mem=128M in modeline: good simulation of low memory pc?

keithpeter · posted: 2011-07-03 10:59

Hello All

I'm lucky enough to have a desktop PC that is four years old, and AntiX runs fine and fast on that as do all the other Linux distributions that I have tried.

I'm using a mem=128M modeline at boot up to simulate a really low memory system, albeit with fastish SATA hard drive and dual core processors, and AntiX is coping with this well - running Iceape and mocp playing music (to spot glitches). Loading Libreoffice takes ages and causes glitches in music play back, but once loaded, allows fast typing.

Is this a reasonable simulation?

I'll also be trying cpufreq to drop the speed of the processors.

PS: the name of Antix 11 brought back a lot of memories, some good, some not so (lewisham in the 1980s)

anticapitalista · posted: 2011-07-03 11:34

Hello.

Using mem= is ok as a test, but as you rightly mention, you need to reduce the CPU power as well. (Not sure of the best way to do this though). On a PIII with say 733 Mhz and 128MB RAM, antiX will not fly, but should work ok, certainly slower than the simulation.

Multi-tasking will be the problem, at least until the apps you use have opened, afterwards it should be 'reasonably' ok.

Lewisham was heavy I guess with riots and the NF (earlier).

drghughes · posted: 2011-07-03 18:52

I'm running antiX M11 base on a Toshiba Tecra 8000 with 128 MB of RAM:

Code: Select all

System:    Host Toshiba01 Kernel 2.6.36-1-mepis-smp i686 (32 bit) Distro antiX-M11-base-686 Jayaben Desai 01 May 2011
CPU:       Single core Pentium II (Deschutes) (-UP-) cache 512 KB flags (-) bmips 466.62 clocked at 233.310 MHz 
Graphics:  Card: Neomagic NM2200 [MagicGraph 256AV] bus-ID: 00:04.0 X.Org 1.10.2 Res: 800x600@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer N/A GLX Version N/A Direct Rendering N/A
Audio:     Card Yamaha OPL3-SA3 driver OPL3SA2
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.23
Network:   Card Realtek RTL8187 Wireless Adapter usb-ID: 0bda:8187
Disks:     HDD Total Size: 4.3GB (35.9% used) 1: /dev/sda TOSHIBA_MK4309MA 4.3GB 
Partition: ID:/ size: 2.5G used: 1.4G (60%) fs: ext4 ID:/home size: 1.4G used: 48M (4%) fs: ext4 
           ID:swap-1 size: 0.21GB used: 0.01GB (4%) fs: swap 
Info:      Processes 75 Uptime 14 min Memory 68.6/120.5MB Runlevel 5 Client Shell inxi 1.4.95

It's by no means fast enough to use every day, but as a backup PC, and to allow me to watch the
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.formula1.com/live_timing/live_timing.html"
linktext was:"F1 live timing screen"
====================================
, it works well enough.

keithpeter · posted: 2011-07-04 08:35

Hello drghughes

It's by no means fast enough to use every day, but as a backup PC, and to allow me to watch the
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.formula1.com/live_timing/live_timing.html"
linktext was:"F1 live timing screen"
====================================
, it works well enough.

Good data point there, thanks!

I tried 128M, 256M and 512M and found the 'cut off' point was around 256M for 'mainstream' use of the computer.

At 256M on Antix 11 standard install with IceWM and all the gubbins I was able to run Iceape, write a document on LibreOffice writer and play music with moc without glitches and using about 30Mb of swap. Switching between LibreOffice and Iceape was taking a few seconds. (I know that Abiword is ligher but I need certain bits of LibreOffice).

@anticapitalista Lewisham: more a case of 'the personal is political' at the time but Grunwick/Ward/Docklands all merge into one now...