Below is a list of release notes we recommend reading before installing the distribution.
📜 Table of Contents
- Installing Nitrux
- Live Session Information
- Upgrading From Previous Versions
- Minimal ISO Information
- Adding Bluetooth devices, Printers, or additional Wireless Networks
- Virtualizing Nitrux
- Virtual Appliances Information
- Managing AppImages
- Managing Debian Packages
- Support for Other Self-Contained Formats
- Alternative Stores
- Using Foreign Architectures
- Installing Steam
- Using Wine
- Using Proton-GE
- Nvidia Proprietary Driver Information
- Wayland Information
- PipeWire Information
- MESA Information
- Latte Dock Information
- Support for Launchpad Personal Package Archives
- Compiling Software in Nitrux
- Working with overlayroot in Nitrux
- Misc. Information
🗒 Notes
Installing Nitrux
- Check this tutorial to install the distribution.
- ⚠️ Important: The installation process requires mandatory active internet connectivity via wired or wireless connections. Please connect to a functional network before starting the installer.
- To view the output of Calamares during installation, click the icon next to the progress bar or run it from the terminal.
- ⚠️ Important: The installation process requires mandatory active internet connectivity via wired or wireless connections. Please connect to a functional network before starting the installer.
sudo -E calamares -d
- We have added the ability for users to perform full-disk encryption during installation when using the automated partition options in Calamares (Replace partition and Erase disk)(*).
- ⚠️ Important: Calamares does not support encrypting a single partition in a multiple partition layout using the automated partition options; therefore, checking “Encrypt system” and thus encrypting multiple partitions results in a broken system; see the latest Known Issues. To encrypt a single partition, users must use the Manual partitioning option, create a partition layout similar to ours and encrypt the desired partition.
- ⚠️ Important: Calamares does not support encrypting a single partition in a multiple partition layout using the automated partition options; therefore, checking “Encrypt system” and thus encrypting multiple partitions results in a broken system; see the latest Known Issues. To encrypt a single partition, users must use the Manual partitioning option, create a partition layout similar to ours and encrypt the desired partition.
Disclaimer: We do not develop the Calamares installer. Please create issues at its bug tracker here to request features or report problems.
Live Session Information
- The default user and password is nitrux.
Upgrading From Previous Versions
- To upgrade from previous versions of Nitrux, do the following.
-
- ⚠️ Important: Before proceeding, we can’t stress enough that users back up their home directory using Kup to a separate device (or cloud storage) if it is the case that the previous installation was done to a single partition instead of a separate root and home (or other) partitions.
- Download and flash the latest ISO.
- Boot to the Live session and start Calamares.
- After completing the locale, keyboard, and user configuration, select the option to do a “Manual partitioning.”
- Select and delete the previous installation root; do not delete or format other partitions unless desired; only select “Keep.”
- Select the mount point of all partitions and options (where applicable). Optionally, add labels to the partitions. Our recommended partition layout is below.
- ⚠️ Important: Please be aware that the root directory is immutable, and any directory within the root will be read-only. Do not use a single partition layout.
- ⚠️ Important: When creating the partitions, users can choose to encrypt single or multiple partitions; however, while it is possible to encrypt multiple partitions with Calamares, it’s a known issue that when booting, not all partitions are decrypted; see the latest Known Issues.
- ⚠️ Important: When creating the root partition, using XFS as the filesystem is critical due to our intended use of the XFS backup manipulation tools in the future.
- ⚠️ Important: When creating the EFI System Partition for Legacy BIOS devices, the partition size must be 8MiB.
- 🔰 Information: The table below assumes the target device is an x64 (x86-64, or amd64) computer using Leacgy BIOS, EFI, or UEFI firmware and a GPT partition table.
- 🔰 Information: While the (new) layout below is our recommendation, users can add any directory they want as a separate partition. However, the root and home must be separate due to the root directory’s immutability.
-
- For EFI or UEFI firmware-type computers that use storage devices with a GPT partition table.
| Partition | Label | Mountpoint | Filesystem Type | Flags |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EFI System Partition | ESP | /boot/efi | fat32 | boot |
| root | NX_ROOT | / | xfs | none |
| home | NX_HOME | /home | f2fs | none |
| /var/lib | NX_VAR | /var/lib | f2fs | none |
| swap | SWAP | none (automatically setup) | linuxswap | none (automatically setup) |
- For Legacy BIOS firmware type computers that use storage devices with a GPT partition table.
| Partition | Label | Mountpoint | Filesystem Type | Flags |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EFI System Partition | – | – | fat32 | bios-grub |
| root | NX_ROOT | / | xfs | none |
| home | NX_HOME | /home | f2fs | none |
| /var/lib | NX_VAR | /var/lib | f2fs | none |
| swap | SWAP | none (automatically setup) | linuxswap | none (automatically setup) |
-
- Finally, proceed with the installation of the new root content.
- While this may give the impression of a reinstallation procedure due to the use of Calamares (an installer), upon the deletion of the previous root partition and the creation of a new root partition, the content of the root directory will be effectively different.
- Finally, proceed with the installation of the new root content.
- 🔰 Information: We create new installation media every 30 days; users who prefer media to be available sooner (bi-weekly, weekly, daily, etc.) can contribute to this expense on OpenCollective.
Minimal ISO Information
- We have discontinued minimal ISO releases of the distribution.
Adding Bluetooth devices, Printers, or additional Wireless Networks
- ⚠️ Important: Users who have not created a separate partition for /var/lib (as above) will have to temporarily disable root immutability due to how the software managing these devices and networks works; see Working with overlayroot in Nitrux.
- Once the user has successfully logged in to the graphical session, proceed to add the devices and networks (via the GUI or the terminal), then reboot.
Virtualizing Nitrux
- VirtualBox
- 🔰 Information: When using the default VM settings in VirtualBox, VMs boot using emulated Legacy BIOS, meaning CDROM and Floppy devices load before the virtual Hard Drives. After a successful installation, VirtualBox does not eject the ISO; if the user does not remove the ISO from the virtual CDROM device, upon reboot, VirtualBox will boot the ISO and not the Hard Drive with the installed system; this is not a bug in Nitrux or caused by Nitrux.
- OpenGL acceleration is used by default if you use Nitrux in a VM. For better performance, disable some of the graphical effects.
- To utilize 3D acceleration in VirtualBox, please use the guest additions ISO from Oracle.
- ⚠️ Important: If using VirtualBox 7.0, do not enable 3D acceleration in the VM settings, as doing so prevents the graphical session from loading. VirtualBox 6.1.40 does not have this problem.
- After installing the VirtualBox guest additions using the ISO, do not remove the ISO and reboot; remove the ISO from the VM after successfully booting to the session.
- When creating a new virtual machine in VirtualBox, the graphics controller selected is VMSVGA; starting with VirtualBox 6.1.34, users can change the screen resolution in System Settings.
- We strongly recommend enabling the following options in the virtual machine settings.
- Type: Linux
- Version: Debian 10 (64-bit)
- Base Memory: 4000 MB
- Boot Order: uncheck Floppy
- Chipset: ICH9
- Extended Features:
- Enable I/O APIC
- Enable EFI (special OSes only)
- Hardware clock in UTC
- Processors: 4
- Extended Features:
- Enabled Nested VT-x/AMD-V
- Acceleration: KVM
- Hardware Virtualization: Enable Nested Paging
- Video Memory: 128 MB
- Acceleration: Enable 3D acceleration
- Storage Devices: >32GB SATA or NVME
- Attributes: Use host I/O Cache
- Audio Controller: Intel HD Audio
- Enable USB Controller: USB 3.0 (xHCI) Controller
- 🔰 Information: When using the default VM settings in VirtualBox, VMs boot using emulated Legacy BIOS, meaning CDROM and Floppy devices load before the virtual Hard Drives. After a successful installation, VirtualBox does not eject the ISO; if the user does not remove the ISO from the virtual CDROM device, upon reboot, VirtualBox will boot the ISO and not the Hard Drive with the installed system; this is not a bug in Nitrux or caused by Nitrux.
- VMware Workstation and VMware Player
- ⚠️ Important: Do not install VMWare Tools from the menu Manage>Install VMWare Tools.
- We strongly recommend enabling the following options in the virtual machine settings.
- OS: Debian 10. x 64-bit
- Memory: 4096 MB
- Processors: 4
- Storage: >32GB
- Virtualization engine:
- Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI
- Virtualize CPU performance counters (disable if your computer does not support this feature)
- Virtualize IOMMU (IO memory management unit)
- USB Controller:
- USB compatibility: USB 3.1
- Display:
- 3D graphics:
- Accelerate 3D graphics
- Graphics memory:
- Recommended value by VMWare; varies depending on the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine. However, the value has to be 128 MB or more.
- 3D graphics:
- To enable EFI in a VMWare virtual machine, do the following.
- Open your virtual machine’s ‘.VMX’ file in Notepad (or similar) and add the following line firmware=”efi” anywhere in the file.
- Save the ‘.VMX’ file.
Disclaimer: We do not develop VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation/Player. Please let their developers know if you have issues with these hypervisors, such as graphical problems.
Please follow the recommendations above for an optimum experience.
Virtual Appliances Information
- We have discontinued OVA releases of the distribution.
Managing AppImages
- 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.
- Some Electron applications or Chromium-based web browsers packaged as AppImages will refuse to run when using Firejail unless the application uses a specific Chromium flag. To run these Chromium-based AppImages, append the following Chromium flag.
- 🔰 Information: What does the Chromium option –no-sandbox mean?
electron-app.AppImage --no-sandbox chromium-based-browser.AppImage --no-sandbox
- For AppImages that refuse to work and are not Chromium-based, edit the desktop launcher to launch the AppImage directly, i.e., open the applications menu, right-click the launcher to edit, go to the tab ‘Applications‘ and on ‘Program,’ only enter the full path to the AppImage and on ‘Argument(s)‘ leave it blank if no arguments will be passed.
- ⚠️ Important: We strongly emphasize that we do not recommend running AppImages without the Firejail sandbox, especially anything connected to the internet. Do it at your own risk.
- The AppImages listed in the software center come from AppImagehub.com and AppRepo.de.
- We do not create, maintain or host the AppImage files the software center lists. These files are created, maintained, and hosted by third parties, and please let their creators or maintainers know if you have issues with these files.
- If an AppImage downloaded from the NX Software Center does not work out of the box and its creator does not maintain it anymore, causing segmentation faults or other errors check our tutorial to use Distrobox and run the AppImage using a container.
Managing Debian Packages
Please note that starting from version 2.6.0 to use a package manager users should use Distrobox.
- If the user requires to use APT (or any package manager), we strongly recommend users use Distrobox; check our tutorial.
Support for Other Self-Contained Formats
- Nitrux supports Flatpak by default, and Flathub is also enabled by default. However, the order of preference to obtain end-user software is AppImage first, Flatpak second.
- ⚠️ Important: Users who want to use bleeding-edge Flatpaks can enable Flathub-beta. Do it at your own risk.
flatpak remote-add --user flathub-beta https://flathub.org/beta-repo/flathub-beta.flatpakrepo
- Nitrux does not support Snaps as its daemon (snapd) requires systemd.
Alternative Stores
- Users can also use Bauh from the NX Software Center as an AppImage to manage Flatpaks.
- Nitrux does not come with Bauh by default.
- Since AppImages are executed using Firejail, this may interfere with installing some Flatpak applications, i.e., Bauh may display an error such as “bwrap: execvp /app/bin/apply_extra: Permission denied” when running under Firejail. Run Flatpak from the terminal to install the application to avoid this issue.
Disclaimer: We do not develop Bauh or Flatpak.
- Nitrux includes a desktop launcher to install the itch.io Store, which will download and run the official Linux installer.
- If users have problems launching the itch.io application after installation, do the following.
- Open the applications menu, right-click the desktop launcher, and select Edit application.
- Click on the tab Application and add the following text to the field Arguments: –no-sandbox
- If there are other arguments, remove them.
- Click the Accept button and launch the application.
- ⚠️ Important: The itch.io Store does not work correctly on a virtual machine.
- If users have problems launching the itch.io application after installation, do the following.
Disclaimer: We do not develop itch.io
Using Foreign Architectures
- Nitrux is exclusively a 64-bit Linux distribution; we do not use, include, or provide support for 32-bit software.
Installing Steam
- Users can install Steam from the applications menu.
Disclaimer: We do not develop Steam or the Steam Flatpak.
Using Wine
- Users can install Bottles (from the applications menu) or Lutris (from Flathub) to run Windows software.
- Additionally, users can install Heroic Games Launcher (as an AppImage or from Flathub).
Using Proton-GE
- Users can download Proton-GE from its repository.
- Download the latest release from Releases.
- Extract the TAR archive using Ark and move the uncompressed directory to the following path.
# Path for Flatpak Steam Proton, DXVK, VK3D, etc. installation $HOME/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d
- Some programs like Bottles or Heroic Games Launcher can use the same directory Steam uses to find Proton or a custom directory for their Proton installations. These programs also set custom paths for other tools like DXVK or VK3D.
# Path for Flatpak Heroic Games Launcher Proton, DXVK, VK3D, etc. installation $HOME/.var/app/com.heroicgameslauncher.hgl/config/heroic/tools # Path for Flatpak Bottles Proton, DXVK, VK3D, etc. installation $HOME/.var/app/com.usebottles.bottles/data/bottles
- Users can manually add or update Proton (Proton-GE or other flavors of Proton), DXVK, VK3D, etc., or use each program’s settings to manage these installations.
Nvidia Proprietary Driver Information
Please note that starting from version 2.5.0 Nitrux includes the proprietary Nvidia driver
- Nitrux includes the latest version of the Nvidia proprietary driver when we build and publish our ISO files.
- ⚠️ Important: Users with hardware not supported by the current versions of the Nvidia proprietary driver will be unable to boot into a graphical session. This is not a bug in Nitrux or caused by Nitrux; check the list of supported GPUs for the driver version listed in the Release Announcement.
- ⚠️ Important: The Nvidia proprietary driver cannot coexist with the Nouveau open-source driver user-space components; therefore, unsupported Nvidia GPUs cannot use this driver.
- For some laptops, it may be necessary to add our X11 configuration for PRIME (where supported) to work correctly.
- The default TTY for the graphical session can change if your computer utilizes the Nvidia proprietary driver.
- Create a script with the code below to add our X11 configuration if your laptop requires it, then run the script.
- ⚠️ Important: The script file below creates files in the root directory, so read the Notes to know how to work with overlayroot; see Working with overlayroot in Nitrux.
#!/bin/bash
set -xe
# Workaround for NVidia GPUs using PRIME configuration.
# this will make output available on external ports.
test -f /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia.conf && {
echo 'Nvidia Proprietary Driver installed!, adding X11 configuration.'
> /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf printf "%s\n" \
'Section "OutputClass"' \
' Identifier "nvidia"' \
' MatchDriver "nvidia-drm"' \
' Driver "nvidia"' \
' Option "PrimaryGPU" "Yes"' \
' Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "true"' \
' Option "AllowExternalGpus" "true"' \
'EndSection'
> /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf printf "%s\n" \
'Section "OutputClass"' \
' Identifier "AMDgpu"' \
' MatchDriver "amdgpu"' \
' Driver "modsetting"' \
'EndSection'
> /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-intel.conf printf "%s\n" \
'Section "OutputClass"' \
' Identifier "Intel"' \
' MatchDriver "i915"' \
' Driver "modsetting"' \
'EndSection'
> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf printf "%s\n" \
'blacklist nouveau'
} || {
echo 'Nvidia Proprietary Driver not installed!, skipping X11 configuration.'
}
Disclaimer: We do not develop the Nvidia proprietary driver.
For issues with the Nvidia driver, including bugs and adding support for graphics cards, please visit Nvidia Support.
Wayland Information
- Since Nitrux 2.6.0, the distribution includes a Wayland session (Plasma Wayland), but it’s not the default.
PipeWire Information
- Since Nitrux 2.6.0, the distribution includes PipeWire by default.
MESA Information
- As of Nitrux version 2.4.0, we include the most recent version of MESA available, built from MESA’s Git ‘master’ branch, not the “stable” release as most distributions do.
- Note: Since we include bleeding edge software YMMV. Please report issues with MESA to the MESA developers.
Disclaimer: We do not develop or package MESA. To file bugs against MESA, please use their bug tracker here.
Latte Dock Information
As of July 2022, Latte Dock is now unmaintained by its developer, meaning there’s no guarantee it will continue to work. We will continue using it for as long as it works until we can replace NX Desktop with Maui Shell in future releases.
- We include three layouts for the desktop, two are variations of a default top panel and bottom dock, and the other is a single bottom panel. To change between them, follow the steps below.
- ⚠️ Important: Using the Global Theme KCM and checking “Use desktop layout from theme” does not change the layout and will cause issues with Latte Dock.
- Edit the file lattedockrc either using a graphical editor or the terminal and replace the text “nx-floating-panel-dark.” Run the command below using a single command on the terminal.
- Replace $LAYOUT in the command below with one of the following values (nx-floating-panel-dark is the default value).
- nx-bottom-panel-2
- nx-floating-panel-dark
- nx-top-panel-2
- Replace $LAYOUT in the command below with one of the following values (nx-floating-panel-dark is the default value).
sed -i 's+nx-floating-panel-dark+$LAYOUT+g' $HOME/.config/lattedockrc
- Then run our script to autostart Latte Dock. You can either run this command from the terminal or use Krunner.
autostart-latte
- Latte Dock does not work correctly with Wayland. If users wish to use the Plasma Wayland session, we recommend disabling autostarting Latte Dock and using Plasma panels instead.
- Alternatively, if users want to use Latte Dock on the Plasma Wayland session, place an empty Plasma panel at the top, adjust the size of the panel to match the size of the top panel of Latte Dock, set the Plasma panel to “always visible,” then log out and log in. The Plasma panel should be visible, but the Latte Dock panel should be on top. Thus, windows should resize accordingly, and it’d look similar to using Latte Dock on X11.
Disclaimer: We do not develop or maintain Latte Dock. Bugs and problems with Latte Dock should be reported at the KDE bug tracker.
Support for Launchpad Personal Package Archives
Compiling Software in Nitrux
- We strongly recommend users use containers to compile software. See Managing Debian Packages.
Working with overlayroot in Nitrux
- Since Nitrux 2.6.0, the root directory is default set to be immutable, meaning no changes occur to its contents. This change allows us to provide new versions of the distribution with a higher degree of certainty that no changes have occurred to the root that might cause a conflict. And also, to avoid sudden issues from upgraded packages coming from a different origin than our repository, which we have a minimal way of controlling. However, we understand that there may be cases where users need to change something in the root directory.
- ⚠️ Important: Avoid writing data to the root as a user while using the command below, as this will cause an error when exiting the shell session that overlayroot-chroot will create. Any changes to the root directory should be explicitly done only through the shell session after running overlayroot-chroot.
- To modify the contents of the root directory, open the terminal and type the command below. After making the desired modifications, type exit and reboot.
- ⚠️ Important: Avoid writing data to the root as a user while using the command below, as this will cause an error when exiting the shell session that overlayroot-chroot will create. Any changes to the root directory should be explicitly done only through the shell session after running overlayroot-chroot.
sudo overlayroot-chroot # (... do stuff...) exit
-
- ⚠️ Important: The CLI text editor we include in Nitrux is micro. However, micro does not work when switching to the shell session after running overlayroot-chroot; as a workaround, do the following.
# Use nano as a workaround to edit text files while in overlayroot-chroot axel -a -o /usr/bin/nano https://github.com/andrew-d/static-binaries/raw/master/binaries/linux/x86_64/nano && chmod +x /usr/bin/nano # Use env. variable to use nano while in overlayroot-chroot TERM=xterm nano
- Alternatively, users can temporarily boot with the immutability disabled. To do that, do the following steps.
- ⚠️ Important: We must stress that the preferred method to modify the root is the above. If you know what you’re doing, use the method below at your own risk.
- Press E in the GRUB boot menu.
- Using the arrow keys, navigate to the bottom and search for the kernel parameter: overlayroot=tmpfs:swap=1,recurse=0, and change the value to disabled.
- To continue the boot process, press F10.
- After making the desired modifications, reboot.
- ⚠️ Important: We must stress that the preferred method to modify the root is the above. If you know what you’re doing, use the method below at your own risk.
Misc. Information
- Nitrux includes a simple text file called installed_pkgs_end.txt in the root directory that, as its name suggests, lists all installed packages by default in the distribution. Users can use it to compare more extensive changes from release to release, like package updates.
- Nitrux has various command-line utilities, including a file manager, text editor, web browser, remote desktop, system monitor, and a single game. Below is a list of these command-line utilities.
- ftp, hdparm, htop, links2, mc, micro, ncdu, tmate, tree, and nsnake.