antiX26-rc1: grub and other issues

That is what I have been trying to tell you, the way you are logging in does not give you a proper login session!! You need to build a proper display-manger, like lightdm or slim to get a proper login session!!

You may be right.
Some instructions for installing xfce in antix say to install lightdm.
I tried once and failed to get lightdm to run , so I left it with slimsky.
I will try again … good idea thanks

I really think you need to rebuild to antX26 !!

OK, I will stop playing with rc1 and install antix26… it may fix some problems.
Your intuition is usually right.

OK, befor I scrap everything and reinstall, I tested this by installing lightdm

apt update
apt upgrade
apt install lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter dinit-service-lightdm
dinitctl disable slimski
 ... I get a login prompt.  Login and do
dinitctl enable lightdm
reboot

I get a plain looking login manager screen, with a button in the top panel that offers choice of DE’s and WM’s
but
Xfce, IceWM, JWM, Fluxbox work
but the others
zzz-icewm, rox-icewm, …
do not work.

So I choose xfce and it comes up . Now Xfce menu has a logout option … but only logout, not reboot or shutdown.

If I reboot or shutdown at the CLI, session saving does not work
If I logout with the menu, then shutdown from the login manager screen, session saving works
ie session saving requires logout from the menu

Then I went back to slimski to check that

dinitctl disable lightdm
 ... get a console
dinitctl enable slimski
reboot

and slimski is back . It has no way to do a logout from the menues in Xfce … it can in Icewm if I switch to that.
If I poweroff or reboot from the terminal session saving doesnt work.
All 10 WM’s plus xfce work with slimski.
I have to find out why Xfce does not have a logout in the menu under slimski?
and
I have to find out why session saving does not work if I terminate from the CLI.

UPdate:
I discovered Xfce under slimski does have a logout button … it is in the top panel and is labelled ‘nevj’ ???
It offers Lock screen, Switch User, Suspend, Shutdown, and Logout
but
Shutdown and Logout do the same thing … return you to the login manager screen, … and you cant terminate from there.
but
if I hit the logout button, it saves the session, and then I can relogin and terminate from the CLI.
Messy!

Another update:
AI is sometimes informative

" Why CLI Logout Fails Session Saving:

  • No Graceful Shutdown: Xfce session saving requires a “graceful” logout via the GUI menu, allowing the session manager to communicate with applications to save their state.
  • Unsaved Cache: A CLI logout bypasses xfce4-session-logout, meaning the cache folder (~/.cache/sessions) is not updated with the latest session data.

[image]Xfce Forums +1

How to Fix/Alternative Solutions:

  • Use the Proper Command: Instead of killing the user process, use the Xfce logout command, which forces a clean session save:
    xfce4-session-logout :slight_smile:"

Maybe my Xfce training is in need of an upgrade?

In xfce, you should have a user name up in the right corner with menu under the name, when you click on it!! I do not know how antiX is wired, but my LFS is running xfce very well!!

I tried AntiX once, it just has too many options for my liking!!

Yes I discovered it . That must be what raw Xfce as in Gentoo or LFS has. … but its dropdown menu does not include reboot or shutdown. … something to do with the idea that only superuser can stop a machine.
Most distros either change the usename to a poweroff symbol, or they use a logout in the menus , but jt looks like antiX uses raw xfce without any polish.

I need to find out how to add to that menu.

Too much freedom?
Yes antiX makes a big thing about choice and diversity. It also focuses on optimising for old machines … it may soon be the last distro to,offer 32 bit. … aside from NetBSD which tries to support everything.

The big difference between LFS and other distros’s is on how Linux is built!! I built LFS, it runs how I want it to run, a lot like Gentoo, just a more involved build process!! I thought, you, would jump at the chance to build your own Linux!!

I would like to. Time is a problem .
I can handle something like antiX or Chimera or Hyperbola at the moment, but not a full build … my Gentoo is static … doing nothing.
I still get to learn some things … eg setting up Xfce at the moment.

I think the conclusion from my lightdm adventure was that both lightdm and slimski start sessions properly … so I may as well stay with slimski because it is better configured for antiX.

I am going to dump the current antiXrc1 to a hotplug disk, so I can consult it, then do the new antiX26 install.

I did the fresh install of antix26 full.
It still has the problem that if I nominate not to write grub anywhere, it does not make a grub.cfg file. Then when I update-grub in MX and try to boot antiX , it cant find /… because it is looking at /dev/sdd5, which is wrong …I have to type in root= UUID=… to get it to boot, and then I can do update-grub in antiX, followed by update-grub in MX, and then it boots normally.

I suppose anyone who multiboots would know how to handle this, but it is not very userfriendly.
Why cant the installer always make a grub.cfg, regardless of whether you write grub?

Why do you need to write grub, I thought Void controlled your Grub!!

You only need one grub and then add the rest to 40_custom menu. Then run grub mk-config -o boot/grub/grub.cfg and you should see all your OSes there. Forget the update-grub script.

You misread me …i told it not to write grub.

Void controls grub on one disk … MX controls grub on another disk. Yes each disk has its own EFI partition and its own grub.
I can boot with either disk

Can you see why I did not want antiX to be messing with that setup?
I dont usually mention the second disk and the second grub when talking here, because it just confuses what I am presenting.

my htpc has also two ssds and both have EFI grub. One for linux (Gentoo and Void), other SSD is ZFS and there’s FreeBSD. This is totally fine, I just press ESC during boot if I want to boot to FreeBSD.

That is a great way to handle Freebsd with ZFS … it is incompatable with everything