Re: To enable the power management mechanism
On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 12:55 PM, Mark Goldshtein
<mark.goldshtein@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 9:37 PM, Javier Vasquez <j.e.vasquez.v@gmail.com> wrote:
>...
>
> If you have couple of minutes, would you, please, to expand your
> comments about a system without desktop environment? Targeting a
> laptop.
In both the laptops I manage:
1.- Dell Inspiron 600M (my dad's).
2.- Compaq 8510w (from work).
I don't have a desktop environment such as kde, gnome, xfce, or any
other. In my dad's I call startfluxbox from ~/.xsession, and have xdm
installed and working, that's it.
For the one from work, as I'm the only one using it, I don't even have
a session loader installed, to start X I just call startx, and again,
I just call startfluxbox from ~/.xsession.
I've lived that way for so long that I don't like bloated (my opinion,
not to start a discussion) desktop environments... Things might
change, but I still feel confortable this way...
> Is that enough to install a base system, bootloader, then reboot,
I don't know what a base system is. For squeeze (I had recently to
install it in other boxes, also without desktop environment) the first
thing I did was to change the configuration that by default now sets
APT to always install "recommended packages":
% cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00InstallRecommends
APT::Install-Recommends "false";
That I did through the installation process, since with "recommends"
there's a lot of unnecessary (according to me) software installed.
Then I didn't install anything else than the minimum required. The
default coming from squeeze might do. Then I start installing the
applications I want, including power management, fluxbox, X, alsa
stuff, etc... Without using tasksel, since most of such tasks are not
good for me. I always install build-essential, and some additional
compilation stuff, plus other applications for office, web browsing
etc.
This is my approach, doesn't mean you have to follow though. BTW, I
use aptitude in ncurses mode to install, and select/unselect some
dependencies...
> install "acpi" packages you have mentioned, xorg and then a window
> manager?
> Is there dependences on 'xorg', which allow a proper xorg installation?
There's a package Xorg which automatically triggers lots of
dependencies such as xserver-xorg. I do install more stuff. I don't
like xserver-xorg-*-all, I go and unselect them, and instead select
just the input devices, video devices etc that I need. I don't like
installing everything. Then I also shoot for several fonts not
automatically selected by Xorg, like TTFs, and terminus (the one I use
for console and X terminals)...
> Please, correct me, I am sure I have missed a lot of useful system
> components. Like xscreensaver, for example.
Xorg was having lots of problems with memory management with
Xscreensaver on the Dell inspiron laptop. There's a reported and
unfixed bug about it, so I completely dropped xscreensaver. I use
instead a combination of:
xlockmore
xautolock
I think that provides all I need in terms of screen saving. And more
now that I'm trying to play green a bit, :-) So I just have blank
screen to minimize power consuption, :-)
Please notice that what works for one, doesn't mean works for
everyone. A lot of people is happy with desktop environments, so it
might be they work OK for you...
--
Javier.
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