My Personal Feedback Thread

Hey everyone!

I’m an audio engineer that does some web-dev and other hobby programming on the side. After ordering my new laptop, a Lenovo S540-13IML, I started looking for a nice Linux distro to use on it, as I really hate Windows for portable stuff. After trying Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, Manjaro, OpenSUSE and a couple of others on a VM on my workstation desktop, I finally found Mabox, and it’s AWESOME!

I really like the ability to configure the UI and desktop environment, its really great.

So I immediately installed it when my new laptop came in, and it’s still awesome, I’m currently typing this on my laptop with Mabox.

The goal is to keep using Mabox on this device in its entire life-span (I think about 7 years), so it will be fun to see how much the project evolves over time!

With each response to this thread I hope to supply you with some (hopefully valuable), feedback and information.

Feedback 01 :
1.
The Manjaro installation manual is good, but it might be worth mentioning in the official Mabox “installation docs” that in order to boot with a USB image in EFI/UEFI bios, secure boot has to be turned DISABLED.
2.
I had some troubles booting from the USB installer, it kept telling me “filesystem unknown, starting grub rescuer”. Which in the end turned out to be a Manjaro specific problem with Rufus. I already had Rufus 3.5 installed on my workstation, so I used that to create my bootable USB, but was the cause of my problem. After updating Rufus to 3.13, the installation worked as a charm again :slight_smile:. Some more info about this can be found here : link. I would recommend to add a note to the “installation docs” to tell first time users they should use the most recent version of Rufus to install Mabox.
3.
The installation of Mabox itself was really smooth and easy to do, but maybe it would be good to add the ‘Install Mabox’ icon on the Desktop as well, as it was a little confusing at first to figure out “How do I permanently install the live version?”.
4.
My screen is 13.3 inch with a 2560x1600 resolution, and configuring stuff to give things a proper scale on my screen was a bit of a hassle. Maybe it’s possible to create an intermediate tool that quickly configures scaling (x1.25 Size x1.50 Size x2 Size 0,75 Size 0.5 Size for example) parameters of the different UI frameworks, for people with vision impairments or like me, with a high DPI screen.
5.
My trackpad speed is decent but pretty slow, and I would like to configure it a bit better, but I couldn’t find the correct menu or setting window for this, is it hidden somewhere? I also installed the Mouse and Trackpad package, but that doesn’t seem to work either, as it keeps resetting my settings, and there seems to be no way to apply.
6.
The Hotkeys Conky is really fantastic for new users, but for me it is in the wrong position, so I looked at the config file and adjusted the --alignment to various settings that were mentioned in the manual of Conky, but nothing changed, even after restarting Conky. Am I doing something wrong here?
7.
Also, in the RMB menu there are two “Settings” tabs, which makes it a bit confusing to remember which one you need.

Thanks for creating this OS, and good luck with your project!

Greetings,
Olivier :partying_face:

5 Likes

Hi @OlivierWierda - welcome to forum :slight_smile:

Thanks for your feedback, it is valuable.
1 and 2
I will add that info to documentation

3
Good point - there are no icons on the desktop but I will add it to Main menu

4 and 5 … I don’t know, need to do some research :slight_smile:

6 Go to Settings (second one) -> Conky -> Edit Conky -> Running Conky…

7 I will change it to “Configuration” or “Configure…”. Or maybe you have better idea?

I don’t understand what you are talking about to be honest :face_with_raised_eyebrow:, I just give my feedback, what the developer wants to do with it, is up to him completely, it’s not my intention to pressure for “quick fixes”! And I didn’t state that Mabox was “HORRIBLE” to setup, more of the opposite, it was good, but there were some small issues, and I simply wanted to point them out :slight_smile:. Also it’s working very good now, so no, I wont look for a different distro hehe :sunglasses:.

2 Likes

Heya!

Glad it’s helpful, thanks for taking everything in consideration. I will try all your tips tomorrow morning! For point 7. I would make the top one “Program Settings or Application Settings”, and the other one “Mabox Config”.

1 Like

Thanks, point 1 and 2 are important for me.

Welcome to the Mabox forum!