icon on the desktop, so what do I do?

That happens sometimes, especially with personal snapshots. Press F4 to get a terminal, and enter

sudo -E /usr/sbin/minstall

Configuration and customization

I hate the panel on the side! How can I move it somewhere where I want it?

The MX Tweak tool makes moving it to your preferred position very easy.

How can I install the codecs needed for multimedia?

Use MX Codecs Installer.

I don’t like XFCE. How can I install a different desktop?

A number of different desktops are available in the MX Package Installer under the category “Window Managers” and can be installed easily.

Can I use apps from another desktop on XFCE?

Applications from Window Managers other than XFCE that are in the default repos can be installed. Very often they will bring in other applications and libraries that are dependencies of the application. In some cases full functionality of the installed application may not be achieved and will require some research on how to enable that functionality. Also the appearance of the application may not be consistent with the XFCE default theme, especially since the upgrade to Xfce 4.14.

The window borders are too thin and I can’t easily resize windows because. Is there a way to do that?

Use Alt-F8 to grab the lower-right window corner and drag to the size you want. Alternatively, select a theme (Settings > Appearance) with larger borders.

How can I add a button to the Panel for one-click logout/shutdown/restart?

Right-click the Action Buttons icon at the top of the panel > Properties and uncheck everything except what you want to see. Even faster if you leave confirmation unchecked.

Security

I hear a lot about this Spectre and Meltdown stuff. Is MX secured? How can I check my system?

You can check the status of the kernel in use by running spectre-meltdown-checker in a root terminal. You will need to install the package from the default Debian Repositories with Synaptic or the MX Package Installer. Patched kernels are available with status descriptions in the MX Package Installer > Manage Popular packages under the Kernels category.

Can I use Ubuntu PPAs?

Ubuntu is not Debian, so installing PPAs will likely cause problems. See this article for details. Solution: Go to the request forum for your MX version, under Community Repository (CR), and ask our Packaging Devs if the PPA can be be ported or updated for our own repository.

Should I leave MX Test, Debian Experimental or Multimedia repositories enabled?

Leaving these repos permanently enabled will likely result in system instabilities and lead to a re-installation. Solution: use the MX-Tools > Package Installer to install individual packages from selected repos.

Why in the world do you have Flash installed?

MX Linux is fundamentally user-oriented, so includes a certain amount of non-free software to assure that the system works out of the box as much as possible. Flash is easily uninstalled using the Package Installer.

System

What’s the deal with MX and systemd? How come there are still systemd packages installed?

Systemd is included in order to allow some important applications to run, but it is not enabled by default. For more information see the Users Manual Section 1.7 and theWiki article.

How can I fix random login problems using Network Manager?

This is usually due to a known bug, see this Wiki article.

Is there a way that I can boot into systemd by default?

Yes. Boot into systemd by clicking on the line “Advanced options” on the opening screen (known as GRUB), then launch MX Boot options and check the box to “Enable saving last boot choice.”

Which package manager should I use?

There are two graphical package managers:

  • MX Package Installer (MXPI) for one-click installation/removal of popular apps, as well as apps in the Debian Stable, MX Test Repo, Debian Backports and the Flatpaks repo.
  • Synaptic Package Manager, a tool for a whole range of actions with Debian packages.

For details about these as well as command-line utilities, consult the Users Manual, Section 5.

How will I know when updates are available?

The little outlined box in the Notification Area will turn green; click on it to see the new packages.

v. 20191009

33 thoughts on “MX FAQs”

  1. Looking on the web for ways to create a bootable USB with Persistence I have found two methods described, none of which seem to apply to MX-18. Where can I find an up to date guide?

    Reply

  2. Ironically, the only way I could make a bootable iso was sing RUFUS in Windows. I tried to find a way in Ubuntu-MATE, but nothing worked! If you have a windows device, that may be your best bet. Sadly.

    Reply

  3. @richard , use the gnome-disk-utility, that’s installed by issuing the `apt install gnome-disk-utility` command via the terminal.

    Reply

  5. I used RUFUS to create the bootable USB. Then I believe I selected advanced boot options on the MX boot menu. One of the options was persistence saving root and home on logout. It is working fine.

    Reply

  7. You could also use the live usb disk for MX Linux then use the live usb maker from there. This assumes you have two usb ports.

    Reply

  8. PROŚBA.Staram się stworzyć na moim USB 8GB i systemem MX Linux 18.3 opcję live.Niestety nie mogę utworzyć takiej opcji.W żaden sposób nie mogę wybrać płyty ISO z systemem MX Linux 18.3.Te opcje widoczne na filmie nie są widoczne w moim komputerze.Bardzo proszę o pomoc.
    Pozdrawiam Wojciech

    Reply

  9. Hi. I recently installed MX to a bootable USB. It runs fine right after the install. But once I restart, none of the MX-Tools will launch. I followed the installation at default, so nothing was changed. I can tell that the whenever the Welcome screen pops up, everything works. But it’s like Russian Roulette. Sometimes it works fully, but most of the time it doesn’t. Can someone please help. MX feels like a solid and stable OS and I would like have it for everyday use.

    Reply

  10. One of the first questions I had about MX Linux was why were some of the settings found under Settings in the menu and some under MX Tools instead of them all being under Settings. I found out later that Settings came from upstream Debian with Xfce, and that MX added their own tools category apparently to keep the standard Xfce portions of the menu as original as possible for the benefit of people coming from other Xfce distros.

    Another issue I had was that it was difficult to find various settings at first, and once I’d found one and changed it I had trouble finding it again so I could change it back. It was as if things were scattered all over the place.

    It was really just a learning curve on my part, but maybe someone (possibly even me) could document the menu with screen captures and notes explaining what the different categories mean, plus the various settings and MX tools, as an aid to navigation.

    Reply

  11. “What’s the best way to upgrade from one version of MX to another?
    Instructions for migration of different MX versions can be found on the Migration page of the MX Community website.”

    Does that imply that there will always be a migration plan from any version to the next one ?
    Because I remember reading somewhere that MX 18.3 systems won’t be able to upgrade to 19 after it gets released.

    Is MX inteded to be semi-rolling ?

    Reply

  12. Another suggestion for the FAQ, or somewhere on the web site: absolute minimum and recommended minimum hardware requirements, with the first meaning that MX will at least boot and run and the second meaning that MX will probably perform adequately enough for general-purpose use.

    Reply

  14. Хорошая операционная система! Установил на слабый ноутбук Samsung R528, пришлось устранить один маленький недостаток – usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d и вставить созданный 20-intel.conf
    Section “Device”
    Identifier “card0”
    Driver “intel”
    Option “Backlight” “intel_backlight”
    BusID “PCI:0:2:0”

    EndSection

    Reply

  15. Friends! Is there a version without preinstalled SOFTWARE? Without very important software – games, iphone-plug, etc.

    Is it possible to get a clean system like when installing Ubuntu, when you can choose whether to put all this garbage to you or not.

    Reply

  17. In addition to “minimum and recommended hardware requirements” as already posted I would suggest to list also minimum and recommended system partition size.

    Reply

  18. Hi,
    I was installed MX Linux 18.3 four months ago on my laptop acer aspire es1-533 but the laptop didn’t properly shutdown(the display didn’t power off) . Could you please give me a valuable solution for it?

    Reply

  20. I am using a Three Monitor Setup with MX 19 the only thing is the resolution only goes 1920×1080 I need it to support 5760×1080. Is there anyway to get MX 19 to 5760×1080 ?
    It works with 3 monitors at 1920×1080 but it needs to be at 5670×1080
    My Nvidia card GTX 1060 with 6GB works fine in Win 10 and Win 7 with this setup.

    Does anybody know how to fix this proplem?
    Thank You
    Mark

    Reply

    • Due to the increasing presence of users with newer hardware (particularly newer AMD or Intel hardware), with this release, in addition to the standard 32 bit and 64 bit isos with 4.19 LTS kernels, we are producing a third iso that we call “Advanced Hardware Support” or AHS (pronounced Oz) for short. AHS is 64 bit and ships with a debian 5.4 kernel, Mesa 19.2 as well as newer xserver drivers and various recompiled apps that will utilize the newer graphics stack. We debuted the AHS repository sometime ago (blog post here), and we thought the time was right for an iso with the AHS repo enabled by default. AHS is a little untested, but the idea is that it will receive updates to the graphics stack over time, so for those that don’t need the newer open source graphics stack, there is little point is using AHS.

      Reply

  22. I am trying to figure out which ISO to down load for my antique gateway that ran windows xp but does not boot up properly. My q uestion is if i down load the wrong iso will I be able to download another. This could get a little pricey with each donation.

    Reply

    • Can you please post this on the Forum, since there is no short answer and these comments are not designed for support.

      Also: donations are totally optional, they have nothing to do with the ability to download

      Reply

  24. silly question: what are the passwords for root and demo in live media? i’m trying to use boot recovery but a password is needed 😀 thx.

    Reply

  25. the FAQ misses info on how to set environment variables,
    because neither adding them to .profile and neither adding them to .bash_profile helps.

    There are a bunch of weird distros like, which don’t configure those by default,
    Solus & MX are among them,

    Reply

  26. .profile Fix

    It seems like MX Linux using the older method of loading a .bashrc which a number of distros moved away from.

    if you are used to setting custom settings in a .profile file. You will need to remove the including of .bashrc from that file and add

    # include .profile if it exists
    if [ -f “$HOME/.profile” ]; then
    . “$HOME/.profile”
    fi

    lines to the .bashrc file to have it include the .profile instead of the other way around.

    Reply

  27. IRC No! Feel sad.. please consider to have a Chat room IRC / Discord / Slack etc. Not necessary core team have to join and support at least whole user/community can help eachother .

    Reply

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