MX Linux post-install GRUB & Console Tweak

[Andy]

I use MX Linux as my Linux daily driver, and I found it's perfect for me, and the out of the box experience is excellent.

However, there are couples of things that I tweak, particularly on the GRUB and Console (since I love to work from the console and not from the GUI)

And here are my tweaks:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text nomodeset"
GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080x32
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1920x1080x32
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

Spoiler: Alternatively, if you prefer tidier verbose message, use this one instead

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text nomodeset loglevel=0 hush"
GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080x32
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1920x1080x32
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

Hints:

• Adding “hush” to the boot command push all those “initialising” messages into file /run/rc.log. Including [ ok ], etc.
• If you want to silence the kernel runlevel messages as well, also add “loglevel=0”

    loglevel=    All Kernel Messages with a loglevel smaller than the
            console loglevel will be printed to the console. It can
            also be changed with klogd or other programs. The
            loglevels are defined as follows:

            0 (KERN_EMERG)        system is unusable
            1 (KERN_ALERT)        action must be taken immediately
            2 (KERN_CRIT)        critical conditions
            3 (KERN_ERR)        error conditions
            4 (KERN_WARNING)    warning conditions
            5 (KERN_NOTICE)        normal but significant condition
            6 (KERN_INFO)        informational
            7 (KERN_DEBUG)        debug-level messages

Reference:

• How to hide boot output – MX Linux
• https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt

Don't forget to run the command below every time after we modify the GRUB boot file:

sudo update-grub

Spoiler: If you're using systemd on your MX Linux, use this thread to disable the GUI on system boot

How to disable (or enable) GUI on boot in Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) (works on all SystemD Linux)

The following article will show you how to disable the GUI on boot in Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) Desktop Linux Areas covered: How to disable GUI on bootHow to enable GUI on bootHow to start GUI from the console The following command will disable GUI on boot, and therefore upon the system...

saputra.org

I disabled the GUI auto-start since I did most of my system administering tasks on the console, saving us a significant RAM amount.

Here's why, when we booted the computer with GUI, it consume RAM of at least 550 MB, and if we boot the computer without GUI (text only), it only using RAM 150 MB.

The boot process is way much faster, and if we need to use the GUI, run the command:

startx

And voila, back to our desktop manager without needing to log in anymore (since we've logged in on the console)

Another tweak that I made is to match the font size with the original size (not enlarged, so we'll have native resolution on our console screen):

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

Here are my settings:

• Encoding to use on the console: leave it with UTF-8;
• Character set to support: Guess optimal character set;
• Font for the console: leave it with TerminusBold;
• and for the Font size, set it to 8x16.

I hope you like my MX Linux console tweaks, so you can increase your productivity.

Spoiler: Test results on MX Linux 19.4 AHS 64-bit

andy@zb:~
$ neofetch
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNMMMMMMMMM   andy@zb
MMMMMMMMMMNs..yMMMMMMMMMMMMMm: +NMMMMMMM   -------
MMMMMMMMMN+    :mMMMMMMMMMNo` -dMMMMMMMM   OS: MX x86_64
MMMMMMMMMMMs.   `oNMMMMMMh- `sNMMMMMMMMM   Host: UX390UAK 1.0
MMMMMMMMMMMMN/    -hMMMN+  :dMMMMMMMMMMM   Kernel: 5.8.0-3-amd64
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMh-    +ms. .sMMMMMMMMMMMMM   Uptime: 14 mins
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMN+`   `  +NMMMMMMMMMMMMMM   Packages: 1974 (dpkg)
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMNMMd:    .dMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM   Shell: bash 5.0.3
MMMMMMMMMMMMm/-hMd-     `sNMMMMMMMMMMMMM   Resolution: 1920x1080
MMMMMMMMMMNo`   -` :h/    -dMMMMMMMMMMMM   DE: Xfce
MMMMMMMMMd:       /NMMh-   `+NMMMMMMMMMM   WM: Xfwm4
MMMMMMMNo`         :mMMN+`   `-hMMMMMMMM   WM Theme: Arc-Dark
MMMMMMh.            `oNMMd:    `/mMMMMMM   Theme: Greybird-mx [GTK2], Arc-Darker [GTK3]
MMMMm/                -hMd-      `sNMMMM   Icons: Papirus [GTK2], Moka [GTK3]
MMNs`                   -          :dMMM   Terminal: xfce4-terminal
Mm:                                 `oMM   Terminal Font: Liberation Mono 11
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM   CPU: Intel i5-7200U (4) @ 3.100GHz
                                           GPU: Intel HD Graphics 620
                                           Memory: 582MiB / 7848MiB

                                               
                                               


andy@zb:~
$

By the way, I ran the neofetch above with the X-Window running; you can probably tell how amazing this distro is already.

And here's neofetch and inxi -F without the X-Window running:

andy@zb:~
$ sudo neofetch
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNMMMMMMMMM   root@zb
MMMMMMMMMMNs..yMMMMMMMMMMMMMm: +NMMMMMMM   -------
MMMMMMMMMN+    :mMMMMMMMMMNo` -dMMMMMMMM   OS: MX x86_64
MMMMMMMMMMMs.   `oNMMMMMMh- `sNMMMMMMMMM   Host: UX390UAK 1.0
MMMMMMMMMMMMN/    -hMMMN+  :dMMMMMMMMMMM   Kernel: 5.8.0-3-amd64
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMh-    +ms. .sMMMMMMMMMMMMM   Uptime: 1 hour, 12 mins
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMN+`   `  +NMMMMMMMMMMMMMM   Packages: 1982 (dpkg)
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMNMMd:    .dMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM   Shell: bash 5.0.3
MMMMMMMMMMMMm/-hMd-     `sNMMMMMMMMMMMMM   CPU: Intel i5-7200U (4) @ 3.100GHz
MMMMMMMMMMNo`   -` :h/    -dMMMMMMMMMMMM   GPU: Intel HD Graphics 620
MMMMMMMMMd:       /NMMh-   `+NMMMMMMMMMM   Memory: 155MiB / 7848MiB
MMMMMMMNo`         :mMMN+`   `-hMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMh.            `oNMMd:    `/mMMMMMM
MMMMm/                -hMd-      `sNMMMM
MMNs`                   -          :dMMM
Mm:                                 `oMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

andy@zb:~
$ sudo inxi -F
System:    Host: zb Kernel: 5.8.0-3-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Console: tty 0 Distro: MX-19.4_ahs_x64 patito feo November 11  2020
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: UX390UAK v: 1.0 serial: G9N0CY000959358
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: UX390UAK v: 1.0 serial: n0cy1632mb0023608 UEFI: American Megatrends v: UX390UAK.320
           date: 04/19/2019
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 26.3 Wh condition: 26.3/40.0 Wh (66%)
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-7200U bits: 64 type: MT MCP L2 cache: 3072 KiB
           Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 400/3100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 3: 801 4: 800
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 620 driver: N/A
           Display: server: X.org 1.20.10 driver: vesa unloaded: fbdev,modesetting tty: 318x82
           Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console for root.
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
           Device-2: Texas Instruments PCM2912A Audio Codec type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.8.0-3-amd64
Network:   Device-1: Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 00:c2:c6:f6:e7:2b
           Device-2: Cypress type: USB driver: ax88179_178a
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 34:99:71:02:4c:51
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 29.29 GiB (6.1%)
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SK Hynix model: HFS512G39MND-3510A size: 476.94 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 233.12 GiB used: 29.27 GiB (12.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 3100
Info:      Processes: 131 Uptime: 1h 12m Memory: 7.66 GiB used: 193.2 MiB (2.5%) Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Shell: bash
           inxi: 3.0.36
andy@zb:~
$