Minimalist Lenny

Gilbert · External Since: Sep 16, 2009 Posts: 7

I'm just in the process of installing Lenny on a very old Dell Latitude. All
I want is a minimalist X-Windows to support NXClient and wireless networking
to allow me to work on my main box when it's too hot to sit indoors. I was
hoping that the installation procedure would allow more flexibility than it
does - it's happily installing Gnome at the moment!. No problem, I can start
deleting stuff when it's finished. Question is, how much of Gnome can I get
rid of and still have a working system?

Regards

Stefan Patric · External Since: Aug 23, 2005 Posts: 29

On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:42:20 +0300, Gilbert wrote:

> I'm just in the process of installing Lenny on a very old Dell Latitude.
> All I want is a minimalist X-Windows to support NXClient and wireless
> networking to allow me to work on my main box when it's too hot to sit
> indoors. I was hoping that the installation procedure would allow more
> flexibility than it does - it's happily installing Gnome at the moment!.
> No problem, I can start deleting stuff when it's finished. Question is,
> how much of Gnome can I get rid of and still have a working system?

Do a Custom install, and only install the Base System. This should get a
minimal command line system with networking, then use Aptitude to install
X and whatever else you want.

I this technique on an old Thinkpad 240X (500MHz PIII & 192 MB RAM) to
get a small (about 1.0 GB on disk), usable Etch system using XFCE.

Stef

Gilbert · External Since: Sep 16, 2009 Posts: 7

Stefan Patric wrote:
> Do a Custom install, and only install the Base System. This should get a
> minimal command line system with networking, then use Aptitude to install
> X and whatever else you want.
>
> I this technique on an old Thinkpad 240X (500MHz PIII & 192 MB RAM) to
> get a small (about 1.0 GB on disk), usable Etch system using XFCE.
>
As a matter of interest, if you've still got the system, how much memory did
you end up using?

Regards

Gilbert · External Since: Sep 16, 2009 Posts: 7

Stefan Patric wrote:
> Do a Custom install, and only install the Base System. This should get a
> minimal command line system with networking, then use Aptitude to install
> X and whatever else you want.
>
> I this technique on an old Thinkpad 240X (500MHz PIII & 192 MB RAM) to
> get a small (about 1.0 GB on disk), usable Etch system using XFCE.
>

As a further thought - is there a tutorial on how to use Aptitude from the
command line, I'm very much a child of the click & drool era. I'm thinking
more in terms of how to search for what I want/need.

Regards

John F. Morse · External Since: Sep 17, 2009 Posts: 1

Gilbert wrote:
> Stefan Patric wrote:
>
>> Do a Custom install, and only install the Base System. This should get a
>> minimal command line system with networking, then use Aptitude to install
>> X and whatever else you want.
>>
>> I this technique on an old Thinkpad 240X (500MHz PIII & 192 MB RAM) to
>> get a small (about 1.0 GB on disk), usable Etch system using XFCE.
>>
>>
>
> As a further thought - is there a tutorial on how to use Aptitude from the
> command line, I'm very much a child of the click & drool era. I'm thinking
> more in terms of how to search for what I want/need.
>
> Regards
>

Synaptic is recommended.

--
John

J G Miller · External Since: Dec 08, 2004 Posts: 34

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:04:34 +0300, Gilbert asked:

> As a further thought - is there a tutorial on how to use Aptitude from
> the command line

man aptitude

or point your web browser at

/usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/<lang>/index.html

replacing <lang> with the language code appropriate to your needs.

In fact you could install dwww to make it easier for you to search
your on disk documentation using your web browser.

Stefan Patric · External Since: Aug 23, 2005 Posts: 29

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:47:40 +0300, Gilbert wrote:

> Stefan Patric wrote:
>> Do a Custom install, and only install the Base System. This should get
>> a minimal command line system with networking, then use Aptitude to
>> install X and whatever else you want.
>>
>> I this technique on an old Thinkpad 240X (500MHz PIII & 192 MB RAM) to
>> get a small (about 1.0 GB on disk), usable Etch system using XFCE.
>>
> As a matter of interest, if you've still got the system, how much memory
> did you end up using?

Oh, I still have it, and still use it. By default, it initially boots to
a terminal. No X or GUI loaded. Here's what "free" reports after login:

191,948K total, 32,092K used, 159,856K free, and no swap used.

After startx (loads XFCE) is finished:

106,988K used, 84,960K free, and no swap used.

Stef

Gilbert · External Since: Sep 16, 2009 Posts: 7

Stefan Patric wrote:

> On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:47:40 +0300, Gilbert wrote:
>
>> Stefan Patric wrote:
>>> Do a Custom install, and only install the Base System. This should get
>>> a minimal command line system with networking, then use Aptitude to
>>> install X and whatever else you want.
>>>
>>> I this technique on an old Thinkpad 240X (500MHz PIII & 192 MB RAM) to
>>> get a small (about 1.0 GB on disk), usable Etch system using XFCE.
>>>
>> As a matter of interest, if you've still got the system, how much memory
>> did you end up using?
>
> Oh, I still have it, and still use it. By default, it initially boots to
> a terminal. No X or GUI loaded. Here's what "free" reports after login:
>
> 191,948K total, 32,092K used, 159,856K free, and no swap used.
>
> After startx (loads XFCE) is finished:
>
> 106,988K used, 84,960K free, and no swap used.
>
Nice one. I'll give that a try at the weekend - should do a bit
better as I've got a whole 256Mb to play with Smile

and a faster CPU!

Regards

Stefan Patric · External Since: Aug 23, 2005 Posts: 29

On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:21:43 +0300, Gilbert wrote:

> Stefan Patric wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:47:40 +0300, Gilbert wrote:
>>
>>> Stefan Patric wrote:
>>>> Do a Custom install, and only install the Base System. This should
>>>> get a minimal command line system with networking, then use Aptitude
>>>> to install X and whatever else you want.
>>>>
>>>> I this technique on an old Thinkpad 240X (500MHz PIII & 192 MB RAM)
>>>> to get a small (about 1.0 GB on disk), usable Etch system using XFCE.
>>>>
>>> As a matter of interest, if you've still got the system, how much
>>> memory did you end up using?
>>
>> Oh, I still have it, and still use it. By default, it initially boots
>> to a terminal. No X or GUI loaded. Here's what "free" reports after
>> login:
>>
>> 191,948K total, 32,092K used, 159,856K free, and no swap used.
>>
>> After startx (loads XFCE) is finished:
>>
>> 106,988K used, 84,960K free, and no swap used.
>>
> Nice one. I'll give that a try at the weekend - should do a bit better
> as I've got a whole 256Mb to play with Smile

and a faster CPU!

With 256MB you should be fine. I ran PCLinuxOS 2007 with KDE on a Dell
notebook (500MHz PIII, 256MB RAM), and it worked just fine.

If you feel that XFCE still might be too heavy on resources, then just
use a lightweight window manager like IceWM with a pretty theme instead.
I'm thinking about trying that out on the ol' Thinkpad to improve
performance. I used to use IceWM with Vector Linux on an 300Mhz machine
I had years ago. It made a big difference compared to XFCE.

Stef

highlandham · External Since: Sep 28, 2009 Posts: 1

Stefan Patric wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:21:43 +0300, Gilbert wrote:
>
>> Stefan Patric wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:47:40 +0300, Gilbert wrote:
>>>
>>>> Stefan Patric wrote:
>>>>> Do a Custom install, and only install the Base System. This should
>>>>> get a minimal command line system with networking, then use Aptitude
>>>>> to install X and whatever else you want.
>>>>>
>>>>> I this technique on an old Thinkpad 240X (500MHz PIII & 192 MB RAM)
>>>>> to get a small (about 1.0 GB on disk), usable Etch system using XFCE.
>>>>>
>>>> As a matter of interest, if you've still got the system, how much
>>>> memory did you end up using?
>>> Oh, I still have it, and still use it. By default, it initially boots
>>> to a terminal. No X or GUI loaded. Here's what "free" reports after
>>> login:
>>>
>>> 191,948K total, 32,092K used, 159,856K free, and no swap used.
>>>
>>> After startx (loads XFCE) is finished:
>>>
>>> 106,988K used, 84,960K free, and no swap used.
>>>
>> Nice one. I'll give that a try at the weekend - should do a bit better
>> as I've got a whole 256Mb to play with Smile

and a faster CPU!
>
> With 256MB you should be fine. I ran PCLinuxOS 2007 with KDE on a Dell
> notebook (500MHz PIII, 256MB RAM), and it worked just fine.
= =====================================================================
I am running Mepis Linux 8.2( Lenny) eg with all the Debian facilities
on a similar machine (laptop) : P3 -866MHz - 256 MB RAM ,with KDE 3.10
desktop..............I am very pleased

Frank north of Scotland
=====================================================================
>
> If you feel that XFCE still might be too heavy on resources, then just
> use a lightweight window manager like IceWM with a pretty theme instead.
> I'm thinking about trying that out on the ol' Thinkpad to improve
> performance. I used to use IceWM with Vector Linux on an 300Mhz machine
> I had years ago. It made a big difference compared to XFCE.
>
>
> Stef