I don't understand why MX Linux defaults to "acpi-cpufreq" and doesn't offer a choice between "acpi-cpufreq" and "intel_pstate". My laptop was heating up to 110°C; I had to modify the GRUB configuration to get "intel_pstate"!

With "intel_pstate", my PC stays between 45 and 50°C.

Is there any possible way I could hide these icons here on desktop without deleting them? Tnx!

https://preview.redd.it/oghmn3dl4fbh1.png?width=1366&format=png&auto=webp&s=4ea07e43a4c574a47859de07ad11b2385259c1fe

I watched some youtube video about mx linux kde version, felt good and tried to switch from mint. But sadly after installing os, I restarted my laptop only to see dell opening system assist over and over again. Checked bios, found its doesn't even show my SSD. Tried everything from Google, secure boot, ahci, reinstalled SSD 3 times, but sadly SSD is dead, why did I even tried to install new os. 😞 😞 Bad luck I guess..

I've created a Discord server dedicated to MX Linux to have a real-time chat space, share configurations, and help each other with faster technical support. Everyone is welcome!link: https://discord.gg/QjAEuQebn

It's all in the title. Not asking if u can notice a difference tho if u do don't hesitate to say so. I'm asking from those who know, if they're literally identical or not and if not, how so?

Bonus: is there an upgrade in place tutorial that upgrades to the dual-init version of MX25?
Now that MX25 is dual-init, can u maintain a systemd or sysv only and not be harmed by upgrades? Like I guess the more general versoin of that question is, is the choice of init system like just 3 different separate ones , sysv, systemd, dual-init or is there wider ramifications of using one or another of them?

Beyond just being curious which is also why I wanted to go back to dual-init, I have no familiarity working with sysv, never noticed a difference in booting either when using MX21 or 23 except for a couple times when I needed systemd for something that had nothing to do with the OS itself. And then I learned how to do things with systemd so I probably don't have a use for dual-init since I created systemd services.

I followed the installs and removals on https://mxlinux.org/blog/mx-25-dual-init-setup/

I did the one coming from systemd only. The last install I get an error after the last step

sudo apt install sysvinit-init-diversity elogind-init-diversity

Errors were encountered while processing:
/tmp/apt-dpkg-install-Mp8rKw/5-initscripts-_3.14-4_all.deb
Error: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned error code (1)

I tried install initscripts on its own and get the same error.

My current MX25 install is from when it was beta iirc. I did the install in place from a snapshot of my running MX23.6 which I installed in a VM. The install in place was working. Just including that for history of the system. I wonder if that's the source. Either way I have no idea what this is about. And not urgent as this is a vm for testing the process. Still have my real MX23 install on my drive.

I tried it once and after this failure rebooted to see what would happen. It hung on the splash screen. I chrooted from a live session and did the revert to systemd only instructions and it booted. So currently I'm in my second trial. Got the same result, which is the resulting error I wrote above. Tho I started trying to fix it and probably muddied it now. To fix it I tried to do the revert to systemd only again, but I hadn't rebooted this time, I just, as soon as I got the error this time I did not reboot. I just started the steps for systemd only and it didn't work this time

This isn't my first attempt — I've previously tried Linux Mint, antiX, and now Zorin OS, all with similar boot problems on this specific laptop (GRUB/MBR issues tied to the legacy BIOS). I'm now testing MX Linux as well.

Most recently, I installed Zorin OS 18.1 (Ubuntu-based) from a live USB. Installation completed with no errors, and the live USB always boots fine. But the system won't boot on its own from the internal SSD — without the USB stick, the laptop either shows a blank screen, falls through to PXE/network boot (Intel UNDI, PXE-2.1), or lands on the Toshiba's manual Boot Menu instead of loading GRUB.

Diagnosis so far

Confirmed via ls /sys/firmware/efi in the live session that the system boots in BIOS/legacy mode, not UEFI.

Checked the partition table in the installer: the disk has

sda1 — bios_grub, 1MB

sda2 — EFI, FAT32, ~537MB

sda3 — ext4, root, Zorin OS 18.1

So it's a GPT disk with both a bios_grub partition and an EFI partition — a hybrid layout.

Repair attempt (chroot from live USB)

Código

grub-install reported "Installation finished. No error reported." update-grub found the kernel/initrd correctly. Exited chroot, unmounted everything, rebooted.

Result: no change. Still fails to boot from the SSD, still falls back to the Boot Menu / PXE, despite grub-install reporting success and the bios_grub partition existing on the GPT disk.

Question

Given grub-install --target=i386-pc completed without error, why would legacy BIOS still fail to find a bootable GRUB image on this GPT disk? Anyone run into the bios_grub flag not getting set correctly by the Ubuntu/Zorin installer, or some other gotcha with GPT + legacy BIOS on old hardware like this? Is this a recurring incompatibility with this specific Toshiba/Phoenix BIOS combo, given I've had similar issues across multiple distros?

Current plan

Since the GPT + EFI + bios_grub hybrid setup seems fragile for legacy BIOS booting, I'm doing a clean install of MX Linux 25.1 (Xfce, sysvinit) using an MBR partition table from the start to sidestep the GPT issues entirely.

Good day

Am a user of the snapshot tool in MX to create custom ISOs, reprovision old laptops using them and distribute them among poor communities, or for field use by wildlife researchers and such

I aim to create as simplified a user experience as possible, including installation, since most of the users are not going to be too tech savvy

Is there any way I can completely get rid of SysVinit and have only SystemD as the default option during install? One less way for the end user to get confused, and it leaves then with the option of using Snaps in the future, if they wish

Will any parts of the system break in the absence of SysVinit? Particularly the MX Tools? The Snapshot app is an essential feature for my end users too, to help with mass deployment

Bonus question - How does one go about getting the Snapshot tool working in AlmaLinux and Void Linux please? These are options I would like to try for distributing to others too

Thanks in advance

Is manual partition necessarily required? What about not getting that swap partion, the one they said supports the system ram if fully used? Do you know a detailed tutorial about the installation with this partition things? Thanks for your help! Btw, first time posting here

Hola a todos.

Estoy pensando en instalar MX Linux en un Lenovo ThinkPad L420 y me gustaría conocer sus opiniones y experiencias.

Las especificaciones de la laptop son:

○ Intel Core i5-2520M

○ Intel HD Graphics 3000

○ 4 GB de RAM DDR3 (planeo ampliarla a 8 GB)

○ Disco duro HDD SATA de 250 GB (más adelante lo cambiaré por un SSD)

○ BIOS Legacy (MBR)

El equipo será usado por mi padre únicamente para:

- Navegar por Internet.

- Revisar correo electrónico.

- Usar LibreOffice.

- Ver archivos PDF.

- Visualizar planos de AutoCAD (DWG), sin editarlos.

Probé instalar Linux Mint 22.3 Xfce, pero aunque el modo Live funcionó correctamente, el sistema instalado se queda bloqueado durante el arranque.

¿Creen que MX Linux sea una mejor opción para este hardware? ¿Es estable y recomendable para un usuario sin experiencia en Linux? Si alguien ha usado MX Linux en un ThinkPad L420 o en un equipo con especificaciones similares, agradecería mucho que compartiera su experiencia. Muchas gracias.

Hello everyone.

Recently I've bought a new mini PC — ASUS NUC 15 Pro (NUC15CRK, Intel Core Ultra 7 255H, 64 Gb RAM DDR5, NVMe SSD 2 Tb, Intel Arc Graphics, Windows 11 Pro).

Unfortunately, I cannot get rid of MS products right away, because the goddamned legal job sometimes requires MS Word (yes, LibreOffice is good, but there are issues with rendering difference). Therefore I have two options: either run GNU/Linux in a virtual machine or install it in dual boot on a secondary NVMe (I actually bought and inserted such SSD, which has a 2242 form factor for this particular mini PC model).

For now I went for the first option (using VMware Workstation Pro), since it allows for quick jumps between OSes without a reboot. Right now I'm typing from my brand new MX Linux 25.2 installation (KDE Plasma version), and I'm really happy about it.

Alas, mouse cursor movement feels a little bit off here. Not bad, just, like, 10% sluggish, 90% fine. As if there's a tiny, but annoying lack of smoothness and precision. I even barely notice it after half an hour of work, although it gets worse occasionally. And yet I think it's not just an illusion: I still have my older PC powered by MX Linux 23.4 around, so I can hot-plug/unplug HDMI cables into my monitor on the fly and compare my impression from two interfaces. The mouse itself remains the same (I just re-plug it).

I've already tried standard available fixes like turning on VMware mouse optimization for gaming, updating VMware Tools, tinkering with mouse settings in both host and guest OS, etc. The result was, as I said, my current acceptable yet imperfect experience.

And now I wonder: if it is actually just VMware side effect? How do you folks feel about mouse movement in MX Linux KDE Plasma version on Wayland? Does it feel different from what you had on X11?

I love MX so much. It's a no-nonsense OS crafted carefully, and if you want to change/add something it presents you the means to do it very easily.

I am also enjoying how I can prefer to be off-stream (no systemd, no wayland, and Xlibre coming at some point...?), while at the same time I encounter little resistance from going off-stream.

Truth is I am not even on MX yet, I am on Windows 10 LTSC IoT right now. I also was on Mint & CachyOS for some time as well. I installed & explored, tested, MX and antiX enough times that I know may way on these OS-es, using an old laptop as my test subject.

And the question that's been waiting for: is XanMod kernel worth it? Afaik, it provides a build for v2 (good, I have a Sandy Bridge CPu) which is LTS of kernel 6.18 and auto updates via their PPA. This sounds really nice. I am interested in this kernel because I want to maximize both the performance of my system while gaming, and the longevity of my Pascal GPU.

I chose MX23 at first because i had old GTX560Ti and the newer kernel didn't support it. Now i got a GTX1660 Super and it should work with MX25.

My question is, is it worth upgrading and is it a big hassle as i have a lot of additional software (some modified and built from Github) installed?

Can i just upgrade MX or do i need to do a clean install? I know, clean is usually recommended but...

Edit: As this version is still updated i have decided to not upgrade at this moment. But in the future i will be getting a new SSD and then do a clean install.

I am using Linux on and off for a decade, and have tried Ubuntu Unity (and Ubuntu Mate), Linux Lite, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed KDE, Kubuntu, and Mint (both XFCE and Cinnamon). I'm using Mint Cinnamon for several months now as my daily driver and enjoying its general simplicity and stability compared to more rapidly-updated distros.

However, I am intrigued by MX Linux, and am liking its general concept (and being Systemd-less, Debian based, and stable as bedrock from what I understand).

Desktop PC. Specs are AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (16) @ 4.665G, AMD ATI Radeon RX 6700 XT, 32 GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB M2 SSD, 2TB M2 SSD. LG wide screen (one monitor).

Use case is Firefox, LibreOffice, Scribus, some Python coding using Kate, and some gaming (some AAA titles but mostly indie stuff and old GoG games through Heroic and Lutris).

Please sell me on MX :-)

Hi, i managed to get both windows 10 and ms linux to boot from same ssd hard on my system (via internal system sata cable). I got a hold of an external caddy which iv since installed this ssd on to but when connected to my system via usb 3 it will not get to grub menu to boot into either os systems. I was hoping i could utilize both os from from any pc on my travels without having to lug with me a laptop. Any help/guidance appreciated.

Thanks