Nitrux

[fox]

Intrigued by what Jason posted about it earlier (see previous thread), I went to the website to download it. I used the development version, as I wasn't willing to pay 4 Euros for it unless I liked it enough to keep it. I used Baleina Etcher to transfer the iso to a USB stick. I tried to run it on my 2011 iMac and my xps 13. On the iMac it started up but never went past the first screen. On the xps, it booted up fine once I turned off secure boot. The desktop is very attractive, including the dock (Latte), icons and desktop picture. It starts up with a brief introduction, explaining some of the salient features of the distro. It was somewhat helpful. It comes with a few basic applications including a browser and LibreOffice. I tried a few applications, and all booted up. The distro was very responsive, even from a USB stick. It recognized my wifi, and I was able to get online easily. Next I tried using Konsole to find and install applications. I was successfully able to search for and install Firefox with the small amount of information given on App Images (the main format for applications) in the Intro, plus some intuition ("app install + the number of the package"). I found a version of Chromium, but couldn't find any google apps. Maybe they are available through Homebrew (their package manager). I was able to add LibreOffice Writer to the Latte dock and move it where I wanted it, but I couldn't put the Firefox I downloaded onto the dock.

The distro is supposed to be persistent, but it didn't save any of my changes I made through a reboot. I'll have to figure out how to do that the next time I play with it. I'm interested in exploring it further, but I anticipate that it won't suit my needs, with the biggest problem being that some of the applications I depend on won't be available. Stay turned, and if this intrigues you, please try it yourself and post your results.

[Jason]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Fox.

Two questions:

   
• What browser did it come with? You mentioned having to install Firefox separately
• What did you mean by Google apps? I use some apps that sync with Google online like geary for email (just trying it out) and MineTime for the calendar but no specific apps from Google. I thought those were only for Android.

[fox]

Their browser is called Waterfox Classic. I first tried searching for anything Google - I was thinking of google contacts. Next I tried searching for contacts, but got nothing through "app search". Incidentally, I was able to find Thunderbird and install it. It is working well. VLC is also available as an AppImage.

One other thing I did was to try the Nitrux USB stick on my 2012 Mac mini. It boots and works as well on it as it does on my xps. So I suspect that the problem on the iMac is secure boot. Nitrux cannot be used in secure boot mode.

[Jason]

Their browser is called Waterfox Classic. I first tried searching for anything Google - I was thinking of google contacts. Next I tried searching for contacts, but got nothing through "app search". Incidentally, I was able to find Thunderbird and install it. It is working well. VLC is also available as an AppImage.

I'm confused. Does Nitrux let you run Android apps?

[Jason]

The part about it not working if secure boot is enabled is understandable. Secure boot only works if the UEFI firmware knows of the OS, specifically the kernel. Major Linux distros are covered but this one obviously isn't. I don't even know what it's based on. Evidently, even the base OS is an AppImage.

With Linux, unless you have a specific need to have secure boot on, like another OS that needs it, it's best just to turn it off. It's a solution for a problem that advanced users don't have - having rootkits load foreign OSes or other executables at boot time. I'm not an IT specialist but among my friends, I haven't heard of a single case like that.

[fox]

Thanks for that, Jason. I never thought about secure boot in that way before. I have it enabled on my xps and I'm now thinking of disabling it. I also looked up secure boot on the MacOS, and I don't think that's the problem on my iMac. No secure boot was implemented on Mac computers until they brought in the T2 chip around 2017. So it might be a video issue. The video card on the 2011 iMac is a Radeon, whereas the 2012 Mac mini is just the onboard Intel. On the iMac, it started to boot but it didn't make it past the splash screen. On the mini, the next screen allowed one to choose boot options with different video drivers.

Regarding Google software, I'm not referring to Android apps, although the Nitrux devs state that you can run Android apps on Nitrux. Google Contacts on Linux is a launcher; it starts up a browser and takes you to the Google Contacts website. There is one for Google Calendar as well, though it doesn't seem to work on recent versions of Ubuntu.

There are going to be many apps I regularly use that aren't packaged as AppImages. (Two examples that I tried to find: SimpleNote and Mendeley.) So for this distro to have any value to me, there would have to be another way I could install them. (Snap? Flatpack? Homebrew?)

The other clear limitation of this distro that would affect me is customization. Nitrux uses a modified form of Plasma which is very attractive but appears to be not very flexible. An example I already encountered was not being able to add Firefox to the Latte Dock. I read in earlier reviews that adding a dock or using modification options that appear to be possible just lock up the dock or make it disappear altogether. I haven't tried either of those options yet, but to me, the whole point of Linux is having the ability to make the system look and work the way you want it to. At any rate, the new ways of doing things in Nitrux make it worth further exploration, and I will play with it some more.

[Jason]

Thanks for that, Jason. I never thought about secure boot in that way before. I have it enabled on my xps and I'm now thinking of disabling it. I also looked up secure boot on the MacOS, and I don't think that's the problem on my iMac. No secure boot was implemented on Mac computers until they brought in the T2 chip around 2017. So it might be a video issue. The video card on the 2011 iMac is a Radeon, whereas the 2012 Mac mini is just the onboard Intel. On the iMac, it started to boot but it didn't make it past the splash screen. On the mini, the next screen allowed one to choose boot options with different video drivers.

Can you disable the Radeon in the BIOS or I guess UEFI would be more accurate? Even if just to rule out video is the issue? If the onboard video is really good, you might not even need the Radeon enabled although I seem to recall you have at least a 4K display so that might not work out. Can't hurt to try, though.

Regarding Google software, I'm not referring to Android apps, although the Nitrux devs state that you can run Android apps on Nitrux. Google Contacts on Linux is a launcher; it starts up a browser and takes you to the Google Contacts website. There is one for Google Calendar as well, though it doesn't seem to work on recent versions of Ubuntu.

I did not know this - you taught me something new.

I don't know what to about the apps you're interested in not having AppImages. If they have Snaps or Flatbacks you can check on the websites for both how to setup Snap and Flatpak. I recall doing it for FlatPaks once. Once it's setup it will appear in the repositories for Nitrux if it allows it. If not, you may still be able to install Flatpaks via the command-line. But honestly, who knows? Nitrux is basically a distro of its own and probably has certain things that it will not allow like you noted with that dock. I wonder if there is a program or website that will convert flatpaks or snaps to AppImages. They're all doing the same thing - self-contained programs with libraries.

Btw, you might be able to make your own "dock" within Plasma, sort of. The bar that usually appears at the bottom and be customized to be shorter, the icons bigger, the tray removed and so on. I know it won't be the same but it might be more pleasant.

[fox]

Can you disable the Radeon in the BIOS or I guess UEFI would be more accurate? Even if just to rule out video is the issue? If the onboard video is really good, you might not even need the Radeon enabled although I seem to recall you have at least a 4K display so that might not work out. Can't hurt to try, though.

I have no idea how one would do that on an iMac. This 2011 iMac doesn't have a 4K display; it's 2560x1440.

[Jason]

Can you disable the Radeon in the BIOS or I guess UEFI would be more accurate? Even if just to rule out video is the issue? If the onboard video is really good, you might not even need the Radeon enabled although I seem to recall you have at least a 4K display so that might not work out. Can't hurt to try, though.

I have no idea how one would do that on an iMac. This 2011 iMac doesn't have a 4K display; it's 2560x1440.

Did some quick searches and it might not be possible. I saw some command-line software from sourceforge for editing the settings but it looks old so not sure if it's trustworthy. Evidently, Apple locks this down hard so users can't mess with it and to prevent other OSes from being installed, at least not easily.

[fox]

I also tried booting it up in a VirtualBox VM. Didn't work. Next, I downloaded a VDI image of an earlier version of Nitrux and tried booting that in VirtualBox. Same result; doesn't work. I guess this distro doesn't like iMacs.

[fox]

Surprise, surprise. It took about 2 minutes, but Nitrux on the USB stick booted up my 2015 5K iMac. Unfortunately, it doesn't adjust automatically for high dpi, so the menus are very small. It does have a scaling factor, but the change requires a reboot and I haven't yet figured out how to make this persistent. I have no idea why this booted up the newer iMac but not the older one. Both have Radeon video cards.