From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Q5qGB-00016G-F7 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sat, 02 Apr 2011 02:08:22 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 483E51C0D6; Sat, 2 Apr 2011 02:06:35 +0000 (UTC) Received: from out3.smtp.messagingengine.com (out3.smtp.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.27]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 14FC61C100 for ; Sat, 2 Apr 2011 02:06:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: from compute1.internal (compute1.nyi.mail.srv.osa [10.202.2.41]) by gateway1.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id C31C8203EE for ; Fri, 1 Apr 2011 22:06:34 -0400 (EDT) Received: from frontend1.messagingengine.com ([10.202.2.160]) by compute1.internal (MEProxy); Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:06:34 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=messagingengine.com; h=subject:from:to:in-reply-to:references:content-type:date:message-id:mime-version:content-transfer-encoding; s=smtpout; bh=/0Vt8ZqqZVhq4lsjKFy6ngptpDQ=; b=k34wKTsOHMAlT62GumWYGxJr17D23+YNrSlIzoOYFAv0GjUmAS5PW5pR9gg8t9LIGmO7sAZ6bWQc/FTKY6eP5QPvZoCLF7ylamu7WT0G/Aq5IWvth9KAVzwF4iXZwRGPGuLeG4C5BtgMfr1EexjisFlsAgrCQe9LavItYVAZIPI= X-Sasl-enc: g0NlWavbr5LDwKl9PMX09Qm3a6S02lP+KbXPDg2bb79v 1301709994 Received: from [192.168.31.28] (cpe-174-109-037-078.nc.res.rr.com [174.109.37.78]) by www.fastmail.fm (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 87426403003 for ; Fri, 1 Apr 2011 22:06:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How low can you go? From: Albert Hopkins To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <4D964746.9080808@gmail.com> References: <1301684371.55806.3.camel@victoria> <1301689709.145877.12.camel@victoria> <1301691641.213228.1.camel@victoria> <4D964746.9080808@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:06:33 -0400 Message-ID: <1301709993.503792.15.camel@victoria> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.32.2 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: ddc111904e2e63ddaf0553bdcda8933c On Fri, 2011-04-01 at 14:44 -0700, Bill Longman wrote: ... > So, what can you actually *do* on this, other than an "ls" or two? Well, first the "challenge" did not require that it had to have any use. But thinking about what you said, I remember when I first started using Linux, it was not unthinkable to think that was enough memory to do stuff. So I decided to build another VM and actually install stuff on it. I thought about what I'd typically be running on my desktop. Being that this is a graphics-less machine, I installed non-gui equivalents: * mutt for email * irssi for irc * vim for text editing * pidgin (finch) for IM * lynx for browsing the web * screen for multi-tasking Then I added a NIC so that I could actually get on the network. Interestingly enough, adding the virtio NIC made the VM jump up to 18MB on the initial boot/shell, but adding a non-virtio NIC kept it down to 3MB. Then I added a regular user and did "typical" things: marduk@lilpenguin $ ps -ef |grep ^$USER marduk 2081 2080 0 21:36 ttyS0 00:00:00 -dash marduk 2094 2081 0 21:36 ttyS0 00:00:00 screen -T vt100 marduk 2095 2094 0 21:36 ? 00:00:02 SCREEN -T vt100 marduk 2096 2095 0 21:36 pts/0 00:00:00 -/bin/dash marduk 2101 2096 0 21:36 pts/0 00:00:00 mutt marduk 2102 2095 0 21:37 pts/1 00:00:00 -/bin/dash marduk 2107 2102 0 21:37 pts/1 00:00:00 lynx http://m.reuters.com/ marduk 2110 2107 0 21:37 pts/1 00:00:00 [lynx] marduk 2111 2095 0 21:37 pts/2 00:00:00 -/bin/dash marduk 2116 2111 0 21:38 pts/2 00:00:00 vim helloworld.py marduk 2117 2095 0 21:38 pts/3 00:00:00 -/bin/dash marduk 2122 2117 0 21:38 pts/3 00:00:00 irssi marduk 2124 2095 0 21:41 pts/4 00:00:00 -/bin/dash marduk 2129 2124 0 21:41 pts/4 00:00:00 finch marduk 2131 2095 0 21:42 pts/5 00:00:00 -/bin/dash marduk 2149 2095 0 21:43 pts/6 00:00:00 -/bin/dash marduk 2154 2149 0 21:43 pts/6 00:00:00 ssh tanuki@victoria marduk 2176 2131 0 21:46 pts/5 00:00:00 ps -ef marduk 2177 2131 0 21:46 pts/5 00:00:00 grep ^marduk marduk@lilpenguin $ free -m total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 33 28 5 0 0 9 -/+ buffers/cache: 18 14 Swap: 0 0 0 marduk@lilpenguin $ netstat -tn|grep ESTABLISHED |wc -l 5 So, running screen (with 7 sessions), 8 dash shells, mutt, irssi, finch, an ssh session, lynx, vim and 5 TCP connections open still only takes up 18MB RAM (excluding cache). Still not bad.