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Minimalistic setups - what are you running?

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oswaldkelso
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Re: Minimalistic setups - what are you running?

#21 Post by oswaldkelso »

On my atom netbook I run:

windowlab with fittstool and a load of scripts in rox.

Most things I can switch on or off as required as they're not hard depends and I have the power to chose individual packages.

re memory:

If were going to look at kernel configs we should look at the "how low can you go" thread.

50MB > 1000MB depending on if I want a full blown system with libre office and Seamonkey or not

I rarely exceed 1000MB and usually run in the 100 > 600 MB range. Depending on how many tabs/applications I have open. It's not that I don't have the capacity on my higher spec machines it's more I don't see why I should bin my perfectly working laptops for little or no benefit.

The biggest pita is crappy websites.

libre office runs fine on my netbooks with only a slower loading really being noticeable when opening several spreadsheets/documents.
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Re: Minimalistic setups - what are you running?

#22 Post by bedtime »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
bedtime wrote:I removed xserver-xorg-video-intel and some others that I know I don't use, but that shaved off only .5mb or so at most.
You could try disabling DRI3 (& perhaps Glamor as well) but I think the performance hit would be significant.
I believe I've disabled disabled both. Also, stopped using xrandr and did things up proper with config files. Made a script that merely switches the xorg.conf.d script names and kills X to boot into different monitors when I need to. 9menu is used to activate it. Here is the setup I have for both monitors. I am looking for input (this stuff is new to me):

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor-both.conf:

Code: Select all

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "LVDS-1"
    Option      "PreferredMode" "1366x768"
    Option      "Primary" "true"
    Option      "TearFree" "false"
    Option      "DRI" "False"
    Option      "DPI" "192 x 192"
    Option      "Accel"   "Off"
    Option      "OffTime"  "1"
    Option      "Xinerama" "Off"
    Option      "DRI2" "Off"
    Option      "NoPM" "1"
    Option      "AccelerationProfile" "-1"
    Option      "DPMS" "0"
    Option      "Enable" "1"
    Option      "Ignore" "0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "HDMI-1"
    Option      "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
    Option      "LeftOf" "LVDS-1"
    Option      "TearFree" "false"
    Option      "DRI" "False"
    Option      "DPI" "192 x 192"
    Option      "Accel"   "Off"
    Option      "OffTime"  "1"
    Option      "Xinerama" "Off"
    Option      "DRI2" "Off"
    Option      "NoPM" "1"
    Option      "AccelerationProfile" "-1"
    Option      "DPMS" "0"
    Option      "Enable" "1"
    Option      "Ignore" "0"
EndSection
192 DPI, because I am not a programmer with 40/20 vision; I actually like to see my text without having to use binoculars. :roll: Also, cool outcome is that the mouse is also enlarged. :)
bedtime wrote:Is there any other minimal browser you could suggest?
https://packages.debian.org/stretch/links2

Run it in graphical mode with:

Code: Select all

xlinks2
Nice browser! Compiled and installed. I will be making separate post about customization later. Currently, I am starting it with 'links2 -g'. I presume this is the same thing as xlinks2? Certainly takes less memory; the system runs at 50mb with that browser loaded and on duckduckgo. :)
Head_on_a_Stick wrote:OK, here we go: browser, terminal, task manager and "window manager" (tmux) running in under 15MiB:

https://cdn.scrot.moe/images/2018/02/12/lomem.png

Do I win? :mrgreen:
No, you actually lose; you have broken the main rule (philosophy) of Linux in respect to memory:

Unused ram is wasted ram. :P ... The real winners are those running Kubuntu! :lol:
Nili wrote:
bedtime wrote:How did you get your xorg down to 9mb? Whatever I'm doing, I'm using 5x that amount. :?
And thanks for all the ideas; I'm really enjoying this thread!
I did not much with Xorg, except installing minimal copy. Maybe the old architecture i use? I run x32 / i686 on my system.
x64 AMD is a bit more heavy versus x32, I've optimized my copy by installing very few packages that i need. Also tweaked by using ReduceDebian carefully.

I have those Xorg installed

Code: Select all

ii  xserver-common                2:1.16.4-1+deb8u2                 all          common files used by various X servers
ii  xserver-xorg                  1:7.7+7                           i386         X.Org X server
ii  xserver-xorg-core             2:1.16.4-1+deb8u2                 i386         Xorg X server - core server
ii  xserver-xorg-input-evdev      1:2.9.0-2                         i386         X.Org X server -- evdev input driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-fbdev      1:0.4.4-1+b2                      i386         X.Org X server -- fbdev display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-intel      2:2.21.15-2+b2                    i386         X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver
Done. Got rid of xserver-xorg-input-all. Replaced with *evdev. Did ReduceDebian suggestion as well. Think I shaved a mb or two. However, my deletion finger was a trifle heavy, and I decided it was a good idea to delete /etc/alternatives. Was not a good idea (lost net and much functionality...). :( Anyways, easily fixed by just adding back the directory and doing: update-alternatives --get-selections. Was worried for abit there. :?
oswaldkelso wrote:On my atom netbook I run:
windowlab with fittstool and a load of scripts in rox.
Any reason you run windowlab? I've tried it out, and it seems it cannot do nearly as much as dwm can do, and dwm uses less memory, at least on my machine. Also, dwm has built in key shortcuts, so no need for an addional shortcut app.

Down to 43mb. 11 user / 72 system processes.

Amazing how snappy everything is. Pressing the mouse button on the desktop brings up 9menu so fast that it almost feels as if my finger had not even completely pressed the button before the menu populates on the screen; it's like a work of magic! :D

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oswaldkelso
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Re: Minimalistic setups - what are you running?

#23 Post by oswaldkelso »

oswaldkelso wrote:
On my atom netbook I run:
windowlab with fittstool and a load of scripts in rox.
Any reason you run windowlab? I've tried it out, and it seems it cannot do nearly as much as dwm can do, and dwm uses less memory, at least on my machine. Also, dwm has built in key shortcuts, so no need for an addional shortcut app.

Down to 43mb. 11 user / 72 system processes.

As I've said many times elsewhere I'm not a fan of tiling wm's especially dynamic ones. dmenu drove me crazy, but I totally get how some people love the suckless stuff they're just not for me.

There are several reasons why I run Windowlab on my netbook. I like the licence, I like the innovative design. It can open, close, switch, move and resize windows. It's easy to configure and use. I use the netbook as my alarm so it's mostly next to my bed and always on. As I'm using fittstool I've not needed to setup special keyboard shortcuts.

The scripts I have are weather, battery level, wallpaper-switcher/s, and a shutdown script. There used to be a start.sh but I followed my own advice and added it to /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.windowlab :-)
I tend to put these in the windowlab menu bar and my home directory.

ps_mem shows

Code: Select all

400.0 KiB + 119.0 KiB = 519.0 KiB    windowlab
164.0 KiB +  47.5 KiB = 211.5 KiB    fittstool
I think that's a pretty minimalistic desktop

If to want to tinker :mrgreen:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=129223
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Re: Minimalistic setups - what are you running?

#24 Post by zmisc »

I've a DEC VT220 hooked up to a Sun Netra 240 running OpenBSD/sparc64 just for fun. My workstation is a custom built x86_64 box with Debian Testing along with pekwm and tint2, with some xterms and mutt, irssi, etc.

Also I've found tmux to be an excellent replacement for GNU screen the last 10+ years.

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Re: Minimalistic setups - what are you running?

#25 Post by pawRoot »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:OK, here we go: browser, terminal, task manager and "window manager" (tmux) running in under 15MiB:

https://cdn.scrot.moe/images/2018/02/12/lomem.png

Do I win? :mrgreen:
How do u run tmux as wm?

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Re: Minimalistic setups - what are you running?

#26 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

bedtime wrote:I am starting it with 'links2 -g'. I presume this is the same thing as xlinks2?
I think so, yes, the graphical mode allows you to view pictures so if you can see them then you're good to go.
bedtime wrote:Unused ram is wasted ram
Yeah, I need this setup to save as much RAM as possible for all my Windows VMs :mrgreen:
pawRoot wrote:How do u run tmux as wm?
In the console screen (TTY).

The status bar can read from /sys or /proc to get a battery readout and other things.
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Re: Minimalistic setups - what are you running?

#27 Post by bedtime »

oswaldkelso wrote:The scripts I have are weather, battery level, wallpaper-switcher/s, and a shutdown script. There used to be a start.sh but I followed my own advice and added it to /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.windowlab :-)
I tend to put these in the windowlab menu bar and my home directory.
How do you run stats in the menu bar? I didn't know it was possible with windowlab. One other thing: how do you maximize the windows? Aside from manually dragging them?
Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
pawRoot wrote:How do u run tmux as wm?
In the console screen (TTY).

The status bar can read from /sys or /proc to get a battery readout and other things.
Well, everybody has something that they need to atone for, so I'm sure being stuck in tty is as worthy a punishment as any.

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