Dock Apps? in DSL1.0 Pentium100Forum: X and Fluxbox Topic: Dock Apps? in DSL1.0 Pentium100 started by: JPsDad Posted by JPsDad on Nov. 18 2007,05:01
I'm running DSL1.0 on a Pentium 100, 64MB RAM. a good DSL connection. I would like to fully understand what the boxes oon the right side are telling me. I read the excellent description of the desktop on the WIKI, but there are big differences between v.3 and v1.0! Besides, I like the Moon_and_Tree backgroundThis version recognized all my hardware and just worked. I tried v. 3.4.1 and it seemed a lot slower to boot. Is there any reason I should modernize?? BTW, this is a vacation home machine. Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Nov. 18 2007,19:11
I really liked that fluxbox style as well.I'll try describing them here, although using man pages or their help will get you more details and options. Using the default order from top to bottom: wmnet: shows your network speeds for uploading and downloading wmcpuload: shows the % load of the cpu being used, will turn on the backlight if it is being stressed (at 100%) asmem: shows your memory usage. iirc, the top part (MEM) is for physical internal RAM; the maximum amount on the right; the 2 coloured bars shows what memory is used, cached; and what's free as a total, and as a %. Then the bottom half is the same but for your total swap, should you have it. mount.app: shows which available devices are already mounted (green), and one that you can mount, and those that are busy (yellow i think). Scroll by using the arrow keys, mount/unmount by clicking the button on the left of it. wmix: controls your volume for different channels. The scrolling text tells you which channel it's on (you can switch them with the arrows below); mute (i think); if it's on stereo/mono; how the output is balanced Left to Right; and the knob is for controlling your volume and the % is shown above (can be controlled by leftclick+drag or the scroll on a mouse) - moves clockwise for higher values. fluxter: shows your workspaces in fluxbox and the windows currently in them. You can move windows around (left click) and switch workspaces (middle click) with it. Just note that this is just what I remember, as some of the dockapps I still regularly use are different. I didn't find much difference for boot with 3.x, although the unionfs layer is by default initialized on boot (boot with "legacy" to avoid this) - .unc extensions are preferred over .dsl's (lower memory usage). Upgrading is up to you - you can check the release notes for the many changes. I'd suggest for you to try it, and see for yourself the differences first hand. Posted by roberts on Nov. 18 2007,21:52
FYI: dock apps are constantly running processes. On a 100Mhz 64MB system, I would turn off as many as possible (not regularly used). You will get better performance. Over the years (releases) of DSL, not only did DSL stay small in size, but tried to improve performance with small less powerfull machines, from new boot options to having less processes running at startup. You should really browse the < Notes > Posted by jpeters on Nov. 19 2007,04:35
Like "smart update time," etc, etc. Personally, I'd opt for having as few processes running as possible, with the option to check on things as needed. This is the very thing I hate about windows machines. Posted by JPsDad on Nov. 19 2007,05:38
Thanks for the replies. I will try cutting out some of the profiles as soon as I figure out how. I found out how to start a Dock App by Rt clicking on desktop and boring down thru the menues, and duplicated the mount tool. I don't have a working CD burner right now, so I have been mounting isos and copying files. Can I do Frugal installs of several versions, choose which to boot with Grub? I Multi-boot several O/S (full installs) this way on my laptop. Does each need it's own Partition or would directories be sufficient? Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Nov. 19 2007,06:36
You can use the cheatcodes knoppix_name and knoppix_dir to point to different KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX files. Of course this assumes you are using the same kernel and minirt (which is the case for 1.x and 3.x)
Posted by jpeters on Nov. 19 2007,06:46
I don't think so. Why not just try several versions from disk with norestore (find a friend to burn them?) , while keeping persistent files on your HD partitions to use with whatever version you boot. You'll probably end up using the latest version anyway. Robert has continually made significant improvements. Edit: Unless, as Hats stated, you are using the same kernel and minirt in base mode (although there are specific config updates for each new version). Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Nov. 19 2007,14:20
Well it's trivial to change the kernel/minirt in the bootloader - I was just pointing out what his case would most likely be. Might just have to backup/restore manually though (should you use it).
Posted by jpeters on Nov. 19 2007,16:58
I'm just speculating, because I've never tried it. I'm not sure what system files are already loaded from the iso before it gets to the bootloader. I wonder if anyone has tried this, with several versions listed in the bootloader. It might be interesting if one were DSL-N, for example. Posted by mikshaw on Nov. 19 2007,23:57
You can use as many versions of DSL/DSL-N as you like with the same bootloader. I think it's something you would need to set up by manually extracting the contents of the ISOs into various directories and editing the bootloader config, rather than using the supplied installer script.I usually have at least two versions of frugal DSL installed on the same partition, using the knoppix_name boot option to point to a particular KNOPPIX-* file and making sure to specify the correct kernel/initrd for that specific KNOPPIX file. Typically I copy the KNOPPIX file to /mnt/hda4/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX-<DSL_version> and the isolinux directory to /mnt/hda4/boot/isolinux-<DSL_version> This often results in duplicate kernel, but that's a minor issue that could be easily resolved if you're very concerned about saving a couple MB on your harddrive. Example Grub entry:
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