MX-LameDuck beta 1

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kultex
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MX-LameDuck beta 1

#1 Post by kultex »

MX-LameDuck beta 1

April 06, 2021

Every Bit counts on a LameDuck.This Respin provides a stable, fast and fun OS - based on the light-weight and elegant desktop environment of MX’s unique implementation of Fluxbox, without all unnecessary parts of Gnome and XFCE. Only XFCE4 power manager was kept, because there is no lightweight power manager - and a distribution without power manager should not be be possible, if we talk about climate change - so I think a lightweight power manager is a big need, but I don't have the skills for this.

LameDuck only needs about 150 MB after starting the desktop see attachment - this is LameDuck installed on my Dell Netbook with 2GB RAM

Download (at the moment only 64 Bit): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

md5sum + sha512 are included in the download folder
Login: user demo, password demo

Major default apps

Browser: Firefox 87.0 - Midori 7.0 - Netsurf 3.10
Email: Claws Mail 3.17.4
Media player: Celluloid 0.19 - Deadbeef 1.8.4 - Cmus 2.7.1
File manager: Spacefm 1.0.6-4
Editor: FeatherPad 0.16
Network: connman 1.36
Archive Manager: peazip 7.8.0
Word Processor Software: abiword 3.0.2
Spreadsheet Program: gnumeric 1.12.44
Painting Program mtpaint 3.49.19
Desktop info: Conky Manager 2.7 with large conky collection

When you run from the stick, please customize at least the Language, if you just run the snapshot, Ram usage is not correct and MX behaves quite strange. As there have been questions I specify - when you boot the stick, you have several boot options:
  • snapshot MX-19.3_flux_base_x64 patito (03 April 2021)
  • Custom x64 ( 3 April 2021)
So use the 2. option and define your language, even you are english - if you use the 1. option - I think, there are over 60 locales, which you boot and Ram usage increases extremely - this is my explanation for this behavior - maybe a dev can explain it more precise?

This is, when the stick boots in UEFI mode - if you have to boot in leagacy mode, use the Function buttons, to define your locale.

So lets talk about RAM. Linux uses the available RAM dynamically - depending on how much RAM is available, the kernel allocates different amounts of RAM to the individual programs. It is also not the same for every boot. On my Dell with 2GB Ram the stick needs between 150 and 160 MB - the same stick with the same settings boots on the Portege X31 with 8 GB Ram with about 210 MB - see attachment 2nd + 3rd.

LameDuck is dedicated to computers less than 2GB of RAM - I had in mind to give Intel Compute Sticks with Z3735F and 1GB Ram or those Windows10 "Chromebooks" with 2GB of RAM a second live. Since I have a 32bit and RaspberryPi version in mind, I set 150 MB idle as a goal, because I want to continue using my Fujitsu Futros with AMD Geode processor and 256 MB Ram. Another screenshot shows that you can visit with 256MB and the browser Netsurf e.g.: theMX- forum without any problems. Of course, you can use LameDuck with a racehorse, but you will not see the big difference.

And LameDuck is not a convenience Linux. The abandonment of Ram naturally leads to a loss of usability. But I tried to keep the usability as high as in the LXDE environment. I think, the only noticeable difference is the loss of desktop icons. LameDuck is more back to the roots, when the Ram guzzlers udisk, consolekit, policykit, gvfs did not exist - by the way, they are removed or reduced to the minimum and udevil does the job - http://ignorantguru.github.io/udevil/

I created this iso for my personal need - everything is working, but the iso is not cleaned and not desiged - if there are other people interested on a very lightweight MX-Respin - I will continue.

Tips to Install LameDuck and the special apps are in the following thread.

Enjoy!
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Last edited by kultex on Tue Apr 13, 2021 6:36 am, edited 7 times in total.

kultex
Posts: 114
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2021 5:30 pm

Re: MX-LameDuck beta 1

#2 Post by kultex »

LameDuck PROGRAMS AND INSTALLATION

All LameDuck files you will find in /usr/share/LameDuck (in Midnight Commander - MC - LameDuck is in very beginning - not under l) exept subox and killbox. This 2 files you will find in /usr/sbin/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBOX

subox is a small yad-script, that replaces su-to-root - https://manpages.debian.org/buster/menu ... .1.en.html
su-to-root needs either lxpolkit or polkit-gnome - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Polkit - both are very heavy. lxpolkit is installed, because you have to install 1 from the 2, but not activated - so polkit is reduced to the minimum.

I had to change the line EXEC= in all /usr/share/applications/x.desktop files, who need root access. So if synaptic, gparted or MX-files, who need root access dont work any more, because an update is overwriting the x.desktop file in /usr/share/applications, just copy the affected file from /urs/share/LameDuck/applications to /usr/share/applications using MC with "sudo mc" - and it should work again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KILLBOX

some programs like connman-gtk open Gnome xdg-files, but dont close them. So these Gnome files stay unnecessary open using RAM. Killbox is the black arrorw with the white X in wbar. when you press it, all xdg files will be closed and RAM should go down.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APT-NOTIFY

I have replaced MX-apt-notifier, which is the heaviest tool (its a python script) in the Base Flux iso - see attachment - with a script called apt-notify. apt-notify runs every day at 8:00, 12:00 and 20:00 and checks, if there are more than 10 updates available. Then you see this green icon in the tray. Then run the same icon in wbar and you can update LameDuck.

To wait for 10 updates is in my opinion a good compromise - if you find, this is a security risk - change the value in /usr/share/LameDuck/apt-notify.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DAEMONS.SH

MX starts all daemons at boot - normally you can control this with sysv-rc-conf - not very userfriendly. LameDuck stops all the heavy deamons, which are not often needed direct afterwards, so they do not consume RAM with this script: /usr/share/LameDuck/daemons.sh

Its a bit upside down, but it works and I think more userfriendly than sysv-rc-conf. So if you need one of those daemons all the time, just delete the line or put a # infront. Like I need cups 2 x per year - so I will start cups with the terminal.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you install LameDuck you have to do some extra tweaks, which are not done by the MX-installer

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  • 1) You have to edit crontab
- type "sudo crontab -e" in the terminal and I suggest to use mc-edit - its the easiest editor - use paste in the menu of the terminal. The text after all the # lines should be like this:

Code: Select all

XAUTHORITY=/home/$USER/.Xauthority
0 8,12,20 * * * DISPLAY=:0 sh /usr/share/LameDuck/apt-notify
  • 2) You have to edit /etc/rc.local
the installer empties rc.local, so just add this one line after all # lines

Code: Select all

sh /usr/share/LameDuck/daemons.sh
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General notes to fluxbox

To tweak fluxbox, you have to edit the startup file, which is in .fluxbox in your home directory. Most of the settings are obvious. Just some words to the battery icon in the tray.
Default is the icon from xfce4-power-manager. For older laptops, this might be a problem, because it starts to get red only at 10% and less. When your battery breaks down on 25%, its maybe necessary to get detailed information of the status of your battery.

There is a python battery monitor, you can activate in startup - just remove the # infront of the line and disable the icon in the xfce4-powermanager. This icon needs a bit more RAM, but it could be useful.

the Volume Icon in the tray is not activated, because you can control the Volume in fluxbox with strg/ctrl arrow up and down. If you think, you need the Volume Icon in the tray, just remove the #

Last problem - some windows don't open correctly - they are to big. This is hard to set for the live iso. You can correct this. Use Alt+left mouse button to move around those windows, then you can operate them - when you use the Alt+right mouse button, you can make the window smaller. When you arrange the window to your need and you close it, then they should open like you closed them. This problem maybe will lead me to change to openbox, if I cannot solve it in future versions.

.
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Last edited by kultex on Tue Apr 13, 2021 8:12 am, edited 4 times in total.

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JayM
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Re: MX-LameDuck beta 1

#3 Post by JayM »

I :heart: the name!
Please read the Forum Rules, How To Ask For Help, How to Break Your System and Don't Break Debian. Always include your full Quick System Info (QSI) with each and every new help request.

kultex
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Re: MX-LameDuck beta 1

#4 Post by kultex »

:happy: it was clear, that this is the name for the iso....

try it out to see, how quick a LameDuck can be......

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Eadwine Rose
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Re: MX-LameDuck beta 1

#5 Post by Eadwine Rose »

No politics.. please read the rules, section of post removed.
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kultex
Posts: 114
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Re: MX-LameDuck beta 1

#6 Post by kultex »

sorry but this was no politics... this was a determination

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lame_duck

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richb
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Re: MX-LameDuck beta 1

#7 Post by richb »

Administrator

The Moderator decision holds. References of this type can encourage topic posters to go off in the direction of politics.
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wdscharff
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Re: MX-LameDuck beta 1

#8 Post by wdscharff »

So I like the name, regardless of possible associations.

But I have a basic question after having a look at the life system.
What exactly is to be saved?
Size of the ISO?
Disk space occupied after installation?
Resources in terms of RAM consumption and/or CPU usage?

This is what the ram consumption looks like after startup for me. Cellphone picture because in a screenshot the controls of mtpaint were UNDER the toolbar and therefore not operable.
I like frugality when it does not come at the expense of comfort and here I have the impression that some points are more about beliefs than real savings.
HTOP in the XFCE terminal uses about as much RAM as the xfce task manager. Nothing saved and if I want to shoot down a task quickly, then I prefer the XFCE task manager. Not cool, but fast ;-}
Why SpaceFM and why it doesn't recognize my internal drives? SpaceFM on my machine has no problem with that (personally I still prefer PCmanFM).
Wbar, nice, but the back&forth fidgeting when you go over it with the mouse is annoying.
Also, why even use the fluxbox taskbar anymore, after some threads here showed that Tint2 is a more than full replacement for the taskbar and also additional docks, plus it uses less ram.

Yes, I noticed that this is a beta :-)
There's still a lot to do to get that running on different machines.
I will have a look at the next beta again ;-}
abcde_ij.jpg
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mx-fluxbox, what else?

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richb
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Re: MX-LameDuck beta 1

#9 Post by richb »

So I like the name, regardless of possible associations.
To be clear, the respin name is not an issue, the deleted content was.
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asqwerth
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Re: MX-LameDuck beta 1

#10 Post by asqwerth »

richb wrote: Tue Apr 06, 2021 8:31 am
So I like the name, regardless of possible associations.
To be clear, the respin name is not an issue, the deleted content was.
That's a relief, because I like the name as well.
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