{"id":4236,"date":"2023-05-31T07:37:31","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T14:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=4236"},"modified":"2023-06-01T07:23:38","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T14:23:38","slug":"mx-linux-23-beta-now-available","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2023\/05\/31\/mx-linux-23-beta-now-available\/","title":{"rendered":"MX Linux 23 Beta Now Available"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A much easier way to run Debian with a lot of nice tools is MX Linux<\/a>, and with Debian 12, Bookworm, due to be released on June 10th, the first Beta of MX Linux 23 based on Bookworm is now available. I was running the Beta version of Debian 12 and I didn’t have a single issue, so the Beta of MX Linux should be pretty stable. Consequently, I switched my Debian 12 to Sid (Unstable), which is the latest development packages for Debian and it’s been stable as well (Debian branches are Stable, Testing, Unstable\/Sid – Sid being a reference to the movie Toy Story <\/em>and the neighbor kid that broke his toys). After running versions of Arch Linux that are running the latest packages, I now prefer to run rolling release distributions<\/a> with current software from developers. Debian Sid (Unstable) is pretty close to Arch being much more current than Debian’s Stable branch, and in essence a rolling release except for a short time leading into a new release of Debian. MX Linux isn’t a rolling release, but the Beta is pretty up to date at the moment and a great distribution to run, and it’s No. 1 on Distrowatch<\/a> for good reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can see below that MX Linux is running the newest LTS, Long Term Support, Linux kernel 6.1 (latest released Linux kernel is 6.3), and KDE Plasma 5.27.5. Looking at the Debian notes, they’ve upgraded KDE to 5.27.5 from 5.27.2 for the new release of Debian 12 Bookworm, pulling it in even though they had previously locked packages for the release. So the new version of Debian and MX Linux will have the latest version of KDE as the 5.27 branch is the end of the road for KDE 5 with only bug fixes coming, as the KDE Team has devoted themselves to the upcoming KDE 6.0 version which has a lot of work to be done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the MX Linux tools listed below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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https:\/\/mxlinux.org\/blog\/mx-23-libretto-beta-1-now-available-for-testing-purposes\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

MX-23 \u201cLibretto\u201d beta 1 now available for testing purposes<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

May 28, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MX-23 beta 1 iso images for testing
\u2013direct downloads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xfce:
32 bit Xfce with debian standard 6.1 kernel<\/a> sha256_checksum<\/a> md5_checksum<\/a> signature<\/a>
64 bit Xfce with debian standard 6.1 kernel<\/a> sha256_checksum<\/a> md5_checksum<\/a> signature<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

KDE\/plasma
64 bit KDE\/plasma with debian standard 6.1 kernel<\/a> sha256_checksum<\/a> md5_checksum<\/a> signature<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fluxbox:
32 bit Fluxbox with debian standard 6.1 kernel <\/a>sha256_checksum <\/a>md5_checksum<\/a> signature<\/a>
64 bit Fluxbox with debian standard 6.1 kernel<\/a> sha256_checksum <\/a>md5_checksum <\/a>signature<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MX-23 beta 1 is now available for testing. MX-23 is built from debian 12 \u201cbookworm\u201d and MX repositories. As in past releases, the MX will default to sysVinit but systemd remains an option for installed systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as a ton of under-the-hood work, here are some items that are new in MX-23 beta 1:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Installer now supports swapfiles as well as swap partitions. The \u201cregular\u201d auto installation will default to swapfiles. There are many other installer changes, including gui adjustments, setting of some debconf value to make legacy grub-pc updates more seamless, various fixes for grub install functions and cleanup of \u201cdump\u201d entries that might be clogging up a user\u2019s nvram. There is also additional help guidance right in the installer gui. We are also interested in testing of the \u2013oem option, which allows for user creation on first boot after installation.

The live boot menus now have a more obvious \u201ccheck media\u201d function right in the top level menu. The media will be checked and boot will continue if things look good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major Desktop versions
Xfce 4.18
Fluxbox 1.3.7
KDE\/plasma 5.27

MX Tools: Many mx apps have been updated with bug fixes and enhancements. All tools now launch with individual policy kit configurations rather than using the blanket mx-pkexec from past releases. mx-pkexec is not preinstalled.

The very popular MX Snapshot has received a lot of attention to help users customize their snapshot boot options while automatically filtering out option sthat might prevent the created live system from starting up on different machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MX-Updater now uses nala for the backend by default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All releases use pipewire & wireplumber instead of pulseaudio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UFW firewall is enabled by default.

There are many new configuration options for the fluxbox release, as well as special \u201cappfinder\u201d configurations for rofi (replacing xfce4-appfinder). the fluxbox release relies much less on Xfce applications, but retains thunar for the file manager. mx-tweak\u2019s theme module now has support for theming on fluxbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The KDE\/Plasma received several tweaks to the settings to deal with new configuration options available in plasma 5.27. Root actions remain in dolphin, including root dolphin instances via the root service menu actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this beta 1 we are particularly interested in testing the installer, including traditional ext4 and btrfs installations, as well as bug hunting the mx-tools, especially mx-packageinstaller->popular apps entries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Known issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n