Re: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
Sorry for the long delay -- just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who responded, you were all very helpful. I'm looking forward to this project -- and I'll see if I can hunt down some extra ram for this machine! thanks, matt On Mon, Mar 03, 2003 at 10:21:28AM -0500, Narins, Josh wrote: > > > Hi everyone, > > > > Hi! > > > A middle-aged (~4 years old -- so, not old, not new) laptop is about > > to become available to me, and I'd like to install debian on it. > > The system is an HP Omnibook A4100, > > P-II 300 > > 96 meg ram > > 20 gig hard drive > > > > I'd like to take the machine on a month-long trip, where I'd use it > > mmostly for writing and checking email. My *preference* would be to > > run: > > > > -a minimal GUI > > -mutt, plus something to fetch my mail from a remote location > > > > and... > > -openoffice. > > > > > Also, very important. > Go through _all_ the processes you see with ps -ef. > Each and every one you can eliminate helps. > Do you really need atd and crond? or is just one anacrond sufficient? > Do you have lpd or cupsd running, but no printer around? > > Each one of these things you can remove in the first place will greatly help > in the long run. > > I ran stable, and testing for a while, on a 64MB box, with X, and everything > worked fine (apache+mod_perl + mysql + vim + eterms + browser) > > And it was 300MhZ > > You'll be fine. > > -- > This message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the > designated recipient(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this > message you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or > copying of this message is strictly prohibited. This communication is for > information purposes only and should not be regarded as an offer to sell or as a > solicitation of an offer to buy any financial product, an official confirmation of > any transaction, or as an official statement of Lehman Brothers. Email transmission > cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. Therefore, we do not represent > that this information is complete or accurate and it should not be relied upon as > such. All information is subject to change without notice. > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
> Hi everyone, > Hi! > A middle-aged (~4 years old -- so, not old, not new) laptop is about > to become available to me, and I'd like to install debian on it. > The system is an HP Omnibook A4100, > P-II 300 > 96 meg ram > 20 gig hard drive > > I'd like to take the machine on a month-long trip, where I'd use it > mmostly for writing and checking email. My *preference* would be to > run: > > -a minimal GUI > -mutt, plus something to fetch my mail from a remote location > > and... > -openoffice. > Also, very important. Go through _all_ the processes you see with ps -ef. Each and every one you can eliminate helps. Do you really need atd and crond? or is just one anacrond sufficient? Do you have lpd or cupsd running, but no printer around? Each one of these things you can remove in the first place will greatly help in the long run. I ran stable, and testing for a while, on a 64MB box, with X, and everything worked fine (apache+mod_perl + mysql + vim + eterms + browser) And it was 300MhZ You'll be fine. -- This message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the designated recipient(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. This communication is for information purposes only and should not be regarded as an offer to sell or as a solicitation of an offer to buy any financial product, an official confirmation of any transaction, or as an official statement of Lehman Brothers. Email transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. Therefore, we do not represent that this information is complete or accurate and it should not be relied upon as such. All information is subject to change without notice. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
On Sun, Mar 02, 2003 at 12:47:47PM -0500, Matthew Weier O'Phinney wrote: > -- Osamu Aoki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote > (on Sunday, 02 March 2003, 02:07 AM -0800): > > On Fri, Feb 28, 2003 at 10:05:05PM -0500, Matt Price wrote: > > > to become available to me, and I'd like to install debian on it. > > > The system is an HP Omnibook A4100, > > > P-II 300 > > > 96 meg ram > > > 20 gig hard drive [...] > > > and... > > > -openoffice. > > > > That is big software. As long as you keep other staff small, it may be > > usable on X. Do not use too much color or virtual screen which eat > > memory. Keep daemon minimum. > > I agree with this -- OO.o is very large. However, once loaded, it's > quite fast. Don't have much else going at the same time. > > > > sigh. I'm a bit concerned that openoffice can't feasibly be run in > > > such an environment; but I'm revising a book manuscript that was > > > originally written several years ago in Word, and I really, really, > > > really don't want to have to edit it in emacs or something. Just as an additional data point, The machine I am using now is similar in processor power (Mine's an AMD K6-350) to the OP's laptop, and I regularly run OO.o at the same time as Mozilla (for grabbing stock qoutes) using Blackbox for a wm. Other than long startup times, the performance is quite adequate. The one thing my system does have, however, is more memorg (192 kiB). My suggestion would be to get more ram. Hopefully it is a recent enough design that it doesn't use any wierd proprietary memory modules. HTH dt If you don't mind the long startup times, it should work just fine. I have a Pentium Pro 200 (originally with 64MB, now up to 128MB RAM) that runs WindowMaker. I can run OOo, Mozilla, and the odd game (even back when it had only 64MB). The machine also serves as a fileserver/printserver/firewall/router (I know, it's a bit over taxed). It seems to handle it all really well, except for (as I mentioned before) the long startup for Mozilla and OOo and the long swap times when changing from one app to another. I also use the trick of leaving at least one OOo window and one Mozilla window iconized at all times and that really cuts down on the wait. -Roberto _ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
On Sun, Mar 02, 2003 at 12:47:47PM -0500, Matthew Weier O'Phinney wrote: > -- Osamu Aoki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote > (on Sunday, 02 March 2003, 02:07 AM -0800): > > On Fri, Feb 28, 2003 at 10:05:05PM -0500, Matt Price wrote: > > > to become available to me, and I'd like to install debian on it. > > > The system is an HP Omnibook A4100, > > > P-II 300 > > > 96 meg ram > > > 20 gig hard drive [...] > > > and... > > > -openoffice. > > > > That is big software. As long as you keep other staff small, it may be > > usable on X. Do not use too much color or virtual screen which eat > > memory. Keep daemon minimum. > > I agree with this -- OO.o is very large. However, once loaded, it's > quite fast. Don't have much else going at the same time. > > > > sigh. I'm a bit concerned that openoffice can't feasibly be run in > > > such an environment; but I'm revising a book manuscript that was > > > originally written several years ago in Word, and I really, really, > > > really don't want to have to edit it in emacs or something. Just as an additional data point, The machine I am using now is similar in processor power (Mine's an AMD K6-350) to the OP's laptop, and I regularly run OO.o at the same time as Mozilla (for grabbing stock qoutes) using Blackbox for a wm. Other than long startup times, the performance is quite adequate. The one thing my system does have, however, is more memorg (192 kiB). My suggestion would be to get more ram. Hopefully it is a recent enough design that it doesn't use any wierd proprietary memory modules. HTH dt -- Dave Thayer | If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about Denver, Colorado USA | cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all [EMAIL PROTECTED] | the time, for no good reason. - Jack Handey -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
-- Osamu Aoki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote (on Sunday, 02 March 2003, 02:07 AM -0800): > On Fri, Feb 28, 2003 at 10:05:05PM -0500, Matt Price wrote: > > to become available to me, and I'd like to install debian on it. > > The system is an HP Omnibook A4100, > > P-II 300 > > 96 meg ram > > 20 gig hard drive > > You have a fast machine with lots of memory and HDD as long as you stay > in console. I say if you configure correctly, it is OK with X and > compact applications. No need to stay in console. As I noted in a previous message to the thread, I operate a desktop machine with similar capabilities on a daily basis. I've used GNOME 1.4 with sawfish on it with little problem; I *prefer* blackbox with ROX-Filer. I also had a P-II 333MHz *laptop* with 32MB RAM and a 3GB hard drive at one point, and it ran xfce wonderfully, and I was even able to utilize Netscape 4 (a notorious memory hog) quite well in X. > > I'd like to take the machine on a month-long trip, where I'd use it > > mostly for writing and checking email. My *preference* would be to > > run: > > -a minimal GUI > > If you insist on X, use blackbox or flashbox. They are small and fast > WM. that would be 'fluxbox' -- it's a blackbox spinoff. The *box WMs are all very fast and small. > > and... > > -openoffice. > > That is big software. As long as you keep other staff small, it may be > usable on X. Do not use too much color or virtual screen which eat > memory. Keep daemon minimum. I agree with this -- OO.o is very large. However, once loaded, it's quite fast. Don't have much else going at the same time. > > sigh. I'm a bit concerned that openoffice can't feasibly be run in > > such an environment; but I'm revising a book manuscript that was > > originally written several years ago in Word, and I really, really, > > really don't want to have to edit it in emacs or something. > > Just a thoughts. New Word can save document in XML or HTML. If you are > reorganizing few contents, you may be able to get-by by saving document > into these format and complete editing documents in text file. But he doesn't *want* to edit it as text... Although there are a good many good text editors out there, editing XML or HTML is not entirely fun. If you can export to RTF format, I *believe* AbiWord is capable of reading this, and that might be another good solution. Test it first -- I've had problems importing RTF on occasion if the MS markup was too MS-centric. -- Matthew Weier O'Phinney [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://matthew.weierophinney.net -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
> > -if necessary, alternatives to / modifications of OpenOffice that > > don't require quite so much room to work as the standard OO > > installation needs? > > > > Would it perhaps be useful to compile stuff from scratch, rather > > than use generic debian packages? Compile OO? Didn't follow the thread but the last time I checked OO needed 2,5 gig disk tmp space to compile and took about 12 hrs on a 900mhz duron with 300 something RAM.Forget about that.Plus depending on the compiler and flags you might end up with a bigger binary than the regular one.Unfortunately I don't know about alternatives either.Koffice and abiword fail miserably here with .doc's that open fine with OO. Klaus -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
On Fri, Feb 28, 2003 at 10:05:05PM -0500, Matt Price wrote: > So does anyone have suggesions about > -tweaks to get debian to run optimally on a (relatively) small > memory/processing speed budget; > -if necessary, alternatives to / modifications of OpenOffice that > don't require quite so much room to work as the standard OO > installation needs? > > Would it perhaps be useful to compile stuff from scratch, rather than > use generic debian packages? It wouldn't help you to compile OOo from scratch - it will waste a lot of time and I optimise the packages for Pentium Pro & later, since the majority of users have these class processors. Although OOo is a memory hog, it is actually mostly the startup time that is annoying, so just keeping one window open somewhere or other will keep it in memory (or swapped out on your swap partition) and prevent the long startup times. Chris -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
On Fri, Feb 28, 2003 at 10:05:05PM -0500, Matt Price wrote: > Hi everyone, > > A middle-aged (~4 years old -- so, not old, not new) laptop is about Join the club 40s :-) > to become available to me, and I'd like to install debian on it. > The system is an HP Omnibook A4100, > P-II 300 > 96 meg ram > 20 gig hard drive You have a fast machine with lots of memory and HDD as long as you stay in console. I say if you configure correctly, it is OK with X and compact applications. I use i486 DX2 50MHz 20MB-DRAM 2GB-HDD for my gateway where I can read and write mail OK with mutt/vim/fetchmail/procmail/exim combination. I run BIND/DHCP/... on it too. It takes 1 second to start "mc" screen but mutt is usable even from remote terminal. So as long as you use console, you are fine. > I'd like to take the machine on a month-long trip, where I'd use it > mostly for writing and checking email. My *preference* would be to > run: > -a minimal GUI If you insist on X, use blackbox or flashbox. They are small and fast WM. > -mutt, plus something to fetch my mail from a remote location mutt to read mail vim to edit mail fetchmail to get mail procmail to sort by header etc. > and... > -openoffice. That is big software. As long as you keep other staff small, it may be usable on X. Do not use too much color or virtual screen which eat memory. Keep daemon minimum. > sigh. I'm a bit concerned that openoffice can't feasibly be run in > such an environment; but I'm revising a book manuscript that was > originally written several years ago in Word, and I really, really, > really don't want to have to edit it in emacs or something. Just a thoughts. New Word can save document in XML or HTML. If you are reorganizing few contents, you may be able to get-by by saving document into these format and complete editing documents in text file. -- ~\^o^/~~~ ~\^.^/~~~ ~\^*^/~~~ ~\^_^/~~~ ~\^+^/~~~ ~\^:^/~~~ ~\^v^/~~~ + Osamu Aoki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cupertino CA USA, GPG-key: A8061F32 .''`. Debian Reference: post-installation user's guide for non-developers : :' : http://qref.sf.net and http://people.debian.org/~osamu `. `' "Our Priorities are Our Users and Free Software" --- Social Contract -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
On Fri, Feb 28, 2003 at 10:05:05PM -0500, Matt Price wrote: > Hi everyone, > > A middle-aged (~4 years old -- so, not old, not new) laptop is about > to become available to me, and I'd like to install debian on it. > The system is an HP Omnibook A4100, > P-II 300 > 96 meg ram > 20 gig hard drive I dont think that spec if particulaly limited! from the subject line i was thinking 386 25mhz 4mb ram 40mb hdd... the above will be fine! and ill second that icewm rocks! -if you wannt a quick easy way to try ice and OOo on the above laptop, try knoppix. hugh -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
-- Matt Price <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote (on Friday, 28 February 2003, 10:05 PM -0500): > A middle-aged (~4 years old -- so, not old, not new) laptop is about > to become available to me, and I'd like to install debian on it. > The system is an HP Omnibook A4100, > P-II 300 > 96 meg ram > 20 gig hard drive The specs on my day-to-day machine were precisely this until recently except that I have a Celeron 366MHz processor (I now have 256MB RAM). Runs fine. I also have debian running fine on an old P-120MHz machine with 16MB RAM and a 600MB HD -- WITH X and blackbox. > I'd like to take the machine on a month-long trip, where I'd use it > mmostly for writing and checking email. My *preference* would be to > run: > > -a minimal GUI I highly recommend blackbox. > -mutt, plus something to fetch my mail from a remote location Great choice! ;-) > and... > -openoffice. As I noted above, I have openoffice running on this setup. It's slow to start, but it works, and once running doesn't slow down the system. > sigh. I'm a bit concerned that openoffice can't feasibly be run in > such an environment; but I'm revising a book manuscript that was > originally written several years ago in Word, and I really, really, > really don't want to have to edit it in emacs or something. > > So does anyone have suggesions about > -tweaks to get debian to run optimally on a (relatively) small > memory/processing speed budget; > -favorite lightweight window managers; > -if necessary, alternatives to / modifications of OpenOffice that > don't require quite so much room to work as the standard OO > installation needs? Up until recently, I was using ApplixOffice for my office needs. It isn't as full-featured as OpenOffice, but it *IS* incredibly lightweight (uses the GTK+ toolkit). If you're only needing the word processor, I believe they sell that separately for around $50 or less; the full office suite is, last I checked, around $100. > Would it perhaps be useful to compile stuff from scratch, rather than > use generic debian packages? No. -- Matthew Weier O'Phinney [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian on laptop w/ limited ram/speed/HD
Matt Price wrote: Hi everyone, A middle-aged (~4 years old -- so, not old, not new) laptop is about to become available to me, and I'd like to install debian on it. The system is an HP Omnibook A4100, P-II 300 96 meg ram 20 gig hard drive I'd like to take the machine on a month-long trip, where I'd use it mmostly for writing and checking email. My *preference* would be to run: -a minimal GUI -mutt, plus something to fetch my mail from a remote location and... -openoffice. sigh. I'm a bit concerned that openoffice can't feasibly be run in such an environment; but I'm revising a book manuscript that was originally written several years ago in Word, and I really, really, really don't want to have to edit it in emacs or something. Abiword looks good and seems compatible to certain degree (install from testing). So does anyone have suggesions about -tweaks to get debian to run optimally on a (relatively) small memory/processing speed budget; -favorite lightweight window managers; IceWM is great (for me). It has windows-like taskbar and menus, but no permanent desktop icons. The config files are easy to understand for customizing the start menu. It's fast too. -if necessary, alternatives to / modifications of OpenOffice that don't require quite so much room to work as the standard OO installation needs? Would it perhaps be useful to compile stuff from scratch, rather than use generic debian packages? Doubt it. As a last resort, you could install wine/win4lin. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
