Dolphin Oracle has announced the release of the second beta version of MX Linux 23.

MX-23 “Libretto” beta 2 now available for testing purposes

MX-23 beta 2 iso images for testing
–direct downloads:

Xfce:
32 bit Xfce with debian standard 6.1 kernel  sha256_checksum  md5_checksum  signature
64 bit Xfce with debian standard 6.1 kernel  sha256_checksum  md5_checksum  signature

KDE/plasma
64 bit KDE/plasma with debian standard 6.1 kernel  sha256_checksum  md5_checksum  signature

Fluxbox:
32 bit Fluxbox with debian standard 6.1 kernel  sha256_checksum  md5_checksum  signature
64 bit Fluxbox with debian standard 6.1 kernel  sha256_checksum  md5_checksum  signature

MX-23 beta 2 is now available for testing. MX-23 is built from debian 12 “bookworm” and MX repositories. As in past releases, the MX will default to sysVinit but systemd remains an option for installed systems.

This release builds upon beta 1, and includes all bug fixes and changes to date, including default wallpapers and theming.

As with beta 1, the Installer now supports swapfiles as well as swap partitions. The “regular” 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 “dump” entries that might be clogging up a user’s nvram. There is also additional help guidance right in the installer gui. We are also interested in testing of the –oem option, which allows for user creation on first boot after installation. KNOWN ISSUE: the –oem switch doesn’t currently work but will be addressed with an update.

The live boot menus now have a more obvious “check media” function right in the top level menu. The media will be checked and boot will continue if things look good. KNOWN ISSUE: selecting catalan in the live boot menu’s language option will get you czech. We are looking into it.

Major Desktop versions
Xfce 4.18
Fluxbox 1.3.7
KDE/plasma 5.27

Accessibility: All release now include orca screen reader and a screen magnifier tool. Fluxbox and Xfce have magnus screen magnifier, and KDE/plasma uses kmag. At this time due to debian’s orca packaging, orca does not appear in the menus but can be launched manually. In particular orca is configurable in KDE’s integrated accessibility settings.

Xfce is using xfce4-screensaver for screen locking chores instead of light-locker. This is proving to be more stable for some users.

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 that might prevent the created live system from starting up on different machines.

MX-Updater is back to using apt for a default backend, as nala turned out to have unforeseen issues.

All releases use pipewire & wireplumber instead of pulseaudio.

UFW firewall is enabled by default.

There are many new configuration options for the fluxbox release, as well as special “appfinder” configurations for rofi (replacing xfce4-appfinder). the fluxbox release relies much less on Xfce applications, but retains thunar for the file manager. mx-tweak’s theme module now has support for theming on fluxbox.

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.

With this beta 2 we are particularly interested in testing the installer (particularly after its next update), including traditional ext4 and btrfs installations, encrypted installs, as well as bug hunting the mx-tools, especially mx-packageinstaller->popular apps entries.

Known issues:

• MX Package Installer: test repo and backports tabs will not display anything because the repos don’t exist or are empty at this time. Feel free to test popular application installations. There has been a lot of work in the popular applications section, but its likely some problems still exist.
• The –oem switch for the installer does not currently work. Watch for an update to address this.
• Selecting catalan for the language in the live system boot options may result in czech instead. This is being looked at.

Feedback for testing should be via forum post here:  MX-23 beta 2 feedback thread

Be sure to include proper system data, including the output of quick-system-info.
If posting nvidia-installer (ddm-mx) issues, please post the contents of /var/log/ddm.log.
If posting remaster issues, please include the contents of /var/log/live/live-remaster.log
If posting installer issues, please include the contents of /var/log/minstall.log
If posting issues with MX-PackageInstaller “Popular Apps”, please post contents of /var/log/mxpi.log or /var/log/mxpi.log.old (whichever contains the log of your issue).

Thank you!

Dolphin Oracle (on behalf of the MX Dev Team)

MX-23 “Libretto” beta 2 now available for testing purposes – MX Linux