Very nice job!

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: Very nice job!
started by: tjm4fun

Posted by tjm4fun on June 27 2005,05:34

Haven;t followed up with DSL since my 8.1 install. Just installed the 1.2 version.
Very nice job guys! this thing now has polish and it seems to run faster than before.
It runs fine as a web appliance installed to hdd on an old toshiba tecra 520cdt, 166 mmx with 96 meg of memory.
IT has resurrected an old k6-2 300 mhz box I was gonna toss, that is now being shipped off as a backup box to a friend...
and it literally SCREAMS on my t23 laptop.
Getting firefox in from the get-go was a real A+ addition.
Keep up the good work!

Posted by ahodgekins on June 27 2005,12:02

I second that tjm4fun,

Borrowed the XF86Config-4 file from Knoppix, and now I've got DSL running Fluxbox 0.9.11 under XFree86, which really speeds up GTK2 apps.

I've got Firefox 1.04, Openoffice and Java running as .uci extensions, a nice desktop theme, and last night I was watching divx in mplayer from my USB keychain. Just now I was streaming mp3's from my Windows server using Samba and XMMS, and was showing just 1% CPU usage.

All this from a VIA C3 800Mhz, with 256meg RAM and a 512meg CF card for a harddrive (frugal install), soon to be powered by a 55W DC PSU. Not a fan or moving part in sight. Reminds me of my Acorn Archimedes days when computing was fun.

Couldn't have done it without the wealth of knowledge available in these forums. Thanks guys!

Posted by adssse on June 27 2005,14:05

I have to agree, this is an amazing distro. I am running it on an old 233mhz machine that was just sitting in the basement before. With DSL I dont have to deal with the bloat that would make working with this machine nearly impossible. Plus I find it as a great way to learn because although easy to use, it does not spoon feed you the way some distros do. Thanks again to all those involved.

Posted by ke4nt1 on June 27 2005,16:26

ahodgekins,

I've got a similar system, epia 5000 running frugal
on a CF-2-IDE adapter, 256MB, harddrive-less, fanless, etc..

Occasionally, for upgrades, or just testing,
I'll pop in a 256MB USBpendrive, and boot/run it from there..

Quiet, and runs great as an mp3 server for my jeep..

Nice to see another minimal system running this fine
minimal distro..

Are you running it in the "toram" mode?
Replacing that 256 with a 512 would also improve things a bit.

Adssse,
Does that 233 have enough ram to run in "toram" mode?
My 233 laptops are 96MB/128MB, therefore no toram,
but are still useable for mp3's, mail, browsing, etc..
Curious if 'toram' really helps with a 233MHz processor.

73
ke4nt

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on June 27 2005,16:34

It does.

One of my 233 boxes has 512 in it (maxed out, baby), and toram is at least faster than waiting on the 8x cdrom to speed up and read.

It's the 66mhz system bus that really slows it down.

My 233mhz pII laptop is a lot faster. Has 228mb of laptop pc133. Toram mode SMOKES on it.

-J.P.

Posted by ahodgekins on June 28 2005,00:36

ke4nt1

Not currently using 'toram', since I've got quite a lot of extensions. Might give it a go though and see how much faster it is. Used that option from a live CD boot and was very impressed.

Planning to use a USB thumbdrive for backups, since I'm bound to mess around and break something at some point!

Not actually using an EPIA board, it's an MATX board with a socketed C3 on it, and same chipset as the EPIA 800. Should still be able to shoehorn it into a small case though. Planning to gut the broken CD-player from my old Technics mini system and use that.

Messed around with BeatrIX for a bit, which was apparently compiled on a 533 Eden board. It looks nice with its Gnome 2.10 desktop, but it's the frugal install and mydsl extensions that are the deal-clincher for DSL on a CF based system. No other distro has that.

Now that I'm picking up some Linux knowledge I might have to see about replacing my Windows 2000 server with a linux box.

Andy

Posted by adssse on June 28 2005,01:07

My 233mhz system only has 128mb so I havent tried 'toram'. What is the recommended amount of ram for 'toram'?

Posted by ke4nt1 on June 28 2005,04:34

128MBs seems to be the magic number,
but others have tried it with less..

Once loaded, I don't know how much ram you would have left
for running apps and things with less than 128..

With a decent swapfile, I can do many of my usual tasks with
only 128MB in my box..

Give it a shot,
and time some applications opening and shutting down.
( especially the second time you execute, when they are cached )

Then run without, and see the difference..

73
ke4nt

Posted by tjm4fun on June 28 2005,16:29

I tried it on an old tecra 520 laptop, p166 96meg ram, as a live cd, and it ran acceptably. Toram isn;t an option on 96 meg. I did the hd install
to an old 1.4 gig hdd in it, set a 300 meg swap first, and rest for the os and apps, no fancy partitioning. I had a custom slack 9 install on it, with compiled kernel, and xfce desktop on a 2.4 gig disk.
DSL ran much, much better on that old machine. IT makes a great couch pc, as it is small, and can do surfing and most chats with ease, hardly touching the swap file even with 8 tabs open, xchat, and gaim up.
imho, if you have a small hdd around, you can set it up easily on that, and once the hardware config is finalized, kill the hw scan on boot up, and you'll have a good stable machine with any installed apps there all the time. even a slow hdd beats the cd, but still will be slower than to ram, but in a minimal memory system, I think it is the best option.

Posted by Max on July 08 2005,18:15

ke4nt1,

Have you tried to get the XFree86 and TVOut drivers working with your EPIA 5000 & DSL?

I'm still wanting to create a "set-top" unit that I can use for playing streamed movies and mp3 from a backend server.

This EPIA looks great as there will be no noise.

If I add one of those serial cable IR recievers it would be a pretty nice unit.