Feedback on DSL's Lightweight Efficiency

Feedback on DSL's Lightweight Efficiency - Printable Version

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Feedback on DSL's Lightweight Efficiency - nambypamby - 01-21-2025

I recently started using Damn Small Linux on an old laptop, and I’m blown away by how lightweight and efficient it is. The boot speed is incredible, and it runs smoothly on hardware I thought was obsolete.
One feature I particularly appreciate is the minimal desktop environment—it’s simple yet functional without any unnecessary bloat. The pre-installed apps cover most basic needs, and the package manager makes it easy to add what I need.
That said, I have a couple of questions:

Are there any tips for optimizing DSL even further for a 512MB RAM setup?
What’s your go-to method for setting up wireless networking on DSL for older adapters?

Looking forward to learning from the community and sharing more about my experience!
Cheers!

RE: Feedback on DSL's Lightweight Efficiency - grindstone - 01-21-2025

1. The advice people give is hardware dependent. If you have not set up a swap partition or file, suggest doing so for 512MB machine. Please post

Code:
inxi -zv7

You may need to experiment if your machine is very old (<1GHz). Running from a HD installation will be faster than live CD/usb. There aren't many services running at startup in DSL, comparatively, but you're fighting for kB, you could kill a couple gettys (Control Center->System->Startup Services). The official antiX FAQ site is down this instant so skim v23 FAQ in wayback for (mostly-) transferrable guidance. Using the lightest-weight browser for given tasks will prove to be the least resource-intensive. You may wish to experiment with the standard antiX zram as well. If your processor is slow, this may be counter-productive. It seems to add about half of your ram as a compressed swap.

Code:
sudo /usr/local/bin/zram start

If that was the wrong way to go, you can configure smaller amounts by hand, just let us know.

2. If you have not done so, complete the DSL File Restore (middle of menu) to get man pages, firmware, and other things omitted for size reasons. After that, update the system

Code:
sudo /usr/local/bin/cli-aptiX

and follow prompts. After a reboot at that point, if your adapters are not recognized (see

Code:
inxi -Nx

and/or dmesg, also

Code:
dmesg | grep irmware

-- post results of those if unsure), you will need to identify the firmware that your adapter requires and it may become necessary to add it manually. Others have reported success rescanning with the Control Center ->Maintenance -> Network Assistant if you care to try and report results. In a pinch, USB phone tethering should work as a wired connection (look in Connman under Wired tab), if you're otherwise unable to connect. Control Center -> Network -> Toggle firewall on as well. As a sort of special-case caveat, some Broadcomm devices have their own sets of issues that may be readily resolvable.

That's a start. If you still can't connect, post what you tried and what you got for results. Search (upstream) at antixforum.com as a general rule as well.

Welcome Smile