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From: j@narcisa.sax.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Running X-Windows on 4 meg ram
Date: 30 May 1995 17:39:32 +0200
Organization: Private U**x site, Dresden.
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Message-ID: <3qfe7k$e30@bonnie.tcd-dresden.de>
References: <1995May20.170419.2519@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> <3pliih$gpd@agate.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de
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Jordan K. Hubbard <jkh@violet.berkeley.edu> wrote:
[FreeBSD as an X-Terminal with 4 MB RAM?]
>But if 4MB is your constraint, then you should be able to make a servicable
>X terminal out of it.
If this is sufficient for you, use the monochrome X server only, and
reconfigure it to contain nothing else but the hardware driver for
your specific hardware. Since the monochrome server can only use
pixmaps of depth 1, this will be less resource-consuming.
Strip down the system startup to avoid all unnecessary daemon
processes, perhaps you can even get it without cron. Strip the kernel
off all unneeded functionality -- the kernel image is not pageable, it
blocks all physical memory where it's been loaded to.
I've been able to run XFree86 3.1 together with FreeBSD 1.1.5.1 on my
old notebook (386sx/16, 5 MB RAM, slow 2.5in IDE disk [400 KB/s
only]). It's a pain in the butt to start the X-Server, but once it's
running, it's at least possible to work. I can even start an
X11-interface emacs (locally!), but the startup-time for it is around
30 seconds. (This is with the 4-bit X-Server.)
This is not to say this were _ideal_, but it should allow you to work.
--
cheers, J"org private: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de
http://www.sax.de/~joerg/
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)