Hi,
I have just installed 6.1.2 to an internal HDD.
The computer has 1GB of Ram and when I looked at the Proformance Monitor I noticed that 700MB of memory is being used while the system is running at idle, well the Proformance Monitor is running.
None of the 2GB swap partition is being used.
This seems to be a very large amount of Ram usage.
I am testing the installation on ine computer in the hope of installing it on an old system with 512MB Ram.
Is there anything to do to reduce this high usage.
This is common "misconception " with linux in general.
Slax as in linux is configured to maximise the usage of the ram, so it would appear to have a very high ram usage while the swap ramain unused . The reason is ram is faster than swap.
Most of the ram usage is likely as cache (rather than use slower swap). The cache memory will be release if required by applications.
If you look in KDE Menu . I think under system , Kinfocenter , Memory. You will get a graphical representation of the memery usage.
The amount shown as application data is the actual used by running application.
Not too sure about buffer.
The you have cache . This can be release to application if required .
Slax /linux utilised ram as cache before touching the swap.
Still, regardless of the swap not being used there is a lot of Ram being used.
I use Debian testing and without applications running only about 290MB are being used and 0MB of swap.
Surely 700MB using slax is far to much?
I assumed that you are running slax in frugal /livecd mode, in which case slax need to create it's entire filesystem in ram . The base lzm and lzm modules are uncompressed and created in ram.
"I'm not using A USB drive or Live CD it's a new installation to an internal HDD."
It's not where you installed slax. If the original structure of slax , meaning in /slax you still have all the lzm files , then slax is running as a frugal / livecd mode. It's still booting up like a livecd/live usb.
This is opposed to real installation as in most other linux distro.
Sorry I misunderstood.
I downloaded the original zip file unzipped it to USB drive and then copied that to the internal HDD and ran ./bootinst.sh for the installation.
I don't know if that is the correct way or if that is a frugal install.
Yes it should be a frugal /livecd install.Just look a your slax installation in your hard disk . If it have /slax with 001,002,003 lzm etc then it is a frugal /livecd installation.
The lzm are uncompressed and recreated in ram . See /mnt/live.
A real install will look like normal linux distro with /usr , /bin etc. In slax this structure is created in /mnt/live .
A frugal istallation is how slax intended to be . You can click an activate slax's lzm module/
In a real installation , gthe lzm module cannot be used as it is.
Thanks I'll check that.
In the past I've searched and not been able to find a clear explaination on how to do a proper installation.
Can you advise on this or post a link plese?
The "frugal" installation is deemed the "proper installation" for slax.
For a real installation , officially you are encourage to install slackware instead (slax is based on slackware).
It was a small linux o/s that I was originally looking for to be used on a low spec computer.
I'd looked at Puppy versions, Portues and Zen-mini though I'd always favored Slax having used it the the past as a portable o/s and really liked it. I was hoping to use it in this instance.
Thanks jcsoh for your time and the clarification.
"Yeah... right. That last link smelled really strong like spam. :) It's gone. :)"
There's a new breed of "smart spammer" .Unlike lisa "convert this convert that" outright spam, this breed of spammer will post some remark like " follow the instruction given above " or " I like" or some general statement , while displaying a link to some non slax / linux site.
