Hello Craig, On Sun, 2013-08-11 at 00:53 +1000, Craig Sanders wrote:
On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 07:34:51PM +1000, Mark Trickett wrote:
That is what I was looking for. I was considering lightweight graphical desktops, and not sure of quite which. Comments from the experience of others is what I value in this situation.
lxde is another popular option for a lightweight window manager.
And playing with on a resurrected IPEX P4 with 256Mb of RAM, currently stand alone. I will look at removing Net-Manager, and setting up a manually configured network. I am also considering setting up a DHCP server as an exercise, on the right hardware, and tying the allocated IP addresses to the MAC addresses. The right hardware would be a RPi or BeagleBone, ie low power for running 24/7.
Will consider the zram, but wait for budget.
sorry, i must have given the wrong impression.
zram is free, it's included with recent-ish kernels. it uses some of your existing RAM and creates a compressed ramdisk swap device.
so if you have 2GB, you might configure it to use up to 1GB as compressed swap and, depending on exactly what was being paged out and how compressible it was, you get much more than that. when a process needs some code/data swapped back in, it comes from the zram swap which is much faster than disk - especially the slow 5400rpm disks typically in a laptop. (of course, if you've got an SSD then it's probably not worth it)
The 1.5Gb on the laptop might be serviceable that way, but not the next toy desktop. I will need to look to resurrecting what was the next workstation, but has currently died. At the moment, not certain whether MB and CPU, or just the PSU. That was a dual core Intel CPU with 3Gb and quite nice, gave me a taste of the responsiveness of running on a modern multicore CPU. Also would like to get running the older Pentium classic P200 HX MB with 64Mb of RAM. Now that will require a small footprint install.
Dropped a bit of timber when chasing mice in the walls. Have mostly eliminated critters, but still more needs doing.
mice love cats, esp with toxoplasmosis.
And I would love a cat as a companion, but not while my work takes me away too much, when I have work. If I had a settled older cat, yes, but not to introduce one when I can be away all day, several days running, and even away for a week. There is also the ratsack to remove.
Noted, it might be possible to do an install to a disk in a better PC, then transfer. If I can get some specs, would you, or Russell Coker be able to source old RAM and post for a payment. I do not wish to impose, and I did "haunt" the Swap Meets, but being four hours from Melbourne makes it a bit difficult. I am also now a bit out of touch with most things post Pentium Classic, not entirely, but certainly not so familiar.
what sort do you need? i may have some old DDR or DDR2 RAM lying around you can have.
As commented, not looking for laptop RAM, that is maxed out. The IPEX desktop has two slots for PC133, one of which has a 256Mb stick installed. Next is to look for next desktop workstation, but really should earn money first. Even should you or Russell have a second hand unit, cannot really spare the funds for the 600+ Km round trip to collect. There will be work, in due course, then short of time.
i don't have any old laptop ram, i've always been averse to laptops (i dislike tiny keyboards, tiny screens and especially touchpads) and haven't had any real need for one...i only really bought my x401u because it was cheap and i wanted a keyboard/screen/ssh terminal to take to linux conf.
I have an interest in mounting a RPi in a VESA box on the back of a flat panel monitor, relatively low power, and small physical footprint. I am also interested in using one headless as a server as mentioned earlier. Again, waiting to earn, then can learn and sell expertise, hopefully a better income, and less arduous than current physical employment. Then the physical activities for myself can be to my pacing.
craig
Regards, Mark Trickett