Monday, May 19, 2008

Usability of Ubuntu on 128 MB RAM PC.

Earlier I have posted about LXDE the new light weight Desktop Environment on this blog.

I decided to install it on Ubuntu command line system to really see how light. After installing Ubuntu Cli through Hardy Heron alternate CD and adding xorg xterm and testing the X window system working properly I added the repositories as per the previous post and tried to install lxde.

Initially lxde failed to install due to unmet dependencies. I discovered that required dependencies were not available in Hardy repositories. I downloaded the following packages from Debian and installed them through dpkg:
libnetpbm10_10.0-11.1+etch1_i386.deb
netpbm_10.0-11.1+etch1_i386.deb
xscreensaver_5.04-2_i386.deb


Finally I could install lxde.

There is a big difference in memory usage compared to LXDE on full Ubuntu install and login through GDM.

Memory usage full Ubuntu install & login through GDM:
Total used free
Mem: 312 255 56
buffers/cache 74 237

Memory usage Ubuntu Cli and using startx:
Total used free
Mem: 312 166 146
buffers/cache 44 268

Note: Memory figures are on the desktop with xterm only running.

I recommend it to all Ubuntu LXDE users.


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