Is anyone successfully running KiCad on MX Linux?
It’s based on Debian so why not give it a go and let us know.
A distro is just a collection of packages and configuration pulled from a common source.
Redhat, centos, debian, ubuntu, arch, gentoo… The only significance is whether the needed libraries and versions are available at that moment in time.
All kicad needs is:
dev-libs/boost
media-libs/freeglut
media-libs/glew
media-libs/glm
media-libs/mesa
x11-libs/cairo
x11-libs/pixman
x11-libs/wxGTK
net-misc/curl
sci-electronics/ngspice
sci-libs/opencascade
sci-libs/oce
dev-lang/python
dev-python/wxpython
Best situation is your distro of choice provides a package for kicad so the dependencies are manages
next is your distro provides the deps and you just need to pull them in
worst-case is you would need to compile the needed deps BUT it will still work.
KiCAD is significant enough that it will probably work
in fact 30seconds on google has the answer…
https://repology.org/project/kicad/versions
There are exactly 4 linux distros officially supported by the core developers of KiCad. These are Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and Arch.
Every other package you find is made by an independent volunteer. The core team will not ensure that these packages work which also means that system dependent bugs can occur. Such bugs are however not handled by the core team so a bug report is only accepted if the behaviour can be replicated within one of the officially supported platforms.
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MX is just Debian with SysVinit instead of systemd and lighter apps and window environment. Most of the repos are the Debian ones except for some MX specific packages. So the instructions to follow would be the Debian ones, using the backport repos.
I use AntiX, a close relative of MX, but the netbook it’s on is too weak for Kicad, not to mention the screen is dinky. And anyway who wants to look at Kicad on holidays? 
As Rene_Poschl already said, MX linux is a debian stable derivative, so there ought be no issue installing it. My debian stable system shows:
$ apt-cache madison kicad
kicad | 5.1.5+dfsg1-2~bpo10+1 | http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports/main amd64 Packages
kicad | 5.0.2+dfsg1-1 | http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/main amd64 Packages
so I had to use a backport to get the newer 5.1.5 version.
In order to use the 3D viewer in pcbnew, I had to add the separate debian package kicad-packages3d like so:
# apt-get install kicad-packages3d
This package contains the 3-dimensional models for some commonly-used parts.
I tried it and it works.
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