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SpanishNOTE: 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
- General
- Is MX Linux a rolling distro?
- What’s the MX release cycle?
- What’s the best way to upgrade from one version of MX to another?
- How long will a version of MX be supported?
- Lots of other distros are dropping their 32-bit versions. What about MX?
- Does MX Linux release other official versions?
- Can I use Flatpaks, Snaps and Appimages?
- Does MX have any social media presence?
- Does MX Linux have an IRC channel?
- Obtaining and Installing an ISO
- Configuration
and customization
- I hate the panel on the side! How can I move it somewhere where I want it?
- How can I install the codecs needed for multimedia?
- I don’t like XFCE. How can I install a different desktop?
- Can I use apps from another desktop on XFCE?
- The window borders are too thin and I can’t easily resize windows because. Is there a way to do that?
- How can I add a button to the Panel for one-click logout/shutdown/restart?
- Security
- System
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 Stable base has changed then reinstalling is needed for continued reliable use. Details in Users Manual, Section 1.6, the Wikipedia article.
What’s the MX release cycle?
We make official releases several times per year. As of MX-19 and forward, major version changes happen with debian stable major updates, with “point releases” in between.
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?
A chart is located here: Previous Releases
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?
There are 4 official isos, as well as many Community respins available, 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 exact procedure to disable Secure Boot 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
minstall-pkexec
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?
Most codecs are already installed. Use MX Codecs Installer to bring in a few legacy formats as well as DVD playback support.
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
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?
Flash is now End-of-life. As of MX-19.3 it is no longer preinstalled. Users that still have flash installed should remove it. There is an entry in MX-Packageinstaller→Popular Apps for that purpose.
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.
- KDE/plasma uses muon in lieu of synaptic.
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 mx-updater icon in the Notification Area will change to indicate an update is available; click on it to see the new packages.
60 thoughts on “MX FAQs”
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?
Usa Rosa Image Writer, no necesitas ni instalarla, la descomprimes, la ejecutas, creas el disco de arranque y listo. Si no te encuentra la imagen, le cambias la extensión de .iso a .img y listo, te crea una imagen funcional en tu USB.
Por si te es más fácil, también puedes usar SparkyLinux (por ejemplo) en modo Live y crear con su herramienta para crear USBs de arranque, una memoria USB con MX Linux 18 o 19, abres dicha herramienta, le dices qué pendrive quieres usar, dónde tienes la iso y listo, te pasa los archivos a tu USB.
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.
Hi Richard,
I made a bootable iso using balena etcher on ubuntu mate. Worked perfect when I installed MX 19. Only caveat was I had to turn off secure boot in my bios before the usb would get recognized.
Hope that helped,
Pete
Instructions giving in Manjaro Wiki works for MX-Linux ISO’s
https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php/Burn_an_ISO_File
You couldve tried balenaEtcher in Ubuntu Mate, it supports Windows, Mac OS and Linux and it has a really simple interface
Balena Etcher is definitely the way to go. AFAIK it’s an electron program, that’s to say it’s nearly platform independent being effectively desktop-JS-under-node-under-your-OS. Just runs / works beautifully. Detects your USB media (even if you change them while its open) and just nails the job.
Probe balena etcher en mi Mx Linux con la version 19.4 aunque funciona a la hora de realizar los USB falla no me explico porque.
@richard , use the gnome-disk-utility, that’s installed by issuing the `apt install gnome-disk-utility` command via the terminal.
I used YUMI (yumi) to create a bootable iso
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.
Try Clover bootloader, it works nicely
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.
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
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.
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.
“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 ?
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.
Yes, that’d be great.
It’s already in Section 1 of the Users Manual, but we could cross link
Where can i see the minimum hardware requirements. I have a old core2 duo with 1GB RAM and i still can’t find in the help whether i can install MX Linux on it.
hi! what are boot parameters for menuentry to run mxlinux.iso as a liveOS with grub2? some standard are no good.
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
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.
Sounds like you need to look into Arch.
@Andrey, “base” or “netinstall” versions etc. are available in antiX if you like. But not in MX currently.
In addition to “minimum and recommended hardware requirements” as already posted I would suggest to list also minimum and recommended system partition size.
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?
@Gajan >> Forum, not here
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
This question needs to be posed on the Forum, where MX support is provided. Thanks.
What is AHS 64 bit?
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.
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.
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
Audio not working when connected with headphones
Earphones. Please help
Please post this on the Forum, thanks.
Mi audio funciona, tanto si conecto auriculares, como si no.
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.
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,
.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.
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 .
Hello,
Is there a list of graphic software programs that works, or don’t work with LinuxMX?
Please send me a url of that list.
The “Snaps” link under “Can I use Flatpaks, Snaps and Appimages?” is incorrect. It should be https://mxlinux.org/wiki/applications/snap-packages-and-mx-linux/
Fixed, thanks.
Hi, my installation won’t go past [email protected]: 〜
I am a newbie, so be gentle. I’m trying to run it as a live session on a brand new Windows laptop, so I’m trying not to F-up. Help, please!
Please >> forum.mxlinux.org
I can install ms0ffice2007 on MX19.2 with q4wine and Wine
But I cannot install on MX19.3
I use mxlinux as a live os. but the customized mx linux system does not appear in another pc. what is the reason????
Hallo! Nutzung von MX19.3 auf Legion 5. Mauspad funktioniert leider nicht, Software für den dauerhaften Einsatz nicht geeignet?
Bitte >> forum.mxlinux.org für Hilfe
salve,ho installato MX linux,ma proma che si avvia vedo delle scritte con numeri in inglese in bianco per un po di tempo poi una schemata nera poi vedo MX linux tutto questo dai 3-4 minuti…troppo tempo..si puo’ risolvere il problema?grazie…
Per piacere >> forum.mxlinux.org
comment supprimer sur terminal xfce ceci:Err :5 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian buster InRelease
Les signatures suivantes n’ont pas pu être vérifiées car la clé publique n’est pas disponible : NO_PUBKEY 76F1A20FF987672F
Lecture des listes de paquets… Fait
W: Erreur de GPG : https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian buster InRelease : Les signatures suivantes n’ont pas pu être vérifiées car la clé publique n’est pas disponible : NO_PUBKEY 76F1A20FF987672F
E: Le dépôt https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian buster InRelease n’est pas signé.
N: Les mises à jour depuis un tel dépôt ne peuvent s’effectuer de manière sécurisée, et sont donc désactivées par défaut.
N: Voir les pages de manuel d’apt-secure(8) pour la création des dépôts et les détails de configuration d’un utilisateur.
running mx on a 1.10 q core 4 gigs of ram , video has frame rate problems , on utube and VLC player need help to fix ,,,,, thankyou most kind………matty
Just got the MX-21_x64 “ahs” up and running on a new NUC. Fantastic! Thanks & keep up the good work.
Добрый день Всем! Нужна помощь! У меня ноутбук Toshiba Satellite L50-A-160 Система UEFI. Я решил поставить MX Linux 21 KDE Plasma. Скачал образ установил на флешку, поставил новый SSD диск, и как раньше делал установку без раздела диска. Когда закончилась установка и пришло время перегрузки, то компьютер перегрузился и опять вернулся в установочное меню. Мне сказали, что с системой UEFI надо разделить диск, но как это делать именно в моём случае я не знаю. Прошу подсказать,
Спасибо!
Its possible install MX Linux on Laptop with Intel and Nvidia hybrid graphics? and, if this possible, can i put nvidia hardware render complete my desktop?
Hallo
Wie sicher ist die Verschlüsselung des Betriebsystems unter MX-LInux? Also die ganze Festplatte bei der Installation.
Vielen Dank
Hello
How secure is the operating system encryption under MX-LInux? So the whole hard drive during installation.
Thanks a lot
How can i make a snapshot with Sistemd boot enabled ?