59 replies to this topic

[sunrat]

My current daily OS has just released their latest version, MX-16. Go to https://mxlinux.org/products and make sure to watch the video to learn of all the marvellous features including some new and innovative MX tools. They also claim it's the best Live USB distro available now, which I can't dispute.

[saturnian]

sunrat, on 19 December 2016 - 10:13 PM, said:

They also claim it's the best Live USB distro available now, which I can't dispute.

That's actually the main thing I use MX for, live sessions. I do have an MX-15 installation on an old computer, but I rarely use it, it's just a "test" computer.

Mepis used to be my "primary" distro, and it was great for live sessions, too. Then the developer (Warren Woodford) quit the project. I think that MX is better than Mepis was, as things have turned out, but I prefer to install Debian (with Xfce). I keep MX on a flash drive for when I need a live session. MX-16, like MX-15, is (mostly) based on Jessie, so I'm hesitant to download the latest release. I think I'll wait until they release something based on Stretch.

One of the things that impresses me most about MX is the way the folks from the Mepis community stepped up after Warren left. Similar in some ways to what happened with the CrunchBang community, resulting in BunsenLabs, which is now another excellent distro.

[zlim]

I loved Simply MEPIS. I probably have a stick around with an old version on it for nostalgia.

I guess I'll have to grab and stick and take it for a test drive.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Mepis was a great Deb-based distro. It should never have faded away.

[sunrat]

Can confirm MX-16 does not use systemd by default. It is installed though because dependencies.

[abarbarian]

I have been using MX-15 as my main os, chose it due to sunrats posts here, on some old kit for eight or nine months, possibly longer. It has been slick and stable all that time. If MX-16 is better then that is great and I am looking forward to trying it out.

Do I need to do a clean install ? or can I upgrade my MX-15 in situ ?

[sunrat]

abarbarian, on 21 December 2016 - 06:36 AM, said:

Do I need to do a clean install ? or can I upgrade my MX-15 in situ ?

Yes you can upgrade. https://mxlinux.org/migration . It won't change personal settings like wallpapers and icons but will install the new ones so you can choose them later.

Quote

From MX-15 to MX-16 Final. Make sure that your MX15 install is fully upgraded and then search in MX Package Installer for Migration

Some in the forums have reported it to go smoothly. https://forum.mxlinu...p?f=104&t=40979

[abarbarian]

sunrat, on 21 December 2016 - 09:26 AM, said:

abarbarian, on 21 December 2016 - 06:36 AM, said:

Do I need to do a clean install ? or can I upgrade my MX-15 in situ ?

Yes you can upgrade. https://mxlinux.org/migration . It won't change personal settings like wallpapers and icons but will install the new ones so you can choose them later.

Quote

From MX-15 to MX-16 Final. Make sure that your MX15 install is fully upgraded and then search in MX Package Installer for Migration

Some in the forums have reported it to go smoothly. https://forum.mxlinu...p?f=104&t=40979

I;ll be giving that a go this or next week. Better read up and practice what the backup threads are saying first though

[zlim]

I now know if I need PAE or non-PAE. I have it written down somewhere but it was easier just to type in the commands than to try and find the notes.

I've also downloaded Rufus, which I've never used to create a stick before.

I won't get to this for a few days. My computer chair broke on Saturday night so we spent yesterday going to several stores to find a replacement. I won't order online because I want to sit in the chair and see how comfortable or uncomfortable it is.
I found one that was on sale but not in the store. I chose to have it shipped to the store because packages are stolen here and I don't want to spend an entire day staring at the street waiting for a delivery truck.
Surprisingly, the chair is in the store TODAY! We'll bring it home and put it together. My husband can't lift yet. (He's recovering from surgery). I'll have help to put it in the Jeep, then when I'm in the garage, I'll open the carton and take the bits and pieces out. I can manage that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Picked up the carton, brought in the pieces and I put it together. My husband was in charge of tightening the screws with the supplies Allen wrench.

I'm sitting in the new chair now and a lot more comfortable than I was earlier!

Edited by zlim, 21 December 2016 - 05:29 PM.

[sunrat]

Several people at Debian forums have said Rufus is rubbish. They recommend Win32 Disk Imager if you have to do it from Windows. dd or cp if you do it from Linux.
And yes, I'll be doing a partclone with Clonezilla before doing the migration. For Justin.

[zlim]

The problem is that on the MX site, you are instructed to use Rufus.
Scroll down to Notes https://mxlinux.org/download-links
Item #4 If you want to create a USB stick on a Windows base, we suggest you use Rufus, which supports our bootloader.

If it didn't say that, I would have used the 3 tools I'm already familiar with Universal Installer, unetbootin or LinuxLive.

Maybe I'll forget this and stick to the distros I already have.

[sunrat]

zlim, on 22 December 2016 - 12:43 PM, said:

The problem is that on the MX site, you are instructed to use Rufus.
Scroll down to Notes https://mxlinux.org/download-links
Item #4 If you want to create a USB stick on a Windows base, we suggest you use Rufus, which supports our bootloader.

Oops, if they say it works, it probably does. I just used dd last time. I should know better than to pass on unsubstantiated hearsay.
Edit - this just posted at Debian User Forums "...the Rufus program will only work if "DD" [sic] mode is selected." I guess I misunderstood the issue. Not rubbish if used correctly.

Quote

Maybe I'll forget this and stick to the distros I already have.

At least try it live. I was impressed enough to not use my old favourite KDE lately and make MX my No.1 system.

[zlim]

I had a chance to look at my cases with my live sticks and Linux notes this morning. Apparently I made MX-14 with unetbootin (on a Windows computer) and it worked fine.My notes say it has persistence, which I wondered about. If a live distro doesn't have persistence, I don't waste my time having a look. There are so many distros to pick from.

I might try it with unetbootin and see what happens.

[securitybreach]

zlim, on 23 December 2016 - 11:05 AM, said:

There are so many distros to pick from.

That is why I run them in KVMs or dockers. As long as you have ram to spare, it runs flawlessly since KVM uses the host's hardware instead of virtual hardware. This gives you much better performance, etc. There are a lot of frontends but like virt-manager as it is very easy to use and intuitive. Here is a screenshot of it in action, not on my server as I am out of town though.

[zlim]

No RAM to spare. Remember I have a 7" eeepc with a 4GB ssd (not all usable)  and the most RAM allowed is 1GB.
It came with a 512MB stick which I replaced the first week.

What you are discussing is way above my pay grade and not something I will learn about since my live sticks work allowing me to surf safely on the old 701 hardware. (It's nice to travel with because if it gets lost or stolen, at this point in time, it isn't much of a loss).

[securitybreach]

Yeah, sorry..I forget that not everyone has a desktop with 32gb of RAM and a server with 96gb of RAM..

[Hedon James]

securitybreach, on 25 December 2016 - 09:17 PM, said:

Yeah, sorry..I forget that not everyone has a desktop with 32gb of RAM and a server with 96gb of RAM..

oh, that was just mean!  na-ne-na-ne boo-boo!

[securitybreach]

Hehehe

[securitybreach]

And if your thinking that I am kidding..

[Hedon James]

I never doubted.  My old(er) rig has 32GB RAM, while my recently assembled desktop also has 32GB RAM.  Most of my other laptops & older desktop machines are somewhere between 2GB-4GB.  But 96GB....well that's just showing off!  

[securitybreach]

Hedon James, on 26 December 2016 - 10:32 AM, said:

I never doubted.  My old(er) rig has 32GB RAM, while my recently assembled desktop also has 32GB RAM.  Most of my other laptops & older desktop machines are somewhere between 2GB-4GB.  But 96GB....well that's just showing off!  

I made a post in Hardware when I first got it: http://forums.scotsn...showtopic=90462

[V.T. Eric Layton]

"My other car is a Jaguar."

[saturnian]

sunrat, on 21 December 2016 - 07:19 PM, said:

dd or cp if you do it from Linux

+1

From Linux, I've kinda given up on unetbootin, because it doesn't always work. I get much better results with dd, like at the very end of the notes at the end of the Download Links page (https://mxlinux.org/download-links). I kinda chuckled when I saw the following sentence because I think it says it all:

Quote

If the graphic USB creators fail, use one of the command line options below.

[securitybreach]

I prefer dd as well

[zlim]

I made the stick with unetbootin. I had the directions in front of me.
I had one item gfxboot.c32: not a COM32R image.
I typed live and away we went.
I'm currently using it on my 701 eeepc

I haven't been able to figure out what version of FF but I added some bookmarks to the toolbar and uBlockOrigin. All seems fine on this old slow 900MHz netbook booting from a USB stick. I'm happy with it.
Thanks to sunrat for starting this thread.

Edited by zlim, 26 December 2016 - 11:18 PM.