fbterm probs/solutions

[GekkoP]

Using "--font-names='dejavu sans mono'" did it! Thank you.

[machinebacon]

^ really just depends on the lower case? wow.

[machinebacon]

@wux, next time please "ttyrec" your howto :D

[wuxmedia]

on it, gotta eat soon, but I worked out the c/p mode in TMUX!!! yeah.

re; the fonts, you can use any font, but some need some loving.
I thought at first it was case sensitive, seems not, but it needs a MONO font at least it looks better, i was using cantarell for a bit at 22px 8)
has anyone tried ttyrec with fbterm? not sure if it's gonna like it.
let's find out!

[GekkoP]

Yes, "mono" did the trick. But I'll go lowercase anyway from now on. Have to check that ttyrec now.

[wuxmedia]

^ I didn't have much luck, but please - prove me wrong about ttyrec!!!

[GekkoP]

I've only tried "dejavu sans mono", don't know about other fonts tbh.

[PhiloPolyMath]

I've tried to find an answer to this, but I'm getting nowhere fast. What is the best/easiest/possibly only way to setup dual monitors for tmux and/or fbterm?

[machinebacon]

It is possible, I guess, though maybe not really practical: each screen would have its own TTY, so not like a [ ]-[ ] setup where the two screens could "interact". You could switch screens by Ctrl-Alt-F1/2/3/4... though, it needs an xorg.conf. What's your gfx card now, and do you already have an xorg.conf file (not necessarily from Debian - as it is not used in sid anymore)?

[PhiloPolyMath]

Well, I'm on my macbook pro now (version 1,1 from 2006) and I do have a debian sid partition on it. It's running a radeon x1600. I'll have to check later with my home laptop. Perhaps this would be easier to just do an extremely minimal WM for dual screen. (I'll take suggestions) I'm just really jealous of these 30MB screenshots......

[DebianJoe]

I'd like to refer you to Pidsley and the sub 20 club.
http://linuxbbq.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?f ... =525#p7192
^^Using Xserver. Cwm is a big favorite for stackers around here, so at least give it a shot. There is no significant improvement in minimal resource performance between a FB build and an X11 one, especially if you're talking multiple ttys.

[GekkoP]

Also let me point you to the wonder of the "Rape my RAM" thread: http://linuxbbq.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=712.

[PhiloPolyMath]

Looking at these threads I don't know if I should use that as inspiration or hang my head in defeat. Damn

[pidsley]

As DJ and Gekko have pointed out, using a minimal WM is only one way to reduce memory use, and sometimes not even the best way. Looking at your "pstree" output and removing unnecessary processes will do a lot more to get your memory use down. But really, it's all just an exercise in understanding what's going on -- does it matter that much if you use 30M at start instead of 60M when your machine has 4G?

On-topic, many window managers have good dual-monitor support. Is there any one you're particularly interested in trying?

Don't hang your head in defeat -- we had a run of "how low can you go" topics where some of us did crazy shit to get memory use down. Don't think we all use systems like this every day. I'm posting this from a machine using 430M memory right now, and I don't care :)

[GekkoP]

^^ Don't worry, I know the feeling.
I only have less than 30MB on my framebuffer setup. That Rape My RAM thread was me studying what is useful on my system and what is not. Pidsley and the others helped me understand what really is necessary and what I need to be there despite the RAM usage. My Elektra+dwm now is always around 80/85MB at boot, and I'm happy with it. :)

[DebianJoe]

I'm going to have to agree with the above totally. There are all sorts of fun games to play, from RAM usage to boot time to amount of disk space to dependency count, but they're mostly useful for learning about how the entire system works together. Find what setup satisfies your needs and tastes.

[wuxmedia]

if you like the tmux multiple terms setup, i3wm is good. Has good multiple monitor support.
as for low ram, I feel it's like a nippy kit car with no back seats, great for hooning around on the weekends, or tinkering with. But not necessarily a daily driver.

[PhiloPolyMath]

I run i3wm now and enjoy using it. It's not that I really care about having a very small environment. I agree that people should use what is best for them. But I use linux not only as a work environment but also as something fun to play with. Lowering resources would be a fun game to me. And when I play, I play to win. : )

Seriously though, I really like learning as much as I can about a lot of different things, hence the user name. So I originally asked this question about fbterm to see if it was possible/learn/lower resources as a game.

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

[machinebacon]

The sad thing about lowering the RAM usage is following:
you decide to install a full-feat web browser with add-ons/extensions, and multiple tabs of g+ and youtube are running side by side. I have not seen a SUB100 with this scenario. Heck, even one single tab can push the RAM usage to >100 depending on where you browse. So in this case, a CLI browser (or one that uses the framebuffer, like netsurf or xlinks2) can help to drastically reduce RAM usage. Other stuff (or services) like consolekit, gvfs (for mounting of network shares in a GUI filemanager) or the CUPS, bluetooth, network-manager applet, g-keyring and so on, they are much more relevant in RAM usage. Of course one thing excludes the other: by running in an no-X environment, you will most probably (partly) not have these 'services' installed and thus they won't run (usually they are pulled in by GUI packages or by explicitly installing them). It's often the comfort:resource ratio that plays a significant role in how systems are set up. Those who want 'automount in Thunar' will run with gvfs, though it can be achieved 1:1 by simply adding the relevant shares to fstab. Latter requires a little manual intervention, but shaves off a few MB in RAM. The CUPS or bluetooth service could be started manually too, instead of automagically at boot. Network-manager is not really needed if you set up /etc/network/interfaces manually (or with ceni). The list is long :) I can just tell from experience (and Pidsley is the No. 1 specialist in this field) that the window manager (eg. spectrwm vs i3 vs awesome vs cwm vs openbox vs fluxbox vs jwm vs alopex vs younameit) is least responsible for RAM usage. Of course desktop environments do not count - they pull in their own stuff without your knowledge.

[ChefIronBelly]

Let's bump this thing...

My fb fonts are killing me all the sudden. Terminus 16 has always been my go to and its just crap right now. It seems it has something to do with either the ATI card or the wide screen monitor(newer). Its a mini disk netinstall so maybe I missed something (went back thru a few times). I went thru like the top 7 console fonts and it was with brutal results.

Can it just be the 16:9 ratio?

Any suggestions?