16megs RAM - KDE won't run

[captainhannes]

Hi all!

Today a friend showed me K and I really love it

I tried it on my old laptop (16Megs of RAM) a few minutes ago, but KDE won't start. I created a 100megs swap-file. # knoppix mem=16M doesn't help either.

It says:
Welcome to KNOPPIX....
Accessing KNOPPIX CDROM at...
Total memory found 13417kb
....
Sorry, You need at least 16Megs of RAM to start the X-Window system

# ispci -v
[...]

Memory at c0000000 (32 bit, non-prefetchable [size=16M]
Memory at c1000000 (32 bit, non-prefetchable [size=16M]

[...]

# free

         total          used       free     shared      buffers     cached
Mem:     13548       13092        456        0            1480       7184
-/+ buffers/cache     4428       9120
Swap:    99992        3644      96348

Any ideas why the 16megs are not fully detected/used and therefore X won't run ?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Best regards,
Hannes.

[rickenbacherus]

Sorry but I highly doubt that you'll get KDE to run in only 16M RAM. Look here

You might try one of the other less intensive desktops like icewm. Just boot like so:

boot: knoppix desktop=icewm

gluck

[captainhannes]

Thanks for your tips, rickenbacherus!

I tried every available desktop
desktop=fluxbox|icewm|kde|larswm|twm|wmaker|xfce
but no luck!

It still writes:

Sorry, You need at least 16Megs of RAM to start the X-Window system

The thing that makes me wonder is, that it only recognizes about 13megs, but I have 16megs.

Any other hints ?
Thanks a lot!

Best regards,
Hannes.

[captainhannes]

The page at http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/ says:

Welche Minimal-Systemanforderungen werden vorausgesetzt?

    * 20 MB Hauptspeicher für Textmodus, mindestens 96 MB für Grafikmodus mit KDE (zum Arbeiten mit diversen Office-Anwendungen empfohlen: mindestens 128 MB Hauptspeicher),

Frage: "Mein Rechner hat aber nicht so viel RAM, daher lassen sich einige der Programme auf der CD gar nicht starten oder laden sehr langsam. Gibt es einen Trick, mit dem ich trotzdem KDE und die Office-Programme/Videos/Spiele starten kann?"

Ja. Nach Einrichtung einer sogenannten swap-Partition kann fehlendes RAM unter Linux durch einen hierfür reservierten Bereich auf der Festplatte ersetzt werden [...]

Ab Version 1.5 von KNOPPIX kann auch auf einer bestehenden DOS-Partition eine Swapdatei für Linux angelegt werden (Kommando mkdosswapfile oder KDE-Menü unter "Knoppix"). Damit ist dann auch ein Arbeiten mit weniger RAM möglich. [...]

rough translation:

System requirements:
20 MB RAM for text-mode, min. 96 MB for graphics with KDE (for Office applications 128MB)

Question: "My computer doesn't have that much RAM .... Is there a trick I can start KDE anyway ?"

Yes! .... make swap file ....
Since version 1.5 one can make a swap file on an existing DOS partition (command mkdosswapfile). Then you're able to work with less RAM...

So I thought a swap-file (mine is 100megs) would do the trick to run even KDE with 16megs of RAM... but since it is only detecting/using 13.5megs....

Thanks a lot!

Best regards,
Hannes

[captainhannes]

Hi again!

Now I tried all available desktops
desktop=fluxbox|icewm|kde|larswm|twm|wmaker|xfce
with the mem=16M option, but still no luck.

I'm pretty sure that this must work somehow ...
It doesn't say "Sorry, You need at least 16Megs of RAM to start the X-Window system" for fun

Anyone got an idea why my RAM isn't fully detected/used even with the mem=16M option ?

Thanks a lot!

Best regards,
Hannes.

[j.drake]

Have you got one of those computers that allocates a certain amount of system RAM to video? I know I had an XP computer a while back that I upgraded to 512MB of RAM, which the BIOS correctly detected, but the Windows system reported that I had 468MB (or something - I don't recall the number), and the manufacturer offered that explanation. Sounds almost as if either some of your RAM is being diverted for another purpose (such as video), or your memory stick has a bad chip. What does your BIOS report?

[captainhannes]

Hi j.drake!

Thanks a lot for your reply!

I don't know if additional RAM is allocated to the video card, but it is certainly a possibility.

I just booted with the (slow) memory tests and no error was reported.
Bios says:
Base 640k
Extended 15360k
Shadow 96k
Reserved 288
Total 16384

It is an very old Pentium 1 / 166MHz notebook. Max. memory is 32MB, so I thought of upgrading it to 32MB. I hope it will work then ?

Thanks again!

Best regards,
Hannes.

[j.drake]

Hope you can find some cheap laptop memory. I finally wound up buying some on eBay.

[captainhannes]

I already did

Found an auction at ebay, offering 8(!) 16MB modules for 15(!) bucks (Buy Now). Transaction completed, the seller will ship it today

I will keep you posted if it works with 32megs (and if I can launch all window managers). My reply will take some time, since shipping to Austria usually takes about 5 days.

Best regards,
Hannes.