Arch Linux

eyolf

Member

From: Copenhagen

Registered: 2005-11-29

Posts: 339

Website

Recommendations for installation on a 256mb laptop (Acer Travemate)

I've finally managed to convince my wife that it would be a good idea to
install Linux on her laptop, an Acer Travelmate 244LC with 256mb RAM and a
Celeron 2.6 GHz processor, which was running unbearably slowly.

I recently reinstalled windows on it, and now it's actually quite
responsive, but I was convinced that a light linux version would be a
boost, so I installed xubuntu.

It wasn't. She claims that it runs faster, but I think she says so to be
nice to me. Especially the combination firefox + some java based web app
sends the machine into swap hell, and it's hardly an improvement from
Windows. I ended up installing KDE instead, and it actually seems to be
quicker than xfce4.

Questions:

1. Does anyone have general experiences with linux on hardware like this?
Is it a good idea to adjust the swappiness? What should the partition table
look like? It now has a Windows partition followed by an extended partition
with an ext3 and a swap partition (512mb). Given that, with RAM like that,
it is bound to use quite a lot of swap, should I put the swap partition as
early on the disk as possible?

2. Arch vs. Ubuntu. Has anyone compared them on hardware like this? Now
that ubuntu also uses a 686-kernel by default, does Arch have any other
benefits over [XK]ubuntu, speed-wise? I.e. things that can't be tweaked but
which are system-specific?
Back when I switched from Ubuntu (or was it Mepis?) to Arch, back in 2004
or 2005, the improvement was immense, but I'm not sure if that still holds.
No wars, please...

Since I'm going to be her sysadmin, the usual usability issues shouldn't be
much of a problem, since I intend to set the machine up to be "just
works"/"point and click"-usable with only stable apps etc. But unless I can
point to a performance boost, both vs. Windows and vs. Xubuntu, it's
probably not worth the effort.

So if anyone has experiences with wife-installations, please speak up.

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Recommendations for installation on a 256mb laptop (Acer Travemate)

I keep reading that Arch feels fast, at least compared to Ubuntu, but I don't know where it really comes from. One thing that comes to mind (except disabling all unneeded daemons) is the stripping of debug symbols.

That way or another, I'd try Arch with XFCE or KDEmod3 instead of Xubuntu. Or even some well set up *box or FVWM, but, of course, it'd need some work from you to make it usable for her.

I'd actually like to hear how Xubuntu compares to Arch+XFCE in performance terms.

And if you go with KDE, it's a good idea to use Opera/Konqueror instead of Firefox, and generally apps from a given toolkit. I played with XFCE again the other day and it actually used more memory with almost no apps open than my KDE3 with few apps open, without mixing toolkits.

Ah, there's this fun project called compcache, you might find it useful. It's eg. in the zen kernel. Getting more RAM would speed up things a lot.

Last edited by lucke (2008-08-10 15:49:58)

eyolf

Member

From: Copenhagen

Registered: 2005-11-29

Posts: 339

Website

Re: Recommendations for installation on a 256mb laptop (Acer Travemate)

I'd actually like to hear how Xubuntu compares to Arch+XFCE in performance terms.

I will of course report back if I decide to go with Arch.

And if you go with KDE, it's a good idea to use Opera/Konqueror instead of Firefox.

I'm afraid that's not an option. She's a "Foxy lady" through and through...
I never liked Konqueror myself either, neither as a file browser nor a web
browser.

I played with XFCE again the other day and it actually used more memory with almost no apps open than my KDE3 with few apps open.

That's my experience too. I also don't think I will be able to convince her
to use awesome or fluxbox either...

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Recommendations for installation on a 256mb laptop (Acer Travemate)

I can't live without Konqueror, heh.

There's a QT port of Firefox in the making, it'll add some toolkit flexibility.

orion

Member

From: near Hamburg / Germany

Registered: 2008-08-01

Posts: 19

Re: Recommendations for installation on a 256mb laptop (Acer Travemate)

on my laptop with 1.6 ghz and 512 MB RAM, arch runs even with kde 4 and 3D effects _very_ fast.

Firefox look isn't a problem, use gtk-qt-engine-svn from AUR, and firefox will look like an KDE 4 app (i did on my laptop)

signor_rossi

Member

Registered: 2007-08-24

Posts: 257

Re: Recommendations for installation on a 256mb laptop (Acer Travemate)

1. No, I don't. But if you plan to use it for a while longer you could add more RAM, maybe get used RAM, but beware to look for compatible RAM. Upgrade was easy on an Aspire my Brother had (motherboard died soon after warranty expired).
2. Used Gentoo for a few years, but then I was tired of all the compiling (Gentoo was great and served me very well otherwise) and looked for a new distro. Arch was definitely faster than Ubuntu and Suse on my laptop and therefore I chose it, didn't regret it so far. Although I must say that Ubuntu Hardy seems snappier than Gutsy on a desktop box I have.
Xfce should be faster than KDE, at least it is for me here, Firefox loads much faster, too.

Bye, signorRossi.

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Recommendations for installation on a 256mb laptop (Acer Travemate)

Look isn't the issue, memory usage is (of using GTK app in QT environment, if not of Firefox itself). 512 MB RAM is enough to get anything running nicely, but it gets more problematic with 256 MB.

eyolf

Member

From: Copenhagen

Registered: 2005-11-29

Posts: 339

Website

Re: Recommendations for installation on a 256mb laptop (Acer Travemate)

1. No, I don't. But if you plan to use it for a while longer you could add more RAM, maybe get used RAM, but beware to look for compatible RAM. Upgrade was easy on an Aspire my Brother had (motherboard died soon after warranty expired).

That's probably a good idea in any case -- even for the Windows
installation. I'll look into that.