Having said goodbye this week to Windows forever, I have been getting to know Linux and my distro of choice has been the wonderful Solus at https://solus-project.com/
The latest MAME is always available in Solus software center / Solus repository, just click install and thats it, Solus will install MAME automatically.
All I needed to do was to add roms, they are not available in the repository.
So far I have only added roms and the latest cheatfile, configured a controller and its very smooth sailing now, all the games I have tried so far are working just perfect.
Loving it.
The only thing I will be missing from Windows is the mighty GameEx but at the same time I am hoping to see it arrive someday for Linux .
BIG thanks to Tom & all for the good years with GameEx