Optimize my desktop to use less ram?

halak79 · n00b Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 30 Location: Arizona, USA

I've got a PIII with 128mb ram, my desktop is Xorg w/ Fluxbox and Rox with the pinboard.

Just booting into the desktop after restarting the computer takes 117000k (or so) of RAM according to top. That seems like alot, considering people get it to work on embedded systems with like 32mb or ram It seems like something might be wrong. How can I optimize this?

Output of top just booting to the command line w/ no X is around 32mb (33000k) If I start x and then exit back to the command line ram usesage goes up to about 70 Mb with no X, but booting back into X it still takes the same, Why is that??

Ram usage right now, after just rebooting and now I am only running x, fluxbox, rox, firefox, and eterm running top is 122000k and 128k of swap.

My 'swappiness' is set to 15, I have the intel i810 integrated chipset set to 16Mb of ram so that is using my system ram since it doesn't actually have any dedicated video ram, or... thats how I think it works, the i810 thing is a little confusing to me.

Any tips/ideas?

bunder · Bodhisattva Joined: 10 Apr 2004 Posts: 5934

- try stripping modules from your kernel
- run fewer gettys on startup
- switch to a lighter browser, firefox (or any mozilla product for that matter) has always been a memory hog
- buy more ram
- use less system ram for video output (2, 4, or 8mb should be sufficient depending on what you do graphically)
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halak79 · n00b Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 30 Location: Arizona, USA

Thanks for the tips,

Currently only running 2 gettys

How do I stip modules from the kernel? Like do built in instead of module?

I do use dillo sometimes because it's lightening fast, but sometimes I just need to use a more compliant browser, any suggestions on a lighter weight compliant browser? I tried Flock but it actually didn't seem any better with resources.

I plan on buying more ram in like a month or so, my system is an HP ePC C10, which is a small form factor workstation thing w/ only 1 ram slot so the max ram for the system I think is 320mb which is 64mb that is on the board plus a 256mb ram chip, which I think I read was the max for the system.. maybe there is a way to run a 512 chip I don't know. But thats why I want to get base ram usage as low as possible.

bunder · Bodhisattva Joined: 10 Apr 2004 Posts: 5934

csab · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 6:04 pm Post subject:

Hi,

I'm running a PIII with 256M RAM, so maybe not at your level, but I also face RAM issues. These are my solutions:

- I don't use any desktop evironments. I use icewm as window manager and it uses very small amount of memory. Xorg does use a fair amount, but I think it is just because it can. E.g. you said that when you shut down X, the system still does not release RAM. I think it is because most parts of the X system is cashed in memory. But don't worry about that: if an application needs RAM, the cache will be released.

- Use the -Os optimization flag for gcc. -O3 and -O2 makes fast binaries but they are big, so if you have lttle RAM, it may be counterproductive. -Os will optimize your binaries for size.

- As said before, compile things as module in your kernel, or if you never need a feature, leave it out.

- Buy a hardware firewall so you don't need to run a software one.

- Don't run any deamon that you don't really need (like NTP).

lxg · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 6:35 pm Post subject:

As browser, check out dillo. It's extremly tiny. As a trade-off, you get almost no CSS support or proper display of complex page layouts. However, at least it displays images, so I guess it's better than lynx.

edit: I just realized, dillo was already mentioned in this discussion. So I just second: dillo is a neat browser.

And, yes, I've tried others; but dillo appeared the best when not wanting a bloated browser. By the way, Opera is a great browser that needs significantly fewer ressources than Firefox.
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halak79 · n00b Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 30 Location: Arizona, USA

For csab, how much space savings do you get with -Os? It would require me to recompile like... everything right? But then again this system also only has a 10G hard drive so I kinda need to conserve space...
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What got me started on this whole thing is that something like an iPAQ with 32mb ram can run Linux with X and a window manager and it seems to work fine, so I got to thinking like "Why isn't my X setup only using 32mb ram" But then again they have a special version of X for embedded systems I think... But then there is Damn Small Linux which is like 49mb and says it works on a 486 w/ 16mb or ram and runs X and fluxbox and has firefox too...

I guess I just don't know what to benchmark it against... is 32mb of ram usage OK for a system that has just booted up w/ no X? Is 100mb ram usage normal for just booting into X?

Dillo is amazing

I mean the speed of going back or loading a page, it's so fast. And has tabbed browsing and stuff... I wish there was a plugin or something to add javascript and css.
All the gtk 1 apps look really clunky with gtk2, maybe there is something that can be done about that, I dunno. It's pretty minor anyway.

Thanks for the responses you guys.
I'm going to get the DSL live cd and see if it is less intense on the resources. If so maybe there is something I can barrow from that setup to lighten my gentoo setup.

csab · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 12:58 am Post subject:

Solicitous · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 7:32 am Post subject:

Well I use on a semi-regular basis an old NEC laptop (P233mhz, 128mb ram) with Gentoo.
I use Opera when I need a half-decent browser on my system. The boot time for Opera is quite reasonable on this old computer, and doesn't feel sluggish when browsing.

I do however use ratpoison as my DE, so I don't know if that uses a great deal less resources than fluxbox.

Just an idea.

Now if only I could cut back the install size I'd be as happy as a pig in s**t.

lxg · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 8:27 am Post subject:

StringCheesian · l33t Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 887

Here's every ram/hd saving tip I can think of that hasn't been mentioned:
1. For 20 MB or so of HD space emerge localepurge: it deletes gettext language files, man pages, etc that aren't in the language(s) you tell it to keep.
2. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Reducing_memory_usage_(Firefox) ...ARG! Stupid PhpBB! The "(Firefox)" is part of the URL.
3. Opera really does use less memory.
4. Fine tune your USE flags to eliminate some shared libraries and therefore memory usage.

halak79 · n00b Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 30 Location: Arizona, USA

Any specific tips on fine tuning the use flags besides the already mentioned 'minimal'?
Would this be like just having less use flags so the apps are linked against less libraries?

Wow... /usr/portage/distfiles was takingup 1 gig!
Thanks for that tip.

Thanks,

GentlemanFinn · Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 9:28 pm Post subject:

StringCheesian · l33t Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 887