Best desktop for x11 on a 320x240 screen with 32 mb RAM

adnyxo · 03-23-2010, 07:26 PM

I have a modified zipit z2, running debian. I am trying to find a good wm/desktop that requires little memory and processor power, and not much screen real estate. Right now im using fluxbox, but i would prefer something that does not use the mouse so much. any suggestions?

rubentje1991 · 03-25-2010, 05:07 AM

LXDE and XFCE are other possibilities

I would think you can change settings to fully use them without using the mouse much

evo2 · 03-26-2010, 12:45 AM

I don't think thee are any desktops that would work with 32 Mb RAM. You would need to just use a very light window manager. I use matchbox on a zaurus with 64 Mb ram. If you really want to get away from the rodent you could have a look at awesome (although it seems to be using 28 Mb on my desktop right now).

Evo2

GrapefruiTgirl · 03-26-2010, 01:22 AM

You might look at i3. This is the git repo and Here's the main site where you can read about it. It's under active development currently (updated pretty much daily, but the MASTER branch is stable), but I've been using it for a couple months now without problems (I use the NEXT branch). If you find a problem that's not addressed in the docs, pop into the IRC and ask about it.
It's as mouse free as you like; I use the mouse mainly to operate Firefox, but as far as opening & closing apps or windows, moving windows, changing focus, launching stuff or whatever, it's all keyboard. And, screen real estate used by it can be big fat zero: if you don't use a status bar, you have a blank screen at your disposal..

I really don't know how much *real* ram it consumes while running (beyond what I can get from the tools shown below), but it's pretty small. Below is what I see in HTOP and PMAP for the process.

Code:

 PID  USER     PRI  NI  VIRT   RES   SHR S CPU% MEM%   TIME+  Command 
 3472 sasha     20   0 39352  1888  1352 S  0.0  0.0  0:05.16 /usr/bin/i3

Here's what `pmap` shows (still appears larger than your target memory usage, but I'm using 24bit color and two wide monitors -- I *guess* memory used would be less, with smaller screen/displays? I'm not sure though..):

Code:

sasha@reactor: pmap 3472
3472:   /usr/bin/i3 --force-xinerama -V -d all -a
0000000000400000    220K r-x--  /usr/bin/i3-Wed-Mar-24-2010-v2
0000000000636000      8K rw---  /usr/bin/i3-Wed-Mar-24-2010-v2
0000000000638000      8K rw---    [ anon ]
00000000014a4000    432K rw---    [ anon ]
00007f5b749dd000      8K r-x--  /lib64/libdl-2.11.1.so
00007f5b749df000   2048K -----  /lib64/libdl-2.11.1.so
00007f5b74bdf000      4K r----  /lib64/libdl-2.11.1.so
00007f5b74be0000      4K rw---  /lib64/libdl-2.11.1.so
00007f5b74be1000     20K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libXdmcp.so.6.0.0
00007f5b74be6000   2044K -----  /usr/lib64/libXdmcp.so.6.0.0
00007f5b74de5000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libXdmcp.so.6.0.0
00007f5b74de6000      8K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libXau.so.6.0.0
00007f5b74de8000   2048K -----  /usr/lib64/libXau.so.6.0.0
00007f5b74fe8000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libXau.so.6.0.0
00007f5b74fe9000   1440K r-x--  /lib64/libc-2.11.1.so
00007f5b75151000   2044K -----  /lib64/libc-2.11.1.so
00007f5b75350000     16K r----  /lib64/libc-2.11.1.so
00007f5b75354000      4K rw---  /lib64/libc-2.11.1.so
00007f5b75355000     20K rw---    [ anon ]
00007f5b7535a000     52K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libev.so.3.0.0
00007f5b75367000   2044K -----  /usr/lib64/libev.so.3.0.0
00007f5b75566000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libev.so.3.0.0
00007f5b75567000      4K rw---    [ anon ]
00007f5b75568000   1228K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libX11.so.6.3.0
00007f5b7569b000   2044K -----  /usr/lib64/libX11.so.6.3.0
00007f5b7589a000     24K rw---  /usr/lib64/libX11.so.6.3.0
00007f5b758a0000     28K r-x--  /usr/lib/libyajl.so.1.0.10
00007f5b758a7000   2044K -----  /usr/lib/libyajl.so.1.0.10
00007f5b75aa6000      4K rw---  /usr/lib/libyajl.so.1.0.10
00007f5b75aa7000    108K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libxcb.so.1.1.0
00007f5b75ac2000   2044K -----  /usr/lib64/libxcb.so.1.1.0
00007f5b75cc1000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libxcb.so.1.1.0
00007f5b75cc2000     32K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libxcb-randr.so.0.1.0
00007f5b75cca000   2048K -----  /usr/lib64/libxcb-randr.so.0.1.0
00007f5b75eca000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libxcb-randr.so.0.1.0
00007f5b75ecb000      8K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libxcb-xinerama.so.0.0.0
00007f5b75ecd000   2044K -----  /usr/lib64/libxcb-xinerama.so.0.0.0
00007f5b760cc000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libxcb-xinerama.so.0.0.0
00007f5b760cd000     16K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libxcb-icccm.so.1.0.0
00007f5b760d1000   2044K -----  /usr/lib64/libxcb-icccm.so.1.0.0
00007f5b762d0000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libxcb-icccm.so.1.0.0
00007f5b762d1000      8K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libxcb-aux.so.0.0.0
00007f5b762d3000   2048K -----  /usr/lib64/libxcb-aux.so.0.0.0
00007f5b764d3000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libxcb-aux.so.0.0.0
00007f5b764d4000     12K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libxcb-atom.so.1.0.0
00007f5b764d7000   2044K -----  /usr/lib64/libxcb-atom.so.1.0.0
00007f5b766d6000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libxcb-atom.so.1.0.0
00007f5b766d7000      8K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libxcb-keysyms.so.1.0.0
00007f5b766d9000   2044K -----  /usr/lib64/libxcb-keysyms.so.1.0.0
00007f5b768d8000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libxcb-keysyms.so.1.0.0
00007f5b768d9000      4K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libxcb-property.so.1.0.0
00007f5b768da000   2048K -----  /usr/lib64/libxcb-property.so.1.0.0
00007f5b76ada000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libxcb-property.so.1.0.0
00007f5b76adb000     12K r-x--  /usr/lib64/libxcb-event.so.1.0.0
00007f5b76ade000   2044K -----  /usr/lib64/libxcb-event.so.1.0.0
00007f5b76cdd000      4K rw---  /usr/lib64/libxcb-event.so.1.0.0
00007f5b76cde000    520K r-x--  /lib64/libm-2.11.1.so
00007f5b76d60000   2044K -----  /lib64/libm-2.11.1.so
00007f5b76f5f000      4K r----  /lib64/libm-2.11.1.so
00007f5b76f60000      4K rw---  /lib64/libm-2.11.1.so
00007f5b76f61000    128K r-x--  /lib64/ld-2.11.1.so
00007f5b7715a000     32K rw---    [ anon ]
00007f5b7717e000      8K rw---    [ anon ]
00007f5b77180000      4K r----  /lib64/ld-2.11.1.so
00007f5b77181000      4K rw---  /lib64/ld-2.11.1.so
00007f5b77182000      4K rw---    [ anon ]
00007fffea088000     84K rw---    [ stack ]
00007fffea1bb000      4K r-x--    [ anon ]
ffffffffff600000      4K r-x--    [ anon ]
 total            39356K

Sorry if it's still too greedy - your requirements are really slim

Sasha

evildarknight · 04-02-2010, 08:58 AM

how does icewm thrive?did you try?

Joe of Loath · 04-09-2010, 04:38 AM

Think yourself lucky, I have a box with 8mb of RAM I'm trying to get X on...

What WM is it on DSL, JWM? I'd try that, it's been demonstrated on 16mb systems.

rndm_luser · 04-09-2010, 04:54 PM

If you're looking for keyboard centric tiling window managers, check out suckless.org. Specifically, look at wmii, dwm, and 2wm. They all integrate with a dynamic menu called dmenu which makes launching applications trivially easy. I use 2wm myself on a low resolution notebook and I've found it to be the most efficient.

Mr-Bisquit · 04-09-2010, 04:57 PM

Find a link to the old basic linux.

smeezekitty · 04-13-2010, 04:51 PM

fluxbox does work on 32 mb ram but 320x240??!?!? good luck.
Havent used that since the 1990s