Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 19:57

Sorry, this post might be a li'l long for some folks.

I've played around with Q4OS for quite a while now, briefly "left" it after some glitches with TDE but am back and lovin' it with a JWM environment that I've been steadily tweaking and paring out unnecessary apps (still trying to figure out how to get rid of artsd, though!).

I got interested in Q4OS as somewhat of a replacement for my old Windows 10 environment. I saw where there were Windows-like treatments such as the TDE or KDE environment app installers that look like the good ole Windows installers. I set up both KDE and TDE with "Windows" themes. I tried the one that emulates Windows 11 and I have to say, who in the world likes Windows 11? Navigation is insane! I kinda dropped the idea of trying to keep looking like Windows and just build an environment that I can use easily and that doesn't take much in the way of resources. Q4OS has the tools to do this. It's great!

I've tried antiX. Meh. Small footprint but they sometimes have a "my way or the highway" attitude and prickly responses to mere suggestions in their forum, so for me, it was the highway. Replaced it with...

BunsenLabs, Openbox. Another Debian distro, not as small as I had been led to believe. Getting used to the environment, tweaking it moderately, have not yet tried to do as much as I have with Q4OS. I think I got the startup size down to around 382 MB.

My oldest distro is MX Linux 23 Xfce edition. Kinda heavy, but reliable. Not as much of a fan of Xfce these days. Boot up size is 700-800MB.

I also have an MX Linux 23 Fluxbox edition on an external SSD that I have set up with JWM. It's nice, stable, boots up around 350 MB and I can take the SSD to another computer and boot it up, a very handy feature (MX devs helped get Ithe SSD partition setup, and an MX doc guy wrote it up).

I also have a partition with Sparky Linux on it, running Openbox. It's okay, I've got it somewhat customized, and it boots up around 365 MB. I get frustrated with it, however, 'cause if I'm trying to find out how to do something, and post the question in the forum, more likely than not, I'm met with crickets. It has a nice "Aptus AppCenter" but I have a problem with it's handling of available kernels (install but won't boot and won't remove them either!). Meh.

There are a few other distros I'm interested in but only have tried in VMs -- Solus w/ Budgie, Bodhi w/ Moshka, and CachyOS with whatever, but its installer isn't working.

So then I have Q4OS with JWM (and of course KDE or TDE to also log into). I'm now booting up into Q4OS with a ~325-335 MB footprint (getting rid of artsd will get me to the lower figure more often). In my tint2 panel, I'm using the TDE Network Manager app, which is a good bit smaller than the traditional nm-applet systray app (thank you, TDE/Trinity devs!). I don't need a volumeicon, since I've got a nice tint2 executor to handle the volume control. Got a cool conky with my essential CPU temperature (essential due to this laptop's penchant for overheating) and a new section with local weather using wttr.in . Love it!

I have a customized jgmenu setup with a "favorites" section. (I do have some issues with jgmenu, such as not having a submenu scrolling capability, and I do miss the customization features of Xfce's whiskers menu, but I adapt.)

I use smaller apps with robust features wherever possible -- dunst notifier rather than the default, parcellite clipboard manager, and Xfe file manager (and text editor and archive manager and package installer, all built in and weighing in around 10 MB).

Not using an email app, using Vivaldi browser with its built-in email setup (plus RSS feeds). It's way improved over a few years ago. Saves MB and CPU not having both browser and separate email app.

One of the nicest things about Q4OS is the forum community. I've been able to get good help and nice responses. (I also have to give kudos to the MX forum community and its developers -- all a nice bunch!)

Oh yeah, Q4OS is probably the quickest to boot up and get working. Amazing! Hats off to the devopment team (and to the support team)!

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 20:03

(Don't know how to fiddle with image attachments yet. Feel free to judge and/or offer sympathy or help!)

Last edited by Durhammer (2025-07-26 20:53)

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 20:06

Oh yeah, a screen shot or two might help. My setup has two monitors, one being a 22" Dell in portrait mode set above my 17" laptop display. This is one of the squirreliest issues for all my distros, having to fire up a special xrandr command line at the start of everything. This screen shot has my wallpaper and a bit of my menu setup and the conky (without the new weather stuff, though).

Attachments:

SmallView1.png, Size: 284.45 KiB, Downloads: 273

Durhammer · 2025-07-26 20:12

Not an expert with this forum's attachments, alas. Here's a second screen shot. This better shows the monitor layout after doing xrandr. The browser window with the comics fills the upper monitor, everything else is in the lower/laptop monitor.

Attachments:

SmallView2.png, Size: 199.69 KiB, Downloads: 250

q4osteam · 2025-07-26 22:24

Thanks You can add more attachments it the single post, if you post it, edit and attach next file. It's a bit tricky, but works.

Durhammer · 2025-07-27 02:28

I'll learn somehow, I guess!

Meanwhile, I also have to say that Q4OS runs as cool or cooler than any other distro. Of course, this is also one of the few distros that I haven't had a problem with installing and running a different kernel with special attributes. I'm running liquorix here (and for whatever reason, the sensors temps in the report is always higher than the package id 0 that I use). If I leave psensor up all night (with a white noise audio file playing), it'll drop down into the mid-30s, which has been a milestone for this craptop. Thanks for all your help in getting me through all my travails!

$ inxi -Fzxxxdba
System:
  Kernel: 6.15.7-1-liquorix-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 12.2.0 parameters: audit=0 intel_pstate=disable amd_pstate=disable
    BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.15.7-1-liquorix-amd64
    root=UUID=d0f0957b-4e3e-4776-b96a-20cad82e656b ro vt.cur_default=1
    systemd.log_level=0 rd.systemd.show_status=false systemd.show_status=0
    rd.udev.log_level=0 loglevel=0 splash fbcon=nodefer drm.vblankoffdelay=1
    modprobe.blacklist=iTCO_wdt
  Desktop: JWM v: 2.4.4 info: tint2 vt: 7 dm: SDDM Distro: Q4OS 5.8.1-n1
    base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: SAMSUNG product: RF511/RF411/RF711 v: 10HX
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 9 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: SAMSUNG model: RF511/RF411/RF711 v: 10HX
    serial: <superuser required> BIOS: American Megatrends
    v: 10HX.M034.20110426.SSH date: 04/26/2011
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 33.7 Wh (75.9%) condition: 44.4/48.8 Wh (90.9%)
    volts: 10.6 min: 11.1 model: SAMSUNG Electronics type: Li-ion serial: N/A
    status: not charging
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech ERGO M575 Trackball
    serial: <filter> charge: 70% rechargeable: yes status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-2630QM bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge
    gen: core 2 level: v2 built: 2010-12 process: Intel 32nm family: 6
    model-id: 0x2A (42) stepping: 7 microcode: 0x2F
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB
    L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1984 high: 2001 min/max: 800/2001 boost: disabled
    scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: performance cores: 1: 2001 2: 2001
    3: 2001 4: 1865 5: 2001 6: 2001 7: 2001 8: 2001 bogomips: 31929
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: ghostwrite status: Not affected
  Type: indirect_target_selection status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Split huge pages
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT
    vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW;
    STIBP: conditional; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not
    affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsa status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
    vendor: Samsung Co driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-6 code: Sandybridge
    process: Intel 32nm built: 2011 ports: active: LVDS-1,VGA-1
    empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0116 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF108M [GeForce GT 540M] vendor: Samsung Co driver: N/A
    alternate: nouveau non-free: series: 390.xx+ status: legacy-active
    (EOL~late 2022) arch: Fermi code: GF1xx process: 40/28nm built: 2010-16
    pcie: speed: Unknown lanes: 63 link-max: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0df4 class-ID: 0302
  Device-3: Silicon Motion WebCam SCB-1100N type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 4-1.1:3 chip-ID: 2232:1008 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915
    display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1600x2820 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 422x744mm (16.61x29.29")
    s-diag: 855mm (33.68")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 pos: primary,bottom model: ChiMei InnoLux 0x1733
    built: 2012 res: 1600x900 hz: 60 dpi: 106 gamma: 1.2
    size: 382x215mm (15.04x8.46") diag: 448mm (17.6") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 1600x900
  Monitor-2: VGA-1 pos: top model: Dell P2214H serial: <filter> built: 2015
    res: 1080x1920 hz: 60 dpi: 102 gamma: 1.2 size: 268x477mm (10.55x18.78")
    diag: 547mm (21.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  API: OpenGL v: 3.3 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 3000 (SNB
    GT2) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio
    vendor: Samsung Co 6 driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 1-1:2 v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8087:1024 class-ID: 0300 chip-ID: 8086:1c20
    class-ID: 0403 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF108 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: speed: Unknown lanes: 63 link-max: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s
    bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0bea class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Intel USB2.0 Device type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
  Device-4: AKAI MPKmini2 type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
    bus-ID: 1-2.2:5 chip-ID: 2011:0715 class-ID: 0103 serial: <filter>
  API: ALSA v: k6.15.7-1-liquorix-amd64 status: kernel-api
    tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Askey
    driver: bcma-pci-bridge v: N/A modules: bcma pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:4727 class-ID: 0280
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Samsung Co RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie:
    gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: b000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.96 TiB used: 421.25 GiB (13.9%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 1TB
    size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2B6Q scheme: MBR
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: Sabrent model: SABRENT
    size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: N/A
    serial: <filter> rev: 0204 scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB vendor: Seagate model: BUP Slim BK
    size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: N/A
    serial: <filter> rev: 0109 scheme: GPT
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: Optiarc model: DVD RW AD-7717H rev: 1.X0
    dev-links: cdrom
  Features: speed: 16 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes
    rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 244.89 GiB size: 239.98 GiB (98.00%)
    used: 41.48 GiB (17.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7 maj-min: 8:7
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 12 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 269 Uptime: 6h 9m wakeups: 10 Memory: 7.68 GiB
  used: 2.12 GiB (27.6%) Init: systemd v: 252 target: graphical (5)
  default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Packages: 2750 pm: dpkg pkgs: 2735 libs: 1466 tools: apt,apt-get,synaptic
  pm: flatpak pkgs: 15 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.15 running-in: lxterminal
  inxi: 3.3.26

crosscourt · 2025-07-27 02:48

Do you really see a lot of improvement using Liquorix with a Intel 2nd gen system? Id think the performance and latency improvements would be marginal at best, and theres a chance this kernel could cause potential issues as well. Most people Ive talked to actually prefer the standard kernel overall, because they saw some issues with instability, higher cpu idle states, and performance inconsistencies with Liquorix.

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-07-27 02:51)

Durhammer · 2025-07-27 03:14

Well, I honestly can't say for sure, but it's been as smooth as silk for me whenever I've been able to use it. No problems whatever.

I guess I could try booting into the normal kernel to check out how it does in comparison. Good question. I'm always open to fiddling around with the controls....

crosscourt · 2025-07-27 03:26

My experience with Liquorix with older systems(my 4th gen Lenovo M73 doesnt like Liquoirix) has been mixed and typically I stick to the standard kernel and try to do other optimizations on the side where possible. If you havent experienced any issues then at the least its stable and working, but Ill be curious to see what happens, if you decide to try the standard kernel instead.

josek · 2025-07-27 12:16

I want to tell you about my experience with the Liquorix kernel and the truth is that it works like silk as Durhammer says and the truth is that I did not know anything about modified kernels in the Linux world and my laptop is a third generation Intel i7 2012 and the truth is that since February I have been using Q40S with the standard Kernel and my boot times are 10s with some stutters and Acpi problems due to the Bios but when I changed the kernel to Liquorix that does not happen and my boot times dropped to 5s and the truth is that it has its pros and cons such as tick delay in the CPU or wifi but with some commands and settings it flies, I use a lot of multimedia content and games and my temperature stays at 50 degrees and with games like GTA V or Creed and open YouTube it stays at 65 degrees I feel it lighter and useful for Debian because I tried Xanmod and it does not work for my system

crosscourt · 2025-07-27 18:28

Thanks for the feedback josek. Indeed the experiences vary a lot with users depending on their system configurations. Some distros offer Liquorix as the default kernel or as an option in their software stores. Ive been looking at Liquorix for some time, as another website Im on is doing a look at the kernel and its benefits to older systems.

josek · 2025-07-27 21:14

Of course transversal, each PC is different but the OS is the one that does everything, honestly I come from Windows 8/10 and my laptop was for garbage, but what I like about Q40S is that it does everything in a simple way and with less bloatware than Windows, I thought about installing Antix, Manjaro or CachyoS but I prefer not to touch what works xD
I think that Liquorix should be included as an optional feature in the Q40S update center in case users are not satisfied or have problems with the normal kernel

Durhammer · 2025-07-27 22:16

Thanks for your feedback, @josek. Sounds like our systems are similar. Right now, I'm running in the vanilla 6.12.30 Q4OS-supplied kernel, and it's...meh.

It does seem like the package id 0 temps I monitor are maybe a degree higher than when running liquorix.

Today, on my Bunsen Labs distro, I got XanMod x64v2 installed and tweaked, and it's also meh, but I haven't had as much experience with it yet as I have with liquorix. I do note that it was running hotter, but part of that might have been due to Vivaldi email downloading and indexing headers. For whatever reason, the BL autostart stuff changed my VGA monitor from "VGA-2" to "VGA-1" and that wreaked a bit of confusion and havoc until I corrected it. I still have no idea why the VGA monitor had been showing up as "VGA-2" in the first place. In any case, that's all now corrected for both of the BL kernels (I was worried about that). The biggest problem for me is the difference in the vanilla 6.12.37 (?) kernel and the XanMod kernel as far as getting the acpi-call-dkms package installed and its acpi_call.ko (or whatever) module built. (That module is essential for me to be able to turn off my Nvidia GPU on my Optimus setup so it doesn't add to the heat.) Seems that you have to remove the acpi-call-dkms package and re-install it for each kernel you boot into. That's waaaay too much of a hassle, so I'll probably back off the XanMod kernel and install liquorix there. Too many quirks prevent you from being able to easily boot into an alternate kernel with XanMod.

If you read my missive above, I DID try antiX, and installed BL over it. When they fix the CachyOS installer, I WILL be giving it a try, as it's about the only chance of a successor to Intel's Clear Linux project that they just shut down.

Q4OS is guuud, and I'm having fun doing my minor tweaks, getting harder to find things that can be tweaked.

josek · 2025-07-27 23:01

The thing is, I feel like Xanmod isn't for Q4OS, or rather, for Debian, because it has a different configuration, and I'm glad you're having fun exploring Q4OS further.
I'm still maintaining the performance I've achieved on my laptop, all thanks to a series of very specific tweaks I've made thanks to your posts over the past few weeks.
I've thoroughly optimized GRUB parameters, touching on power management and performance, removing things I don't need for my use. I also managed to effectively disable Turbo Boost using msr-tools (after discovering that intel_pstate wasn't available in my kernel), and we made sure the NVIDIA and Nouveau drivers wouldn't load, allowing me to rely solely on Intel graphics. And, if that weren't enough, I fixed those minor BIOS crashes at startup.

Durhammer · 2025-07-27 23:21

Hey, @josek, thanks for the nods to any of my missives. It's been (and continues to be) fun.

Finding bugs in Q4OS (TDE handling of Lxterminal, and now Update Manager running under JWM) and having them addressed by the good folks here makes me feel a wee bit useful. :-) @q4osteam has been extremely helpful to the cause, as have folks like yourself. Thanks for helping me out in some of those other posts!

And again thanking @crosscourt for convincing me to adopt audacious as my music player! (And as far as audacious goes, I had to open a ticket with their dev team when my Sparky Linux audacious wouldn't display the song info for one of my radio stations. Need to go check in on that!)

Folks on this Q4OS forum are great!

crosscourt · 2025-07-27 23:57

Thanks for the feedback as Ive been testing Liquorix for quite sometime. I use another distro that uses Liquorix as its default kernel and except for one of my systems, most prefer Liquorix overall.

Audacious has been one of my go tos for a really long time.

Durhammer · 2025-07-28 17:29

My experiment (mentioned above) with the XanMod kernel on my BunsenLabs distro is no more. I don't know what was going on, but my searches in my Vivaldi browser, with the Brave Search engine set up, was slower than molasses. Interesting. Now I gotta find out how to install liquorix there. It's not in their default repos. Fun, fun, fun!

crosscourt · 2025-07-28 18:05

Xanmod has had mixed results for quite a few users and its one of the reasons you dont see it as an offering or default with some distros, who use Liquorix instead.

Take a look here as to how to install Liquorix in Debian,

https://linuxcapable.com/how-to-install … ian-linux/

Last edited by crosscourt (2025-07-28 18:51)

Durhammer · 2025-07-28 19:35

Thanks, @crosscourt! Yep, that site was the source for how to install XanMod, so I'll get a round tuit at some point!

crosscourt · 2025-07-28 19:36

Have fun!!!

Q4OS Forum

#1 2025-07-26 19:57

Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#2 2025-07-26 20:03

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#3 2025-07-26 20:06

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#4 2025-07-26 20:12

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#5 2025-07-26 22:24

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#6 2025-07-27 02:28

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#7 2025-07-27 02:48

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#8 2025-07-27 03:14

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#9 2025-07-27 03:26

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#10 2025-07-27 12:16

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#11 2025-07-27 18:28

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#12 2025-07-27 21:14

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#13 2025-07-27 22:16

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#14 2025-07-27 23:01

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#15 2025-07-27 23:21

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#16 2025-07-27 23:57

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#17 2025-07-28 17:29

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#18 2025-07-28 18:05

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#19 2025-07-28 19:35

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

#20 2025-07-28 19:36

Re: Newfound Q4OS appreciation!

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