Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

davidb · 2020-08-11 03:36:54

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, so if the Admins need to move this topic somewhere else, then I understand.

I've used several Linux distros on my Lenovo T-61 with 1GB of RAM, which includes PCLinuxOS, Elementary, Q4OS and now ExeGNU/Linux (which of course is a derivative of Devuan) . And, throughout all of these versions of Linux, when ever I fired up Fotoxx (one of my favorite photo editors), it always complained about having "low RAM" and that it's performance may be slowed.

But, today I got around to installing Fotoxx on my new Exe/Trinity desktop and I saw no low RAM warning. I was a little surprised. I don't know a lot about this sort of thing, but could this change in what I'm used to seeing be a result of my system no longer relying on SystemD? That's about the only major difference that comes to mind, as I've used TDE with Q4OS, as well as PCLinuxOS but still got that low RAM warning.

Any thoughts on this?

chris2be8 · 2020-08-11 16:17:04

To ask the obvious question, how much RAM and swap space has your new laptop got? Run free -ht on it to find out (and on your old one to see the difference).

Chris

Last edited by chris2be8 (2020-08-11 16:17:41)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-08-11 16:35:55

davidb wrote:

could this change in what I'm used to seeing be a result of my system no longer relying on SystemD?

Unlikely, systemd (not "SystemD" btw) is a total memory hog but it only consumes a few MiB more than sysvinit.

Have you tried Debian with something like dwm? The desktop environment will make much more difference in respect of RAM usage.

davidb · 2020-08-11 17:03:17

Sorry, systemd... I'll remember that.

free -ht reports:

              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           979M        243M        309M         71M        426M        528M
Swap:          255M         68M        187M
Total:         1.2G        311M        497M

When I get around to it, I'll check and see what RAM is available when running Q4OS. I just thought maybe not having systemd is a benefit on many levels. Up until finding Exe and Devuan, I never really payed much attention to what service manager my system used. I was impressed that Fotoxx wasn't complaining about low RAM for the first time in the nine years I've used this laptop.

Last edited by davidb (2020-08-11 17:09:45)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-08-11 17:14:38

I like to use ps_mem to analyse per-application memory usage.

ExtremistCamel · 2020-08-11 20:28:41

I've tested TDE with ExeGNU, Q4OS and PCLinuxOS recently and they all use a similar amount of RAM.

ExeGNU and PCLinuxOS use around 230-240MB and Q4OS uses ~260MB (didn't use swap on any of them). They all use Trinity DE and Trinity Windows Manager so they're pretty much identical. Only Q4OS uses systemd.

Is it possible that it's a new install and maybe you installed other programs which were running on the other distros? Fotoxx could rely on some non-free service or something that's not present in Devuan but that's just a guess. Strange.

Also I've discovered ExeGNU very recently and the next day while searching for it I found your article, it was helpful and I found this forum so thanks for that davidb. I think its a very usable truly free/open distribution and wonder why it has so little coverage.

Just in case you don't know there is an email to contact the developer info@exegnulinux.net which is listed on the sourceforge site you could try that. There is a 32bit beowulf iso under testing so I don't know why there hasn't been a new release.

Last edited by ExtremistCamel (2020-08-11 20:29:09)

davidb · 2020-08-11 20:45:32

ExtremistCamel wrote:

I've tested TDE with ExeGNU, Q4OS and PCLinuxOS recently and they all use a similar amount of RAM.
ExeGNU and PCLinuxOS use around 230-240MB and Q4OS uses ~260MB (didn't use swap on any of them). They all use Trinity DE and Trinity Windows Manager so they're pretty much identical. Only Q4OS uses systemd.
Is it possible that it's a new install and maybe you installed other programs which were running on the other distros? Fotoxx could rely on some non-free service or something that's not present in Devuan but that's just a guess. Strange.
Also I've discovered ExeGNU very recently and the next day while searching for it I found your article, it was helpful and I found this forum so thanks for that davidb. I think its a very usable truly free/open distribution and wonder why it has so little coverage.
Just in case you don't know there is an email to contact the developer info@exegnulinux.net which is listed on the sourceforge site you could try that. There is a 32bit beowulf iso under testing so I don't know why there hasn't been a new release.

Hey, thanks! I'm glad you found the review useful. Just my way of trying to bring more attention to a well deserved project.

As for the Fotoxx thing, yes, I wasn't sure what the difference was and it could be just because Exe is new and "fresh" on my system with nothing else getting in the way and hogging up resources. Maybe it's a pulseaudio thing. We'll see as time goes on. It was just a nice little bonus, there!

I didn't look in under Testing, on SourceForge. So, perhaps it's just Dave finding enough time in his schedule to accomplish everything he wants to. In the meantime, however, installing ASCII and doing a system update has worked just fine.

Last edited by davidb (2020-08-11 21:06:47)

Altoid · 2020-08-11 21:51:04

Hello:

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

... use ps_mem to analyse per-application memory ...

Is there a *.deb package available for ASCII?
Can't seem to find it.

TIA,

A.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2020-08-12 16:46:38

Altoid wrote:

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
... use ps_mem to analyse per-application memory ...
Is there a *.deb package available for ASCII?

No but it's just a python script so you can fudge an "installation" with

mkdir -p ~/git && cd ~/git
git clone https://github.com/pixelb/ps_mem
mkdir ~/bin
cp ps_mem/ps_mem.py ~/bin/ps-mem
chmod +x ~/bin/ps-mem

^ That assumes the git package is installed and that ~/bin is listed in $PATH (or add it to /usr/local/bin/ for system-wide access).

Once it's all set up just call the script to run it:

ps-mem

Alternatively just run the script directly from the git repository without copying it:

cd ~/git/ps_mem
./ps_mem.py

Altoid · 2020-08-12 18:07:38

Hello:

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

... just a python script so you can fudge an "installation" ...

Right, I'll get to it.
Thanks a lot ! 8^ )

Cheers,

A.

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#1 2020-08-11 03:36:54

Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

#2 2020-08-11 16:17:04

Re: Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

#3 2020-08-11 16:35:55

Re: Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

#4 2020-08-11 17:03:17

Re: Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

#5 2020-08-11 17:14:38

Re: Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

#6 2020-08-11 20:28:41

Re: Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

#7 2020-08-11 20:45:32

Re: Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

#8 2020-08-11 21:51:04

Re: Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

#9 2020-08-12 16:46:38

Re: Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

#10 2020-08-12 18:07:38

Re: Fotoxx not complaining about low RAM

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