Slim Isn't Minimal

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johnywhy
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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#1 by johnywhy » 01 Sep 2018, 09:34

this page says
SLiM requires minimal dependencies, and none from the GNOME or KDE desktop environments. It therefore contributes towards a lightweight system
Is that the same as the slim.auth on my Porteus? It's the biggest program running on my Porteus. Doesn't seem minimal :(

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/usr/libexec/Xorg -auth /var/run/slim.auth
Linux porteus 4.16.3-porteus #1 SMP PREEMPT - x86_64 Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T2310 @ 1.46GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#2 by brokenman » 01 Sep 2018, 17:40

It's the biggest program running on my Porteus. Doesn't seem minimal
Not sure what you mean by this. You can boot into runlevel 3 and then run startx if you don't want to run slim.
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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#3 by johnywhy » 01 Sep 2018, 17:59

in task manager, it's the biggest RAM footprint of all tasks (except web browser).

is this porteus process the same as SLiM package linked above?

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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#4 by brokenman » 01 Sep 2018, 18:14

Which task manager are you talking about? Does it show in a root console if you type?:

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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#5 by johnywhy » 01 Sep 2018, 18:33

brokenman wrote:
01 Sep 2018, 18:14
Which task manager are you talking about?
Whisker menu > System > Task Manager.
Does it show in a root console if you type?:

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nope, but i get this:

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$ ps aux --sort -rss
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root      5341  3.6  2.5 353496 51712 tty7     Ssl+ 17:39   1:52 /usr/libexec/Xorg -auth /var/run/slim.auth
guest     3775  1.4  1.8 480012 36880 ?        Sl   18:24   0:05 /usr/bin/xfce4-terminal
guest     5924  0.2  1.6 536012 33028 ?        Sl   17:39   0:08 Thunar --daemon
guest     5922  0.3  1.4 953460 30492 ?        Sl   17:39   0:10 xfce4-panel
Linux porteus 4.16.3-porteus #1 SMP PREEMPT - x86_64 Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T2310 @ 1.46GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#6 by ncmprhnsbl » 01 Sep 2018, 22:20

"/usr/libexec/Xorg" is the process with this option "-auth /var/run/slim.auth"
i imagine if your bypass slim with startx, the Xorg process will be similar...
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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#7 by johnywhy » 02 Sep 2018, 02:23

i don't understand a word of it, but excited about all efforts to slim down Porteus xfce.
atm, xorg+slim is apparently the biggest process on my Proteus, except the web-browser.
i mean, it's already pretty slim, but i idle at about 230MB, and would love to cut that in half :w00tx100:
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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#8 by ncmprhnsbl » 02 Sep 2018, 03:46

a quick test:
standard(with slim)

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root      3168  3.2  1.2 466132 48524 tty8     Ssl+ 13:33   0:02 /usr/libexec/Xorg -auth /var/run/slim.auth
with startx:

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root      2803  1.6  1.3 389320 52560 tty8     Ssl+ 13:27   0:02 /usr/libexec/Xorg :0 -auth /home/guest/.serverauth.2786
slightly less mem usage with slim ....
as far as getting Xorg to use less memory... :Search: glwt
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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#9 by johnywhy » 02 Sep 2018, 07:09

maybe there's a way for startx to use less mem
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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#10 by brokenman » 02 Sep 2018, 11:07

The process group using your memory is Xorg. This is the thing that allows you to have windows and boxes with buttons and other stuff. Logically, this is the thing using most of your memory. The other option is to boot without a graphical session and work from command line.

Sure, you can make things tighter to use on your particular machine but that would be home brew. There are probably many things you don't need but in the end, is under 256Mb memory footprint really overweight?
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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#11 by johnywhy » 02 Sep 2018, 18:24

i only have 2GB RAM. On Mint xfce, with much web-browsing (esp on dynamically loading sites like youtube, quora, and facebook), plus multitasking with other apps, my RAM can pretty quickly max out. Then I get sluggishness or freeze-ups.

Porteus is already the smallest usable normal-linux xfce i've seen, which is awesome!

Except maybe puppy xtahr and xslacko-slim. My xtahr 2.0 xfce idles at under 100MB on the same hardware. But puppy isn't normal-linux.
https://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linux_X-tahr
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 33#1003033

my xtahr idle gives:

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# ps aux --sort -rss
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root      7127  3.7  0.8  81752 18228 tty4     S<sl+ 17:43   2:32 X :0 -br -noli
root      7222  0.0  0.7  60344 16344 tty1     Sl   17:43   0:02 xfdesktop
root      7305  0.0  0.6  37952 13612 tty1     Sl   17:43   0:01 /usr/lib/xfce4/
root      7214  0.8  0.6  29052 13112 tty1     S    17:43   0:32 xfwm4
root      7218  0.1  0.5  36148 12280 tty1     Sl   17:43   0:05 xfce4-panel
root     25893  0.8  0.5  54208 12176 tty1     Rl   18:50   0:00 xfce4-terminal
root      7254  0.4  0.4  25508  9748 tty1     S    17:43   0:16 retrovol -hide
root      7231  0.2  0.3  23376  8148 tty1     S    17:43   0:09 clipit
root      7249  0.1  0.3  22916  7788 tty1     S    17:43   0:06 netmon_wce
root      7220  0.0  0.3  58204  7320 tty1     Sl   17:43   0:00 Thunar --daemon
root      7251  0.0  0.3  22504  7152 tty1     S    17:43   0:00 powerapplet_tra
root      7236  0.2  0.3  22100  6924 tty1     S    17:43   0:10 firewallstatus
root      7245  0.0  0.3  22192  6784 tty1     S    17:43   0:00 freememapplet_t
root      7253  0.0  0.3  32428  6596 ?        Ssl  17:43   0:00 xfsettingsd
root      7313  0.0  0.3  20888  6416 tty1     S    17:43   0:03 /usr/lib/xfce4/
root      7156  0.0  0.2  30024  5696 tty1     Sl   17:43   0:00 xfce4-session
root      7331  0.0  0.1  18220  3144 ?        Sl   17:43   0:00 /usr/libexec/gv
root      7196  0.0  0.1   5840  2360 ?        Ss   17:43   0:00 /usr/sbin/cupsd
root      7280  0.0  0.1  35300  2340 ?        Ssl  17:43   0:00 /usr/libexec//g
root      7325  0.0  0.1   9464  2304 ?        S    17:43   0:00 /usr/libexec/gv
root      7206  0.0  0.1   6472  2276 ?        S    17:43   0:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/
root      7148  0.0  0.1  15712  2196 ?        Sl   17:43   0:02 pup-volume-moni
root      7274  0.0  0.1   8000  2152 ?        S    17:43   0:00 /usr/libexec/gv
root     25897  0.0  0.0   5124  1912 pts/0    Ss   18:50   0:00 bash
root      6988  0.0  0.0   5096  1840 tty1     Ss+  17:43   0:00 -sh
root      7074  0.0  0.0   4980  1528 tty1     S+   17:43   0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bi
root      2754  0.0  0.0   4512  1208 ?        Ss   17:43   0:01 /sbin/udevd --d
root      7197  0.0  0.0   2864  1172 ?        Ss   17:43   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-d
root     27988  0.0  0.0   4632  1152 pts/0    R+   18:51   0:00 ps-FULL aux --s
root      8321  0.0  0.0   6956  1108 ?        Ss   17:44   0:00 wpa_supplicant 
root     27921  0.0  0.0   4508   892 ?        S    18:51   0:00 /sbin/udevd --d
root      6840  0.0  0.0   3312   836 ?        Ss   17:43   0:00 /sbin/mount.ntf
root      8363  0.0  0.0   2460   832 ?        Ss   17:44   0:00 dhcpcd -b -d -f
root      6788  0.0  0.0   3312   820 ?        Ss   17:43   0:00 /sbin/mount.ntf
root      2399  0.2  0.0   1184   772 ?        Ss   17:43   0:11 ntfs-3g /dev/sd
root      7193  0.0  0.0   3816   672 tty1     S    17:43   0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-l
root      7126  0.0  0.0   3600   664 tty1     S+   17:43   0:00 /usr/bin/xinit 
root      6989  0.0  0.0   2844   632 tty2     Ss+  17:43   0:00 /sbin/getty 384
root      6994  0.0  0.0   2844   632 tty3     Ss+  17:43   0:00 /sbin/getty 384
root     25896  0.0  0.0   2232   624 tty1     S    18:50   0:00 gnome-pty-helpe
root         1  0.0  0.0   2840   600 ?        Ss   17:43   0:00 /bin/busybox in
root      7169  0.0  0.0   2472   492 tty1     S    17:43   0:00 /usr/local/pup_
root      7143  0.0  0.0   2840   292 ?        Ss   17:43   0:00 syslogd -m 0
root      7145  0.0  0.0   2840   292 ?        Ss   17:43   0:00 klogd
root      8464  0.0  0.0   2840   292 ?        Ss   17:44   0:02 acpid
root      7212  0.0  0.0   4208   196 ?        Ss   17:43   0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-ag

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# top
Mem: 1397160K used, 664548K free, 0K shrd, 48K buff, 123K cached
CPU:   2% usr   2% sys   0% nic  92% idle   2% io   0% irq   0% sirq
Load average: 0.89 0.61 0.50 2/139 20457
  PID  PPID USER     STAT   VSZ %VSZ CPU %CPU COMMAND
 7127  7126 root     S <  95532   5%   1   1% X :0 -br -nolisten tcp
20104  7218 root     S    53736   3%   0   1% xfce4-terminal
 7254  7156 root     S    25508   1%   0   0% retrovol -hide
    3     2 root     SW       0   0%   0   0% [ksoftirqd/0]
 7214     1 root     S    23572   1%   0   0% xfwm4
 7222     1 root     S    60208   3%   1   0% xfdesktop
 7253     1 root     S    32428   2%   1   0% xfsettingsd
 7231  7156 root     S    23376   1%   0   0% clipit
 7236  7156 root     S    22100   1%   0   0% firewallstatus
20402 20109 root     R     4380   0%   0   0% top
 8457     2 root     RW       0   0%   0   0% [kworker/0:1]
 7305  7218 root     S    37952   2%   0   0% {panel-9-whisker} /usr/lib/xfce4/p
 7218     1 root     S    36148   2%   1   0% xfce4-panel
 7280     1 root     S    35300   2%   0   0% /usr/libexec//gvfs-fuse-daemon /ro
 7220     1 root     S    31472   2%   0   0% Thunar --daemon
 7156  7126 root     S    30024   1%   1   0% xfce4-session
 7249  7156 root     S    22916   1%   0   0% netmon_wce
 7251  7156 root     S    22504   1%   1   0% powerapplet_tray
 7245  7156 root     S    22192   1%   1   0% freememapplet_tray
 7313  7218 root     S    20888   1%   0   0% {panel-6-systray} /usr/lib/xfce4/p
THX
Linux porteus 4.16.3-porteus #1 SMP PREEMPT - x86_64 Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T2310 @ 1.46GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#12 by Ed_P » 02 Sep 2018, 21:55

johnywhy wrote:
02 Sep 2018, 18:24
i only have 2GB RAM. On Mint xfce, with much web-browsing (esp on dynamically loading sites like youtube, quora, and facebook), plus multitasking with other apps, my RAM can pretty quickly max out. Then I get sluggishness or freeze-ups.
Check your browser's cache settings. I made my Firefox's cache 10 MB, it was 500 MB.
Ed

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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#13 by johnywhy » 02 Sep 2018, 22:18

Thx Ed! Chrome doesn't seem to have that setting. Iac, I hope to slim the OS

Puppy uses some strange fu to idle under 100 MB :}
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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#14 by ncmprhnsbl » 02 Sep 2018, 22:45

i gather those pups are 32bit and you're using 64bit porteus?
32bit typically uses less ram than 64bit, though i expect that puppy will still use less.. it's use of busybox(among other things) would have some effect i guess...
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Slim Isn't Minimal

Post#15 by johnywhy » 03 Sep 2018, 09:42

32-bit porteus idles about 170 MB. Pretty great!
Now i can slim down further, by eliminating some background services, like NetworkManager and xfce4-power-manager.
Really seems no advantage to running 64-bit on on 2 GB RAM.
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