Two months after the major 25 release, MX Linux has rolled out MX-25.1 “Infinity,” a new point update that refreshes installation media across all supported editions and restores one of the project’s long-standing distinguishing features: dual init support.
With that said, in MX-25.1, users can now choose between systemd and sysvinit directly from the live boot menu. The installer preserves the active init system as the system default at install time, while the alternative init remains available from the GRUB “advanced” menu.
Under the hood, MX-25.1 ships with updated Debian 13.3 packages and incorporates all current updates from the MX repositories. Most editions use Linux kernel 6.12, while the Xfce AHS build continues to target newer hardware with the 6.18 Liquorix kernel. AHS-enabled releases also move to Mesa 25.3.3, providing newer graphics support where applicable.
The new implementation also resolves issues seen in earlier releases. In particular, problems affecting polkit and D-Bus during logout and login cycles when systemd-shim was used are no longer observed. According to devs, systemd is now maintained directly through Debian security updates rather than MX-specific packaging, removing a long-standing maintenance burden for the project.
However, snapshot ISOs do not currently include dual-init boot menus. Instead, snapshot users will inherit the default init system of the installed system when running live media.
Keep in mind that one known issue affects live USB systems using dual init with semi-automatic persistence when the root filesystem is loaded into RAM. In this case, the shutdown console does not accept keyboard input, so the system falls back to automatic persistence saving. Traditional installed systems and live setups using static persistence modes are not affected.
MX developers emphasize that dual init will not be pushed to existing installations via updates. Users satisfied with their current single-init MX-25 systems can continue using them without changes for the lifetime of the MX-25 release series, which is until August 2028. Instructions are available for those who wish to transition manually.
For more information, refer to the announcement. MX-25.1 “Infinity” is available for download now in Xfce, KDE Plasma (AHS), and Fluxbox editions.
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