We recently wrote an article about MX Linux, the distribution that has held the top position on DistroWatch for a long time and seems not to want to leave that position. We don't talk much about the distro itself, beyond explaining that it's basically a Debian designed to make things easier for users. It does it from the same installer, and also offers the MX Tools which is what we are going to talk about here today.
With the name of MX tools in Spanish, MX Tools is a set of graphical tools that facilitate the management of MX Linux. It can be found in the start menu if you search in the language that the operating system is in, that is, "mx herramientas" if it is used in Spanish; do not try it with "mx tools" because it does not appear. If for whatever reason we can't find it, we can always search for "welcome", open the Welcome to MX application and launch it by clicking on the text that appears next to the tools icon.
A couple of notes about these tools
I would like to say a couple of things about these MX Tools. The first one is a application that acts as a menu to access many other applications. When an app is launched, the tools window disappears to make way for the chosen app, and when that app is closed it returns to the tools window.
The second is that at the time of writing this article not everything is translated into Spanish. The sections are Live, Maintenance, Setup, Software and Utilities.
MX Tools makes it easy to manage MX Linux
The tools that are part of the MX Tools are many, but not all are exclusive. The best thing about this application is that it is a window where we will see many options to configure any corner of the operating system. At the time of writing this article, which was shortly after the release of MX 23, there are a total of 32 tools:
We will start by talking about the last two, since they are few and very generic. Format USB is a simple tool for formatting USB drives.
You only have to choose a USB, indicate the format, a label, assign it a partition table, if you want, and click Next. It's even easier than doing it with GParted, since this app has only one task.
The quick system information shows just that, although in addition to being quick, it is also detailed, as shown in the following screenshot.
In the software section we find tools to manage it:
- DEB package installer.
- A tool to add GPG keys.
- A tool to manage repositories, to choose mirrors or activate and deactivate PPAs.
- And the package installer that we see in the following screenshot. To install packages from here you just have to search, mark and click Install.
We now continue at the beginning, where we find the "Live" section, which is for CD images that can be used as a Live Session. The MX Live Usb-Maker tool is like Etcher or Imager (Raspberry Pi), and is used to "burn" ISO images to create Live USBs. You just have to select a destination USB, the image to create and some extra options.
Snapshots, one of the star tools of MX Linux
The tool Snapshots it is to make a copy of our system that we can use as a Live Session. It serves as a backup, and allows us to install the operating system as we had it if something has gone wrong. The size of the destination USB will depend on the size of our installation, since the ISO will be an exact copy of it.
The second section with more tools is that of maintenance. In it we find simple tools, such as MX Cleaner, which is used to eliminate temporary files, cache and other unnecessary files, user management or disk administrator, which will allow us, for example, to configure the mount point, but also others such as configuration of Samba (local network connections). Among the other maintenance options, we find:
- Chroot Rescue Scan: a tool that will rescue installations that have stopped working (more information). There will be nothing to salvage if there is no second system installed.
- Job Scheduler: to schedule tasks, which can be the execution of scripts.
- Boot Options: It is used to manage the boot, among which we can prevent the logo from being displayed at startup or give GRUB more time.
- Boot repairer: allows you to fix the boot with options such as reinstalling GRUB, among others.
MX Linux configuration section in MX Tools
The most populated section is the configuration (Setup). It is also the most generic, and in it we find some sections such as About..., keyboard settings, brightness or date and time. But also:
- bash configuration to configure how bash acts in the terminal.
- NVIDIA driver installer, which will download and install them if we run MX Linux on a computer with an NVIDIA card.
- A codec installer, which after consulting us if we want to go ahead, installs them because it is proprietary software.
- Tool to manage Conky, where we see, for example, that it can be moved with Alt+click+drag.
- Tool to manage network connections.
- Sound selector, from where we can choose the audio output, for example, to choose the HDMI output.
- A basic tool to manage system sounds.
- Walk through MX, which serves as a tutorial.
- MX Tweak, which is Xfce's tool to make cosmetic changes.
- A tool to list the packages installed by the user in order to reinstall them if necessary.
And that would be all, which, as you may have seen, is not little. MX Linux is one of the most popular distros when it comes down from the most used (Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat...), and it is for the use of software such as its MX Tools, or MX Tools for those who prefer it in Spanish. They make things much easier, especially for less experienced users. Undoubtedly, one of the best options to use Debian if you don't want to use Debian.