Well, if this much work was a point release I dread how much work the next full release will be! AV Linux (AVL) and MX Moksha (MXM) 25.2 are now out with many notable changes and improvements but the biggest headline is the complete reworking of the ‘Open With’ File Actions, you may never need to leave Thunar and launch a full program again! There is now one set of File Actions that are shared by both AVL and MXM, get a cup of coffee or tea and your reading glasses, we have a lot of items to cover!
AVL Changelog:
- Liquorix 7 Kernel.
- Optional AVL Build using XLibre
- Much faster booting with slightly larger ISO size.
- Updates and Improvements to the Installer and MX Tools *thanks MX Team!
- New File Actions! (full info below).
- New hotkey Super+r restarts Enlightenment
- Ardour 9.5 (nightly build).
- Reaper returns to the ISO (7.73).
- Kdenlive 25.12.3 (latest 26.04.1 was buggy)
- Drumlabooh and Noise Repellent Plugins updated.
- MX Updater AVL systray icons fixed *thanks fehlix!
- New Media Apps Dock (hiding screen left)
- New Weather Forecast module for AVL from Enlightenment git.
- New Color Picker and Ease theme updates *thanks Melber!
- New simple GTK Vuunotes Note application *thanks greenjeans and m15!
- Added Entice, a very basic EFL Photo Viewer.
- Updated the Evisum Task Manager. *thanks netstar!
- Removed Cine-Encoder and Free Factory QT (replaced by File Actions).
- Removed AVL PipeWire Tools (replaced by Cable).
- Removed Bodhi Linux Weather Forecast Module (replaced by E git).
MXM Changelog:
- Liquorix 7 Kernel.
- Optional MXM Build using XLibre
- Much faster booting with slightly larger ISO size.
- Updates and Improvements to the Installer and MX Tools. *Thanks MX Team!
- New shared File Actions from AVL!
- New Bodhi Updater! *thanks flux-abyss and ylee!
- New hotkey Super+r restarts Moksha
- New Moksha Green theme with MXM branding.
- Visibility improvements to the MX Moksha Skewaita GTK theme.
- New Screenshot Module ported from Enlightenment. *Thanks the_waiter!
- Fixed Weather Forecast Module. *Thanks the_waiter and ylee!
- New Color Picker. *thanks Melber!
- New simple GTK Vuunotes Note application *thanks greenjeans and m15!
New and Greatly Improved File Actions!
AV Linux has always had extra Audio and Video ‘Open-With’ File Actions which allow to process and manipulate files by right-clicking on folders and files in the File Manager without having to open external programs. The existing actions were a mishmash of found scriptlets from the internet, some of my own kindergarten-level scripting and some from collaborators, they could be best described as ‘crude but effective’ and I wanted to make them better but coding is not really my forte. In the past I had asked acquaintances on forums to help and people are quite generous and helpful but like all of us they are busy with their own things. I had never considered AI to be an option for assistance and as a musician I am quite appalled by ‘generative AI’. Like many things we encounter in today’s complicated world big concepts are usually not ‘one thing’ and AI is no different and after some long consideration I thought if I want to be critical of AI perhaps I better get some actual experience with it rather than simply hiding and booing from the sidelines. I started by asking Google Gemini 3 to teach me bash scripting and it was more than happy to do that but after about 30 minutes I was not a whole lot closer to effortlessly deploying loops and arrays so I changed course. Although I am an idiot at code I have many years of experience with Audio and Video programs and I have a very good grasp of the operational aspects of what I need from File Actions so I gave myself a promotion to ‘Design Consultant’ and let Gemini handle the code. Before you despair about AI programming slop please be aware my goalposts were set in stone for bash scripting and yad for UI calls only because I have at least some experience with those things unlike jumping headfirst into Python or something without a clue and not understanding any of the code at all. For those who fear that AI is going to take over the world, I don’t think Gemini will any time soon, it’s extremely helpful and pleasant to work with and I couldn’t have dreamed to get as much done as I did without it but sometimes I didn’t know if it was assisting me or thwarting me and it could really get in the weeds sometimes. AI has all the knowledge and very little wisdom and common sense. If you don’t know exactly what you want and have the technical knowledge to verify it’s processes you can get off the track very quickly. In the end whatever it hands over has to be tested and verified so there is plenty of work to go around for everybody whether you get some assistance from AI or not, it’s not going to do any of the organizing, packaging or testing. I will warn people that I have gotten things to a plateau where these actions are doing what I intend them to do BUT they are being released into the wild now for further testing and feedback, they should be considered EARLY BETA at best.
I should perhaps touch on what the context is for some of these File Actions, first they are not for Thunar only, they are generic and open to use in other common Linux File Managers. In AV Linux in general I design and set up things for my needs because this is my daily production system, then I do what needs doing to package and distribute them for others who may have the same needs. Some people will use none of these File Actions, some will use a few and be annoyed at how many there are and others will be annoyed that there aren’t more of them. It is very important to understand these are tiny bash scripts and desktop launchers, if you don’t use them they are not plugging your hard drive with bloat they are literally Kilobytes in size. I personally work a lot with old concert footage, I like to take stuff and improve the Audio and Video as much as possible and then author it back to physical media. “Why??!!” you may ask, it’s a good question for another discussion… for now suffice it to say that some of the Video File Actions are centered around both extraction from physical media and authoring to physical media but above and beyond that there are dozens of ffmpeg-driven Actions for various ways of working with modern Media files including AI Image and Video upscaling.
Some Examples:
AUDIO WAV File Actions:
- Split Files at silence points.
- Trim silence from beginning and end of WAV Files.
- Create SFZ Files from a folder of WAV Samples.
- Convert Stereo WAV to Mono.
- Convert WAV Sample Rates.
- Normalize Volume of WAV Files.
- Transpose pitch of WAV Files (without speed change).
- Change pitch and speed of WAV Files (Varispeed).
- Extract Audio from Video Files as WAV.
- Convert between Audio formats (PACPL).
Screenshot of creating an SFZ Drum Library.
Video File Actions:
- Convert MP4 to MKV and vice versa (lossless Video Conversion).
- Convert to ProRes/WAV (for intermediate editing).
- Multiplex Video and Audio streams.
- Losslessly Concatenate Video files (must be of same type).
- Convert to MP4, MKV and ProRes with optional 5 minute chapters.
- Get Media Info.
- Process Video with commonly used filters (Deinterlace, Denoise, Sharpen etc.).
- Fetch Video from Youtube.
- Upscale and process Video 2x/4x both with AI models and FFmpeg lanczos.
- Actions are supported with the upscayl binary and libdvdcss2.
Using the yt-dlp File Action to fetch a Youtube Video.
Upscaling Video with Upscayl models.
Physical Disc File Actions:
- Play DVD and Audio CDs with MPV.
- Play DVD ISO files from HDD.
- Author DVD to ISO File with 5 minute chapters.
- Convert DVD folder structure to an ISO.
- Burn DVD direct to physical Disc.
- Burn direct to an Audio CD from a folder of normalized WAV Files.
Image File Actions:
- Resize Image files with Imagemagick.
- Print Image files direct to Printer with correct DPI (good for DVD/CD cover art).
- Upscale Images 2X/4X with Upscayl + ffmpeg Filters.
Upscaling an Image File and applying post-processing filters.
Virtual Machine File Actions:
- Fetch an ISO to use in a VM with Quickget.
- Run a VM in Qemu with Quickemu (with clipboard and file sharing)
Using Quickget to download MX Linux KDE 25.2.
System Admin File Actions (selfishly for me to use):
- Edit and Modify Enlightenment binary eet files.
- Decompress Enlightenment .edj theme files.
- Extract the folder structure from a Debian Package.
- Repack a modified Debian Package.
- Open Folders as Root.
- Edit Files as Root.
What about existing AVL/MXM Users!?
As usual with AVL and MXM, any custom Packages that don’t come through regular repository updates are made available in the BSRPKG (for AVL) and MX_MOKSHA (for MXM) web archive folders. *IMPORTANT existing MX Moksha Users will need to remove the ‘mx-moksha-file-actions’ package and install the new ‘avl-mxe-file-actions’ package. Please note that for the new File Actions to work completely both existing AVL and MXM users require these 3 packages found in the ‘AVL-MXe’ subfolder in BSRPKG:
- avl-mxe-file-actions
- upscayl-bin
- libdvdcss2-avl
DOWNLOADS:
OK, Still Awake!? Download AVL or MXM 25.2 from bandshed.net. If you are a daily User and have the means please consider making a donation, any amount is welcomed and appreciated, even with assistance these new File Actions took months of work, testing and time away from other pursuits.:
Enjoy!
Best, Glen MacArthur – AV Linux and MX Moksha Maintainer/Developer