Lightweight LXDE

[NimaSepassi]

I know this might be a novel concept to some of the newer users, however, can anyone who actually knows, ie has experience this answer the following question?

WHICH IS THE LIGHTEST RELEASE OF LXDE THAT I CAN INSTALL? The last one I had (it must've been 10) wouldn't run very well on my computer. I'm downloading LXDE 9 with the hopes and prayers (you need them during these MS infiltrated times) that it'll run smoothly and quickly.

Please forgive the digression: BTW, in case you were wondering... yes I hate MS. It's a real pain in my life, especially since they've effectively bought out our precious Linux. If it wasn't for their programmers, I most likely wouldn't have to deal with "finding a light LXDE version".

[ThistleWeb]

I found Crunchbang to be lighter that any Mint, it's not much different from a raw Debian. If resources are a priority I'd be looking at those two before Mint, even LXDE.

[Zarggg]

What? Microsoft bought out Linux Mint? What are you talking about?

[antikythera]

Not sure about resource footprints but for me LXDE 9 (LTS) is the best option for older hardware with less power and most likely to run the best. The kernels and packages of newer releases are tailored for more cutting edge systems.

Another reason I still prefer 9 is that fully functional GPU drivers for example aren't available for my notebook's legacy nvidia hardware in 10/11 but are in 9. Sound device and network adapter support also has to be considered.

[nunol]

Of the supported Mint LXDE releases Mint 9 LXDE is the one that uses less RAM and the one that is supported for more time (LTS - 3 years instead of 1.5 years).

If you want less RAM usage you can do some tuning to Mint 9 LXDE:
- Lower swappiness from 60 to 10.
- Remove mint-fortune from runing when you open a terminal.
- Go to the "autostart" file and remove everything you don't use (mintupdate, printer support, Bluetooth support, notifications, etc).
- Remove a few tty's if you don't use them all at the same time
- Remove the ability to have icons if you don't use that, remove the "@pcmanfm --desktop" line from the autostart file.

On Mint 10 LXDE I went from 85MB of RAM usage after boot to 51MB with this. That's lower than Crunchbang and Archbang (about 60MB) without modifications but more than AntiX or Puppy.

If you want even less RAM usage with Mint and LXDE you have to go for the Debian based Mint and install the LXDE desktop yourself. If you look outside of Mint and/or LXDE take a look at Mint 9 Fluxbox, Crunchbang, AntiX, Debian LXDE or Puppy.

[NimaSepassi]

I found Crunchbang to be lighter that any Mint, it's not much different from a raw Debian. If resources are a priority I'd be looking at those two before Mint, even LXDE.

Resources are always a priority in my book. Thanks for the advice, I'll test it out as soon as possible.

[minitrucker]

Would LXDE 9 be lighter than Puppy linux- slacko 5.3? I'm shopping for the lightest of user friendly OS's for a 10 year old presario laptop I'm resurrecting. The only problem is I'm a noob with little knowledge of what it takes to run fluxbox or something like that

[nunol]

I tested Puppy Slacko this week and it uses a lot less RAM than Mint 9 LXDE at idle after boot once installed to the disk (full install). If your laptop is very old and has problems with newer kernel or xorg you should try something like Puppy Wary or Classic Pup 214X:
http://bkhome.org/wary/
http://www.wisdom-seekers.com/puppy214x.html

If Slacko or Wary are too slow you can try others, there are plenty pup's: http://puppylinux.org/wikka/PuppyVersion

Both Slacko and Wary (full install) use about 3x less RAM at idle after boot than Mint 9 LXDE. That's about 25MB of RAM for Slacko and Wary on a VM. For Puppy 5.28 it's about 35MB of RAM, for Puppy 4.3.1 about 20MB and for Turbopup Xtreme about 11MB and for Crunchbang it's about 60MB.

You should also take in to consideration that while most Puppy's are i486 some more modern are i686 or even 64bit. You should check what your CPU supports. Even my 366MHz Celeron that is i686 fails to run Puppy 5.28, either it's a bug with the kernel or it's i686 optimized for PIII and up...

[swiftlinuxcreator]

I recommend LMDE with GNOME. (There is an Xfce version, but Thunar 1.2.2 has a lag problem.)

Because LMDE bypasses the heavy overhead of Ubuntu, it's surprisingly fast even with GNOME. In fact, LMDE with 512 MB of RAM feels faster than Ubuntu 11.xx or its Mint derivatives with 2 GB of RAM. LMDE isn't as lightweight as Puppy Linux, but it is fully compatible with the Debian repository. The weak point of Puppy Linux is its small software repository.

[minitrucker]

Thank you creator. I will try that. Which one would you consider more stable? The presario may never see the internet seeing as the only port it has is a phone line and those are hard to come by now..... dunno if I want to even try a usb wireless card. Definitely not worth to crack the case to shoe a real card in there. The debian repository would be good when I do find some internet for it. I kinda think this might be my break and repair for the hell of it comp. So maybe unstable would be cool.... I have a LOT to learn though.

[gothmog123]

Trying to make my Mint 11 LXDE lighter, I've attempted to remove the PCManFM layer from the desktop but it messes up the graphics of the desktop (it doesn't refresh - imprints of applications stay there after closing).

Can anyone help me with this?

Also how do you lower swappiness and remove ttys and notifications safely?

I've done everything else.

Of the supported Mint LXDE releases Mint 9 LXDE is the one that uses less RAM and the one that is supported for more time (LTS - 3 years instead of 1.5 years).

If you want less RAM usage you can do some tuning to Mint 9 LXDE:
- Lower swappiness from 60 to 10.
- Remove mint-fortune from runing when you open a terminal.
- Go to the "autostart" file and remove everything you don't use (mintupdate, printer support, Bluetooth support, notifications, etc).
- Remove a few tty's if you don't use them all at the same time
- Remove the ability to have icons if you don't use that, remove the "@pcmanfm --desktop" line from the autostart file.

On Mint 10 LXDE I went from 85MB of RAM usage after boot to 51MB with this. That's lower than Crunchbang and Archbang (about 60MB) without modifications but more than AntiX or Puppy.

If you want even less RAM usage with Mint and LXDE you have to go for the Debian based Mint and install the LXDE desktop yourself. If you look outside of Mint and/or LXDE take a look at Mint 9 Fluxbox, Crunchbang, AntiX, Debian LXDE or Puppy.

[nunol]

Mint 11 LXDE uses more RAM than Mint 10 LXDE, you can make it lighter but Mint 10 LXDE is probably a better base to get to lower RAM usage.

On Mint 10 LXDE removing the PCManFM layer from the desktop created no problems so I don't know what's wrong with your Mint 11 LXDE.

To lower swappiness check this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapF ... ange_it.3F

To remove ttys run "sudo leafpad /etc/init/tty2.conf", put "#" before the start, stop, respawn and exec lines, do the same for tty3, tty4, tty5 and tty6 to leave just tty1 working. You may want two ttys, in that case remove only tty3, tty4, tty5 and tty6.

I removed notifications by removing the line from the autostart file and by removing "notify-osd" from the system with apt-get. Don't know a better way.

You can check what else to remove by checking your system with top or htop, take note of how much RAM the process uses, google what that process is supposed to do and find out if you can live without it. Usually I do all the testing on Virtualbox but if you use Clonezilla to backup and restore your HDD you can also test on your machine.

[gychang]

how do I remove mint-fortune from runing when you open a terminal in LXDE11?

gychang

[nunol]

You have to edit the file "/etc/bash.bashrc" and remove (or comment out) the last line. You can run in a terminal:

Code: Select all

sudo nano /etc/bash.bashrc

edit the file and save.

If you want to comment out the last line just add a # to the beginning of the line and save the file.

[gothmog123]

I removed notifications by removing the line from the autostart file and by removing "notify-osd" from the system with apt-get. Don't know a better way.

It might be the LM 11 thing again, but I couldn't find the notifications in the normal autostart file, which is /etc/xdg/lxsession/Mint-LXDE/autostart...

in mint 11...

[nunol]

Actually the notifications are not in the autostart file, you can remove it by running:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove notify-osd

Perhaps there is a better way to do this as it installs a new file but I don't know.

I had in my notes the notify-osd together with xscreensaver, bluetooth-applet, etc and thought it was also in the autostart file but I have both Mint 10 LXDE and Mint 11 LXDE on Vbox and was able to check both autostart files. Sorry about that...

Mint 11 LXDE autostart:

Code: Select all

@/usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
@setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
@lxpanel --profile Mint-LXDE
@xscreensaver -no-splash
@nm-applet
@pcmanfm --desktop
@bluetooth-applet
@sh -c 'test -e /var/cache/jockey/check || exec jockey-gtk --check'
@gnome-power-manager
@system-config-printer-applet
@mintupdate-launcher
@/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpload/launch-file-uploader.py

Mint 10 LXDE autostart:

Code: Select all

@/usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
@setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
@lxpanel --profile Mint
@xscreensaver -no-splash
@nm-applet
@pcmanfm --desktop
@bluetooth-applet
@sh -c 'test -e /var/cache/jockey/check || exec jockey-gtk --check'
@gnome-power-manager
@system-config-printer-applet
@mintupdate-launcher
@/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpload/launch-file-uploader.py
@mintwelcome-launcher


[gothmog123]

Actually the notifications are not in the autostart file, you can remove it by running:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove notify-osd

Perhaps there is a better way to do this as it installs a new file but I don't know.

I tried to remove it but it wants to take gnome power manager with it. I need that.

Thanks for your responses.

[nunol]

I tried to remove it but it wants to take gnome power manager with it. I need that.

Yes, I remove that also so for me it's not a problem... I remove pretty much everything except lxpanel and the network-manager as I want to used LXDE (instead of only Openbox) and I need to have a easy way to connect to 3G, WIFI and Ethernet for other users.

My next step to improve performance is to try zram, have you tried that?
ZRAM: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/10/increase ... -with.html

[lmintnewb]

Usually try to avoid discussing other distro's here on LM forum. Since it's already been introduced though, feel the need to pipe up on Crunchbangs behalf. Cuz I really like what the guy over there distributes, he has a new release out now. Haven't tried it yet, still using the last one Philip aka: Corenominal released. With only a tad bit of tweaking my CB OS uses all of 38-46mbs. Can't remember what it was by default. Didn't take me long figuring out how to cut it down some more. Already super light outta the box.

Not a massive difference than your ( nunol's) LM lxde9 install, which am sure you've tweaked to hades and gone anyway but definitely some diff w CB winning out in terms of footprint. Have never tried Mints lxde stuff, don't doubt it can be a fine user experience and run really well for folks. So I can't really draw a comparison as to which does what better than the other. Depends on which particular user I guess. Though can say CB is da bomb overall imo.

Again ... am sure both can be made to run great, depending on a persons tastes. Have nothing against lxde. etc. And thanks to nunol for sharing some good tips with people. Never know, might get the urge to try Mint's lxde myself and this kinda stuff would interest me.

[nunol]

The reason why I like and use Mint LXDE is because it's light, fast and fairly complete linux OS with an DE instead of a WM. I find that new users understand better LXDE than Openbox/Fluxbox so if it's an older computer I install a version of Mint LXDE and I don't need to do much more. I could install Debian with LXDE (or Openbox) but then I would have to install codecs, other programs and configure a lot o stuff and Mint is already configured in a way I like.

I also like Crunchbang and it does to Debian and Openbox what Mint 9/10/11 LXDE does to Ubuntu and LXDE so you get even less RAM utilization but it's less user friendly than Mint 9/10/11 LXDE. Another low RAM linux I like is Puppy that also uses Openbox on some of their releases and uses even less RAM than Debian with Openbox but has other problems like less software available, no security upgrades, etc.

If you are happy with Crunchbang and using less RAM is important to you Mint LXDE it's not a good upgrade but could be fun to play with. According to the "Monthly Stats – November 2011" blog entry (http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1908 ) work for the next LXDE version has already started so if you wait a few weeks you can play with the next LXDE RC version.