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Release Announcement: Nitrux 1.5.1

By Uri Herrera2 August, 2021Changelog

Today is the day! — Nitrux 1.5.1 is available to download

We are pleased to announce the launch of Nitrux 1.5.1. This new version brings together the latest software updates, bug fixes, performance improvements, and ready-to-use hardware support.

Nitrux 1.5.1 is available for immediate download.

📜 Table of Contents

  1. What’s new
  2. Download
  3. Known issues
  4. Notes
  5. Report bugs
  6. Changelog history
  7. Resources

 

✨ What’s new

  • We’ve updated the LTS 5.4 kernel to version 5.4.137.

    • If you remove this kernel and want to install it again, run the following command. 
      • sudo apt install linux-image-mainline-lts-5.4
  • We also offer the mainline LTS and the latest (as of this post) non-LTS kernels from our repository, currently 5.10.55 and 5.13.7, respectively.
    • The 5.13.7 non-LTS kernel is now the default in the distribution.
    • To install either of these kernels, run one of the following commands. 
      • sudo apt install linux-image-mainline-lts
sudo apt install linux-image-mainline-current
  • We also offer the latest (as of this post) Liquorix and Xanmod kernels from our repository, currently 5.12.0-19.3, 5.13.7. and 5.13.7-cacule, respectively.
    • To install either of these kernels, run one of the following commands. 
      • sudo apt install linux-image-liquorix
sudo apt install linux-image-xanmod
sudo apt install linux-image-xanmod-cacule
  • We also offer the latest (as of this post) Linux Libre LTS and non-LTS kernels from our repository, currently 5.10.55 and 5.12.19, respectively.
    • To install either of these kernels, run one of the following commands. 
      • sudo apt install linux-image-libre-lts 
sudo apt install linux-image-libre-current

Welcome (Calamares QML Module.)

Locale (Calamares QML Module.)

Keyboard (Calamares QML Module.)

Users (Calamares QML Module.)

  • We’ve updated the minimal ISO to the same base as the main release.

  • We’ve added our new repository, kindly sponsored by Packagecloud.io.
  • We’ve added two virtual appliances for those interested in trying Nitrux in a virtual machine. The virtual appliances are created using VirtualBox 6.1.26. Below is a comparison table of the virtual appliances’ default configuration.
    • After adding the virtual appliances, Users can configure their hardware settings to fit the host capabilities.
    • The password for the virtual appliances and the default user is nitrux.
      • No extra software (other than the Oracle Guest Additions) is installed, where applicable.
Default VM Configuration Standard (w/ NX Desktop) Minimal (w/o NX Desktop)
General Encrypted Storage ✔
System Motherboard, CPU, RAM 6GB RAM
6 CPU Cores		 800MB RAM
1 CPU Core
EFI, VT-x/AMD-v, KVM, nested paging
ICH9
Screen Graphics Controller 128MB 16MB
VMSVGA
3D Acceleration ✔ 🚫
Storage SATA 4x Ports w/ host cache
Audio PulseAudio, Intel HD Audio ✔
Network Intel 82545EM Server ✔
Serial Ports 🚫
USB USB 3.0 ✔ 🚫
USB 2.0, 1.1 ✔ ✔
Extras Guest Additions from ISO ✔ 🚫

📥 Download

Here are various ways to download our ISOs and virtual appliances.

Checksums (MD5).

ISO build commit (Travis CI/GitHub).

To see this information, open the ISO file with a file archiver and open the text file named “.INFO”. When reporting bugs, please add this information so that we can review the build log. All of our ISO files (past and present) contain this file.

  • nitrux-release-amd64_2021.08.03.iso: RELEASE 5faa6e3.
  • nitrux-release-minimal-amd64_2021.08.03.iso: RELEASE 7485f5b.

⛔ Known issues

  • cgroupfs-mount needs to be started manually, followed by dockerd to initialize the Docker daemon to use Docker containers.
  • When booting our ISO in a recent Virtualbox (6.1.14+) and EFI is enabled, the ISO is not booted automatically. To boot the ISO, access the Virtualbox EFI firmware pressing ESC during boot, then navigate to Boot Maintenance Manager, then Boot From File; The boot menu will display a list of devices; select the entry that has CDROM in it, then select the entry <efi> and press Enter, then select <boot> and press Enter, then select <bootx64.efi> and press Enter.
    • VMWare Workstation does not present this problem.
  • In some instances, the system will (seemingly) halt its boot process with the error ERROR: plymouth failed to start. Check the issue at GitHub for more information, and also, we’re offering a bounty for anyone willing to fix this problem.
  • Due to a bug resulting from a combination of dosfstools 4.2.1, libkpmcore 21.04.3, and Calamares, we strongly recommend users not to update dosfstools during the Live session. Once the system is installed, users can upgrade dosfstools as well as libkpmcore safely.
  • When selecting a region and timezone in Calamares while using the new QML modules, the locale settings might be misconfigured depending on which city is selected. As a workaround, select another city within the same timezone or change the timezone post-installation. Alternatively, uninstall the QML settings for Calamares and install the settings used in previous ISO releases. To do the latter, run the following commands in the Live session. 
    • sudo apt purge --remove calamares-qml-settings-nitrux && sudo apt install calamares-settings-nitrux
  • In Calamares, on the Partitions module, the top panel will cover the dropdown menu to select the installation target; this occurs because the Partitions module is not QML; it’s QWidgets-based. As a workaround, bring up the Latte Dock by holding the Super key, right-clicking the Calamares icon, and selecting More actions > Keep above others.

🗒 Notes

  • OpenGL acceleration is used by default if you use Nitrux in a VM, open System Settings>Monitor>Compositor, and select XRandr in addition to disabling desktop effects like Blur for better performance. Additionally, disable the compositor in System Settings and utilize a lighter alternative like xcompmgr.
  • To utilize 3D acceleration in a hypervisor like VirtualBox, please use the guest additions ISO from Oracle, do not use the Debian packages from the repositories. For VMware Workstation and VMware Player, please use the package open-vm-tools-desktop from the repositories.
  • By default, when creating a new virtual machine in VirtualBox, the graphics controller selected is VMSVGA, which requires the guest additions to be installed to change the screen resolution. Changing the graphics controller to VBoxVGA or VBoxSVGA will allow changing the resolution without the guest additions.
  • The managed locations (and thus the default) for AppImages in Nitrux are /Applications and ~/Applications.
  • AppImages launched from the application menu will be launched using firejail for sandboxing by default.
  • The default user and password are nitrux.
  • Using the Global Theme KCM does not alter the Kvantum theme; to properly change the Kvantum theme, use Kvantum Manager.
  • The Kvantum theme does not pick up the color scheme selected using the Colors KCM since the Kvantum SVG theme engine does not work. When Kvantum is used, the color scheme complements the Kvantum theme, as the theme already provides the colors for the UI widgets.
  • Discover, and the Maui apps use QML and not QtWidgets like System Settings, Ark, KCalc, etc. So they are not themed to the full extent that QtWidgets apps are because Kvantum does not support QML adequately.
  • Both Kvantum themes support transparency and blur, but it’s not enabled by default.
  • We include two layouts for the desktop, one is the default top panel and bottom dock, and the other is a single bottom panel; Latte Dock uses both. To change between them, right-click the dock or the panel. Using the Global Theme KCM and checking “Use desktop layout from theme” does not change the layout.
  • The Flathub repository is not added by default. However, it can be easily added using Plasma Discover by going to Settings>Add Source or using the terminal and entering the Flathub URL described in the Flatpak quick setup guide.
  • Nitrux is exclusively a 64-bit Linux distribution; however, software like Steam (32-bit) can be installed using Flatpak, and Windows software can be run using Wine. See using Wine in Nitrux.
  • We’ve removed the Nvidia proprietary driver from the ISO file due to a laptop bug using Optimus. However, users who wish to use the Nvidia proprietary driver can run the following command post-installation.
    • The command will install the driver, the driver settings program, the PRIME command, and our X11 configuration for the Nvidia driver. For laptop users, after installing the package, the default PRIME profile will be on-demand. 
      • sudo apt install -yy nvidia-x11-config
  • The Plasma (Wayland) session works better with Intel and AMD graphics cards and Nvidia graphics cards using the Noveau driver. Additionally, the session can work with Nvidia graphics cards utilizing the proprietary driver, albeit with reduced performance.
  • When installing the meta-packages to add other desktop environments in the minimal ISO, depending on the meta-package, it may or may not include the complimentary utilities such as a file manager, text editor, terminal emulator, web browser, etc., or additional hardware drivers. As well as customizations of any kind, this is not a bug.
  • By default, only a single TTY is enabled (TTY7) to display the graphical session. To enable other TTYs, run the following command.
    • The default TTY for the graphical session can change if your computer is utilizing the Nvidia proprietary driver.
    • # Replace ttyX with a number, i.e., tty2..{3,4,5}.
sudo agetty -s 38400 -t 600 ttyX linux &
  • We also offer users the possibility of using Git builds of MESA to complement the performance gains from utilizing either the two new kernel options, Liquorix or Xanmod. To do this, run the following commands. 
    • sudo apt install mesa-git
sudo apt upgrade -yy
  • For users that decide to use the minimal ISO, here’s an i3 cheat sheet to get around it.
  • To start Calamares in the minimal ISO, run the following command. 
    • sudo -E calamares
  • We also include a simple text file called installed_pkgs.txt in the root that, as its name suggests, lists all installed packages by default in the distribution. This file is present in both ISO files, and users can use it to compare larger changes from release to release, like package updates.

🐞 Report bugs

To report bugs, please use our bug tracker at GitHub.

📝 Changelog history

To see a list of previous changelogs, click here for the changelogs archived at our site, or click here for the changelogs archived at Sourceforge.

📰 Resources

Here are various articles, tutorials, and other information directly on our blog.

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