(Closed) How to strip down Peppermint 7?

[globetrotterdk]

I just got Peppermint 7 installed on an EeePC Seashell netbook and am wondering how I strip down the Peppermint 7 install without losing functionality, as the EeePC only has 1 GB of ram. I have tried a Microwatt r10 install, a Manjaro i3 community install, and an AntiX install, but none of them installed successfully. I am therefore left with the alternative of  stripping down the Peppermint 7 install.

I am planning on using the EeePC in my rehearsal room, using Internet access via my mobile phone. I mainly want to use the computer for writing/editing short music scores with Frescobaldi, and searching the Net for info, writing a mail or two, etc. The three things that I definitely need are Frescobaldi, Dropbox access and a light web browser.

I have been thinking of maybe switching to another window manager, but I am not sure what Frescobaldi will work with (maybe not i3). What can be stripped out and still leave the Peppermint Control Center and Preferences still operable. I am really wishing that Peppermint had a "micro" version available. Any suggestions?

[AndyInMokum]

Hi globetrotterdk, how's it going?  I don't know too much about stripping Peppermint 7 down.  Slim.Fatz is our resident "super lightweight" expert.  I'm sure he'll see this thread and help you out  .

[globetrotterdk]

OK, here is a little update. I have been doing some preliminary work to orientate myself. I have some files that I have retrieved from the Microwatt r10 image, running in live mode. The Microwatt installer kept crashing with different laptop hardware and regardless of whether I used the Peppermint USB/Image utility or used "dd". There are a number of posts on their forum with similar problems and no attempt to reply. I didn't really have an alternative, so here is a link to the .config file and other files;
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b69u2em69src003/AABEkAseIjEGddYgJaiQ8-l-a?dl=0
The other files are from running the following commands:

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find /etc/apt/sources.list* -type f -name '*.list' -exec bash -c 'echo -e "\n## $1 ";grep "^[[:space:]]*[^#[:space:]]" ${1}' _ {} \; > sources.list.save

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apt-mark showauto > package-states-auto

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apt-mark showmanual > package-states-manual

Those files are sort of a backup plan should I find that I need to install Ubuntu server edition and work from there.

[rjm65]

if your eeepc is anything like mine is, there is a cover on the bottom of it with a screw, and under the cover is the memory chip...  just go on ebay and buy a 2 gig chip for it, they work fantastic with 2 gigs ram...  I am surprised antix did not work for you, were you trying their mx version, or the regular antix?  I own several of those netbooks 3 of them have the 2 gig ram but i have two dells that are only 1 gig ram and have no way of getting to the ram chip without taking apart the entire machine, long story short the two dells with 1 gig ram are both running antix mx-17 just fine and they only use about 100 megs of ram when booted to the desktop after tweaking them....

[Slim.Fatz]

Hi globetrotterdk,

I don't know about the things you mentioned in your last posting -- all Chinese to me. 

What I have done to reduce the memory (RAM) requirements on several machines running Peppermint 7 is to use the Fluxbox WM. If you are interested, look at my tutorial here. You can continue to use the XFCE4 panel, or go even lighter with other panels (although, at the cost of much of the bells and whistles that you get with the XFCE4 panel). If you have any questions about Fluxbox and the tutorial, please ask them at the end of that tutorial (so that the info does not get scattered around the forum).

Another option that is very light on resources is the JWM window manager.

If you are interested and have questions, ask back here and perhaps I can help. I have been wanting to also write up a short tutorial about setting up JWM but just have not found the time.  But it really is quite easy -- even easier than setting up Fluxbox. 

Regards,

-- Slim

[globetrotterdk]

if your eeepc is anything like mine is, there is a cover on the bottom of it with a screw, and under the cover is the memory chip...  just go on ebay and buy a 2 gig chip for it, they work fantastic with 2 gigs ram...  I am surprised antix did not work for you, were you trying their mx version, or the regular antix?  I own several of those netbooks 3 of them have the 2 gig ram but i have two dells that are only 1 gig ram and have no way of getting to the ram chip without taking apart the entire machine, long story short the two dells with 1 gig ram are both running antix mx-17 just fine and they only use about 100 megs of ram when booted to the desktop after tweaking them....

Thanks for the heads up about the ram.  Yeah it is a bit weird that all three distros didn't work, but the EeePC Seashell has some sort of basic UEFI and apparently a number of installers have an issue with installing the boot loader. Microwatt and Manjaro won't work on my Acer Aspire One 725 either, which is even weirder in my opinion.

[globetrotterdk]

OK, the latest update is that I can confirm that the Microwatt r10 installers are screwing up because of UEFI - even when in legacy mode. I managed to get around this on two laptops (EeePC +1) by burning the image to a CD and attaching a USB CD/DVD drive tothe two computers. For some reason, that prevented the UEFI being detected. I found a post on the WattOS forum that confirms via an apology, but no solution to the UEFI installer problem. So, now this tread has two issues:
1) Pimping the two computers with Microwatt to function (user friendliness) as much like Peppermint OS as possible, including access to Dropbox (maybe cli) and being able to write Lilypond files with an editor that understands Lilypond (maybe Vim).
2) Throwing the thread open for suggestions as to how an i3 version of Peppermint OS can be built from the ground up, with an Ubuntu 16.04 mini.iso in practical terms (step 1, 2, etc.). Hopefully the Peppermint developers will be inspired to develop an i3 version of Peppermint OS, for those of us that need a light system for relatively modern netbooks with skimpy resources.

BTW, I took the lid off the bottom of my EeePC and discovered that the ram is soldered on. No upgrade possibility. I tried running Peppermint, but response was way off

[PCNetSpec]

Which EeePC is it (model #) ?

I know some had SSD's and RAM soldered to the motherboard, but I thought they all had a RAM expansion slot too.

Have you tried plain Debian .. it's gonna be more work and a bit rougher round the edges, but possibly a smidgen lighter.
(I'd assume okay with UEFI, though in your particular case I could be wrong)

[VinDSL]

I'm guessing:  EeePC 701 2G Surf

[globetrotterdk]

Which EeePC is it (model #) ?

I know some had SSD's and RAM soldered to the motherboard, but I thought they all had a RAM expansion slot too.

Have you tried plain Debian .. it's gonna be more work and a bit rougher round the edges, but possibly a smidgen lighter.
(I'd assume okay with UEFI, though in your particular case I could be wrong)

It doesn't say anything, but I think VinDSL is correct. Fortunately, I was eventually able to install Microwatt on the EeePC and it seems to be fine. I haven't tried using Midori as web browser yet, but rather sticking to the stock surf web browser on the EeePC.

[globetrotterdk]

The latest with regards to installing a mini.iso system, is that I have the basics up and running on a computer with an i3 Intel processor and 4 GB ram, so it isn't a anemic computer, but I am still trying to keep this experiment lean, so it can be a point of departure for anyone wanting a lean system that is user friendly, reliable and looks good, like Peppermint OS.

After installing the minimal system, i installed the following, but not all at once:

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sudo su apt-get install xorg i3 synaptic  gksu pcmanfm surf aspell-da pluma clipit

I started with xorg and then went step for step to see how much extra got pulled in. It may be possible to limit how much gets pulled in, but so far I have just let it happen, to see how lean it will be compared to a system like Microwatt.

[globetrotterdk]

Something to watch out for... at some point I installed enough of a desktop that I can't get a terminal by pressing alt-f1 after boot so that I can log in and holding ctl-alt-1 at boot doesn't work either. I guess I should have installed a log in manager or edited /etc/default/grub. How do I log into my system?

----

OK, I have it working now.

[globetrotterdk]

I have just upgraded to a newer version of i3:

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$ /usr/lib/apt/apt-helper download-file http://dl.bintray.com/i3/i3-autobuild-ubuntu/pool/main/i/i3-autobuild-keyring/i3-autobuild-keyring_2016.10.01_all.deb keyring.deb SHA256:460e8c7f67a6ae7c3996cc8a5915548fe2fee9637b1653353ec62b954978d844
# apt install ./keyring.deb
# echo 'deb http://dl.bintray.com/i3/i3-autobuild-ubuntu xenial main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/i3-autobuild.list
# apt update
# apt upgrade i3

If you run into trouble with adding the repository, the file can be created manually. I did this first thing in the morning and forgot to add "sudo" to the command, so I had to create the file with contents manually.

[globetrotterdk]

OK, it looks like I could use some help getting my wireless up and working. My wireless card is a Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01), which should work right out of the box, but I am unsure as this was not a "normal" Ubuntu install. When I ran

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$ sudo apt install network-manager-gnome

I received the following output:

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The following network interfaces were found in /etc/network/interfaces
which means they are currently configured by ifupdown:
- enp4s0
If you want to manage those interfaces with NetworkManager instead
remove their configuration from /etc/network/interfaces.

I have commented the two lines out in /etc/network/interfaces that contained "emp4s0 "and replaced them with two exacct sames lines so that they contain "wlp3s0", which is my wireless card identification. Being uncertain if this would work, I tried running:

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$ start nmcli

, but was told that "start: Name "com.ubuntu.Upstart" does not exist" I also get:

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$ nmcli device status
Error: NetworkManager is not running.

I need some help with this

I am not really sure where to go from here until I get some help getting my wireless network functioning.

I finally found the following instructions, which work like a charm for now, but will probably have to be changed:
https://www.linuxbabe.com/command-line/ubuntu-server-16-04-wifi-wpa-supplicant
The immediate goal however, is to get wireless and battery applets running down in the lower right corner of my bar, so that this won't only be a cli configuration deal.

[PCNetSpec]

I'm not sure what the problem is here ?

Are you saying the networkmanager icon is missing from the system tray ?

Are you still using the default xfce4-panel ?

What happens if you run:

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nohup nm-applet

?