MX23 boot options glitch

[morella]

Greetings and hello to all.There are a few issues I hope to get sorted out, Ill start with this: Attempting to change a setting in "MX boot options" results in the progress bar racing across at~120bpm, then after~5min there is a second request for authentication. I didn't stick around to see if it would repeat again. I'd used Xkill on it the first time. Any suggestion how to set default boot into systemd from terminal?
MX 23.6
Kernel: 6.1.0-49-amd64
Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 Debian GNU/Linux 12
(bookworm)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP 2000 Notebook PC
CPU:
Info: model: AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD

 

[Perpetual Padawan]

At boot-up, click on Advanced Options for MX-23 and choose the init system there before logging in.

 

[morella]

Thank you, yes, though I'll have to do that each time. Easy enough, though a more persistent solution would be nice.

 

[Perpetual Padawan]

Thank you, yes, though I'll have to do that each time. Easy enough, though a more persistent solution would be nice.

You can ask on their forums - or it may be that you have to re-install choosing systemd at installation.

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

I think you might be able to alter GRUB to get the desired result as well- But this is still relatively uncharted territory for me, so I can't be of much help Sorry.

 

[morella]

Thank you both, Padawan and Warp-9. For now I'll be content to select at start-up. Rocketing, your handle reminded me of the (off topic) great and terrible film, "Plan 9 from outer space". A good laugh, that one.

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

@morella I did find one article that could be good to help you with this-

Change Between sysvinit and systemd in MX Linux

This guide is requested by one of our readers who has been using MX Linux for the past two years and wants to know how he can switch between SysVinit and Systemd.

itsfoss.com

It might have a point later on for switching it within Grub.

Hope this helps!

 

[Rocketing-warp9]

@KGIII Thanks! Don' missed that link.. Whoops!

Thanks again!

 

[Alexzee]

Just a suggestion here. You don't have to if you don't want to.

MX 23 End Of Life is in one week. (Active Support)

MX Linux

Check end-of-life, release policy and support schedule for MX Linux.

endoflife.date

You may want to download the new MX 25 .iso and perform a fresh installation.

How to change default MX Boot and other things talked about in this thread.

https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=87459

 

[morella]

Greetings, friends, and thank you again for your kind helps. I have a new puzzler now. I've thrown in the towel on my valiant attempts to prolong the suffering of my dying but much beloved MX12. I will certainly take the tip to download and install the MX25. At the moment, I've got fresh installs of LMDE 7 "Gigi" on one machine and Debian 13 "Trixie" on the other, each are older laptops. The D13 is on it's third install, wouldn't boot on the first two. It has an issue I'd love to solve simply if it can, but will rinse and repeat if need be. I tried using the same names and password for both user and root, having forgotten what I once knew. So boot up and find "not on the sudoers list. Much fruitless searching and typing later, I curiously tried me some search engine A"I". I was advised I could avoid a reinstall, fixing the problem in GRUB by first holding down shift or esc during boot and entering the appropriate mantras. While the GRUB screen "supports limited BASH like editing" about which I'm clueless, the instructions sound meant for a proper text editor: (1) "Find the line starting with 'linux' and append: rw init=/bin/bash . Press Ctrl+x or F10 to boot.
(2) Diagnose and fix at the prompt. You will land at a # prompt as root. Run these checks: Check if you are already root: type whoami. If it says root, you are logged in as superuser and don't need sudo, and can now install it.
Sounds great, now I just need to find how to get to the where to do this and see if it works in this case.
On a directly related topic, I'm sure there are a great many others, along with myself, who would appreciate a guide to the functional understanding and use of a text editor. As written for the intelligent, yet so far uninformed. In other words, "Text Editors for Dummies". Most I've seen and read on this seems to assume prior knowledge I don't yet have. I'll start looking. Maybe it's out there already!
Best wishes and regards, M.

 

[Alexzee]

Greetings, friends, and thank you again for your kind helps. I have a new puzzler now. I've thrown in the towel on my valiant attempts to prolong the suffering of my dying but much beloved MX12. I will certainly take the tip to download and install the MX25. At the moment, I've got fresh installs of LMDE 7 "Gigi" on one machine and Debian 13 "Trixie" on the other, each are older laptops. The D13 is on it's third install, wouldn't boot on the first two. It has an issue I'd love to solve simply if it can, but will rinse and repeat if need be. I tried using the same names and password for both user and root, having forgotten what I once knew. So boot up and find "not on the sudoers list. Much fruitless searching and typing later, I curiously tried me some search engine A"I". I was advised I could avoid a reinstall, fixing the problem in GRUB by first holding down shift or esc during boot and entering the appropriate mantras. While the GRUB screen "supports limited BASH like editing" about which I'm clueless, the instructions sound meant for a proper text editor: (1) "Find the line starting with 'linux' and append: rw init=/bin/bash . Press Ctrl+x or F10 to boot.
(2) Diagnose and fix at the prompt. You will land at a # prompt as root. Run these checks: Check if you are already root: type whoami. If it says root, you are logged in as superuser and don't need sudo, and can now install it.
Sounds great, now I just need to find how to get to the where to do this and see if it works in this case.
On a directly related topic, I'm sure there are a great many others, along with myself, who would appreciate a guide to the functional understanding and use of a text editor. As written for the intelligent, yet so far uninformed. In other words, "Text Editors for Dummies". Most I've seen and read on this seems to assume prior knowledge I don't yet have. I'll start looking. Maybe it's out there already!
Best wishes and regards, M.

Nano (basic text editor) comes with pretty much every Linux distribution.
Here's a cheetsheet for nano.

Cheatsheet for GNU nano

A concise overview of the command shortcuts for nano, the editor, grouped by category.

www.nano-editor.org

Vi and Vim have things you'll have to learn so maybe stick with nano, pluma, and gedit for now.

In the screenshot attached, you will see the /boot/grub/grub.cfg of mine on my Debian system.
As a general rule morella I do not edit this file unless I really know what I am doing with all of the Menu Entries on my rig.

Editing with:

init=/bin/bash

is a temporary change. I'd think that you would prefer a more permanent change.

The file I believe that you want to edit is the /etc/default/grub configuration file with this line in it. Yours will be different of course.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash resume=UUID=220046fd-50df-4ee1-9df1-a5b2493a3674"

If you are looking to just edit the kernel line there is a safer way to do it I believe. Our Administrator @wizardfromoz is good with this as I think in the past he schooled me on this.

Additionally I think our members @CaffeineAddict and @dos2unix are good with setting parameters for the kernel.

Wait for our members as it has been a while since I've had to edit my menu entries.

I'd be happy to write an article for you and others new to this. As I write articles for the Linux Community. However, I need to know exactly what text editor you'll be using and how to rectify the issue you are trying to fix from the Grub Menu.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Additionally I think our members @CaffeineAddict

Since the OP is struggling with how to use text editor then I suspect battling with boot modes will be anything easier to understand but I'll try...

how to set default boot into systemd from terminal?

Boot into MX Linux as usual and login to desktop then run this:

sudo update-alternatives --config init

Output of this command should list you both init systems, select your choice (systemd) from the column on the left titled "Selection".

When done with this run:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Configure GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= to be set as follows:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

If you're paying attention this means we're not setting anything specific, you'll probably have to remove some extra parameter values from GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT not present above.

Save grub file and then run:

sudo update-grub
sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

To verify boot in new mode work reboot:

sudo systemctl reboot

 

[Alexzee]

Don't forget to copy before you make any changes so you'll know what to change it back to if what you edit doesn't work.

sudo cp /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.bak

 

[CoincidentalHell]

As a newbie I found the general rule of thumb was always to know how to get out of what intrigued me.
If in doubt, remember the out. If unsure, open more (exploring none break searches with backup consoles ). If you need a drink, remember to sync! Lived by it’s easier to nuke Chinatown and rebuild the china shop than defend it with cutlery, as a metaphor heh.

 

[Alexzee]

Writing an article now. I'll post it in a few minutes.

 

[Alexzee]

Done, HTH.

How To Edit A File Using Nano & Gedit

Most Linux distributions come with Nano. A basic text editor. Gedit, Vi and Vim are a little more complex but for this article I’ll be sticking with Nano and Gedit in the examples. Let’…

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