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installing on machine with low memory


sitor
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Hello,

 

I will install Linux on a PC with only 64 MB of RAM. It's for a friend of mine that got his Windows machine all crippled by a virus. As he has no experience whatsover with Linux (but he is very open to it), I will install it for him.

 

The system requirements mentioned on the Mandrakelinux site mention that 64 MB is the minimum, but they advice 128 MB.

 

Anyone experience with such low amounts of RAM? Yeah, I know, RAM doesn't cost much, but this user does not want to do anything fancy (just some office stuff and websurfing).

 

I know that next to KDE and GNOME, you can use other DEs as well, like IceWM for instance. Would that be more appropriate in this case? Do these use less memory?

 

Thanks for some advice.

 

Ciao,

 

Sitor

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Arctic,

 

Thanks for the hint. However the computer is not that old. It has a 700MHz processor and a 25 GB HD. Just the memory is quite low. Mandrakemove and PCLinuxOS did not run due to that. Knoppix did but obviously very slow. Thats why I checked out the system requirements of Mandrake.

 

DeLi Linux stands for "Desktop Light" Linux. It is a Linux Distribution for old computers, from 486 to Pentium MMX 166 or so.

 

So that is going a bit too far I think in this case. I would like to know if someone did run Mandy on a PC with 64 MB and if it was doable. And if using e.g. IceWM i.o. KDE would help.

 

Ciao,

 

Sitor

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you can run mdk on a 64mb ram machine but you have to strip it down a bit. no "toys", reduced number of apps/processes running in background. and use fluxbox, icewm or blackbox, as they are fairly small.

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I have been testing Libranet in the mean time as well. They claim as well that it runs with 32MB RAM minimum, 64MB recommended, just as Vector Linux. However I couldn't get Openoffice installed. I tried it in VMware, and limiting the RAM there to 64MB led to reasonable results with IceWM, but running quite slow on KDE.

 

What strikes me with these low RAM distros (Vector Linux and Libranet) is that they run IceWM by default, where other distro's run KDE or GNOME by default. So I suppose that does make quite a difference.

 

I'll try to install Mandrake, with IceWM and KDE. If KDE runs too slow (probably), then it might still work with IceWM.

 

We can of course try to get more RAM installed, but then I will need to find out what type it is and whether it can still be found.

 

Thanks for the replies anyway.

 

Ciao,

 

Sitor

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What strikes me with these low RAM distros (Vector Linux and Libranet) is that they run IceWM by default, where other distro's run KDE or GNOME by default. So I suppose that does make quite a difference.

sure. vector linux is a lightning fast linux-system without much "bulk" in it and as it shall be as fast as possible, it doesn't use kde or gnome or other de's that need lots of ram (kde and gnome are the most ram-unfriednly de's). you should keep in mind that vector (which is based on slackware) is not intended to be a newbies distro, as it is somewhat more tricky to configure vector.

 

oh, one thing... i wouldn't try to install kde with mandrake on this comp. use windowmaker, flux or blackbox along with icewm and a smaller word processor (e.g. latex). kde will use up nearly all of your ram. ;)

Edited by arctic
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you can run mdk on a 64mb ram machine but you have to strip it down a bit. no "toys", reduced number of apps/processes running in background. and use fluxbox, icewm or blackbox, as they are fairly small.

 

icewm has a windows xp theme. but it's darn hard to configure if you come from the windows world (lots and lots of text based config'ing)

 

You could try out XFCE - very very lightweight. but windozey in nature.

 

xfce is a mandrake package (urpmi xfce)

 

 

having said that - one does have to wonder why icons on the desktop arent a feature of IceWM - if they added that, it would go some way to helping the rest of us convert these types of low end machines.

Edited by kde-head
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On a old laptop (P.MMX-150, 32MB RAM), I run Mdk8.2 with IceWM (KDE is no-go, but Gnome is still bearable). It's fine.

OpenOffice.org takes ages to load, but when it's done, it is usable.

 

On a tower-PC (PII-350, 192MB RAM), everything and anything is perfect with Mdk10.

 

So I think that latest Mandrake (10) is your best choice. You're a little low on RAM, but fast CPU and fast hard disk (probably 7400rpm?) should compensate. Just don't use heavy apps:

- For window manager, I suggest you use IceWM, or even lighter (but not ugly) Matchbox (this WM was created for low-RAM machines such as PDAs).

- For files and icons management, go with ROX. If you choose Matchbox, then there are alternatives to ROX, especially created for Matchbox integration.

- For internet browsing, Mozilla is the standards winner. But it is heavy. So if you don't mind having some sites looking strange (broken layout...), go with the latest Netscape 4 (Communicator 4.79 IIRC). It has the additional bonus of handling all kinds of mail setups nicely (HTML mail, rich text, POP3, IMAP, news...).

 

Yves.

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Hello,

 

Just to give some feedback: I have done some testing in the mean time in VMWare. The purpose is for me to give this user at least the same experience as he is used to. That means that he should be able to use a good office suite. I only know OpenOffice well, so that is what I used as a benchmark. So I did a test with the different DEs / WMs that you can install Mandrake of from the CDs. The test was simply to measure the time it took to launch OpenOffice and wait til it was ready to accept input in a fluent way:

KDE: 6min30sec

GNOME: 6min10sec

IceWM: 1min40sec

WindowMaker: 1min08sec

Enlightenment: 2min30sec

Blackbox: 1min50sec

So the result is that you cannot really use KDE with only 64MB RAM (once OOo was loaded, typing the text went quite OK with any of them though). So in the mean time I let the user know he has two options: either a rudimentary desktop (IceWM) without any costs, either upgrade the RAM and be able to use KDE (which he has seen in Knoppix and liked quite good). Hey, the 128 MB RAM doesn't cost more the a virus scanner these days! And it is virii that started this in the first plase.

 

Just for completeness I changed the RAM settings for the VMWare machine to 128MB RAM and ran the test again:

KDE: 55sec

GNOME: 1min06sec

IceWM: 35sec

WindowMaker: 27sec

Enlightenment: 35sec

Blackbox: 25sec

 

This shows that 128MB RAM is surely sufficient.

 

Of course these figures only give a general idea, since they will depend largely on software installed, speed of processor, HD, amount of SWAP (I did have 500MB). Moreover there is the loss in performance just from using VMWare.

 

Ciao,

 

Sitor

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