GMaq wrote: ↑Wed Mar 17, 2021 11:50 pm
Greg... Glen... I've been called worse lol!
Yeah Openbox is the WM in the 32bit version and I think I will make the next 64bit ISO Openbox as well, as many people point out KDE Plasma (with certain things removed or disabled) is now running in the same RAM neighborhood as XFCE4 4.14+ and I have no intention of moving to KDE but the tubbiness of XFCE4 is a growing concern (pardon the pun). AVL-MXE 32bit boots into it's Desktop at about 280Mb of RAM and I would guess and hope on 64bit we could run around 300-320Mb of RAM..
That said MX Linux isn't really promoting or custom Packaging many 'extra' things for Openbox as they already have an established background in supporting Fluxbox so for AVL-MXE I filled in some of the blanks for the best Openbox experience with my own custom Openbox packaging and theming and I am planning to produce fresh ISO's for April 10th to (a) fix a few minor bugs and mistakes in the initial AVL-MXE release (b) Re-align with my previous established AV Linux release cycle and (c) Move both versions to Openbox so if you can wait a few weeks you can have a fresh XFCE4/Openbox spin that you can mold to your will with the MX Respin tools.
Appreciate the flexible AVL-MXE namespace policy and direct reply straight from the CIO main dev.
And very happy to wait a few weeks for your Openbox spin. Definitely feeling the XFCE tubbiness though the whisker menu pulls up anything nicely so you don't have to hunt through arcane sub-menus for tidbits.
Some of the nicest Openbox configs I've come across:
https://maboxlinux.org/
https://manjaro.org/downloads/community/openbox/
https://www.bunsenlabs.org/
There are a few on the MX spins sub-forums as well as you most likely are aware.
For your next compilation I'd also recommend
https://sonobus.net (not in repos yet) and
https://jamulus.io/ (in debian backports, Laurent (
@eleandar) at
https://sourceforge.net/projects/jamulus-os has made some nice scripting for quick server setup).
FWIW my first AVL-MXE slim sweep attempt came out at 3.1GB vs your original 3.56GB. Tossed about 1.5GB* and apt upgrade added 400-something back. Maybe my remaster compression was sloppy.
Until next release I'll have a deeper look into antiX/MX module options as mentioned (Puppy style). If that's not straightforward I'll use something like
https://debiandog.github.io/doglinux as a build base instead. Then your AVL-MXE scripts and tools could be added somehow and a RT kernel compiled if needed.
One of my target machines is 4GB RAM forever, the other is a Celeron dual core retro ultrabook. With a sub 1GB frugal install I can boot the same base OS on all of them and then module load in and out any specific software suite when needed, either pre- or post boot. Similar to Flatpaks or snaps or podman containers (I guess, don't know much about them) or portableapps.com on Windows if one zipped them down after each use.
When not needed it's stowed away on the drive, not taking any linuxfs or rootfs space which then allows for RAM boots most of the time, less disk writes, more light speed.
So here's hoping the AVL-MXE tools could be repo'd one day like MX is or KXstudio are repo'ing their MX Tools to any debian (AFAIK) as well. Your groundwork remains my inspiration in any case, thanks.
* :
demo sw removal from AVL-MXE assistant
sudo apt remove libreoff*
After this operation, 320 MB disk space will be freed.
sudo apt remove blende*
After this operation, 180 MB disk space will be freed.
sudo apt remove inkscap*
After this operation, 164 MB disk space will be freed.
sudo apt remove samba
After this operation, 26.0 MB disk space will be freed.
MX clean up, 87MB
bleachbit clean, incl. localizations 855MB