Firewalker reborn, Part 2: Really lean KDE?

Lincoln Peters lincoln_peters at hotmail.com
Thu Mar 21 17:54:31 PST 2002


I remember that you mentioned this when I was working on the old server.  
All of the computers that I'm really concerned about use NTFS.  Of course, 
if it isn't as dangerous as the documentation makes it sound, I could give 
your suggestion a try.

That thing about files that remain the same size sounds re-assuring enough.  
I'll try it as soon as I actually netboot something off of the new server.


>From: ME <dugan at passwall.com>
>Reply-To: <talk at nblug.org>
>To: talk at nblug.org
>Subject: Re: Firewalker reborn, Part 2: Really lean KDE?
>Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 16:35:26 -0800 (PST)
>
>I seem to recall I or another suggested this, but did not recall the
>answer...
>
>If the windows machines have their FS formatted as FAT16 (NT) or FAT32
>(W2k) then you can mount the windows disk (rw) and then create/use a file
>on the root of the windows disk or in the windows folder called
>win386.swp, and then connect it to the loopback interface and mount the
>loop back device as a swap.
>
>If the machines are using NT/2k with NTFS, you *could* (though I would not
>suggest it) enable the NTFS filesystem kernel option, and then enable the
>(DANGEROUS) write option, but only to use the pre-existing swap file as a
>loopback mounted swap. (If you read the risks of using the NTFS for
>writes, use of pre-existing files without changing their length seems to
>be fairly safe.)
>
>How about these? I seem to recall that even if these *.swp files are
>deleted in windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP they are regenerated the next time
>the windows OS restarts. As far as "weird data" being in the files, I
>expect it is initialized for use as memory is shifted to windows swap.
>
>The above may offer a solution for you.
>
>-ME
>
>-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
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>------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
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>
>
>On Thu, 21 Mar 2002, Lincoln Peters wrote:
>
> > Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 15:55:21 -0800
> > From: Lincoln Peters <lincoln_peters at hotmail.com>
> > Reply-To: talk at nblug.org
> > To: talk at nblug.org
> > Subject: Firewalker reborn, Part 2: Really lean KDE?
> >
> > I have deployed Palantir (the new netbooting server) at RCHS.  It's in 
>the
> > spot where Melampus (the old netbooting server) used to sit, and, 
>strangely
> > enough, some Freshman have asked the teacher there if it's the original
> > computer tower (and I explained that full-size towers still exist, but 
>are
> > uncommon for personal computers).  I have compiled the netbooting 
>kernel,
> > and everything looks ready to go (I copied the installation from Isildur
> > into /netboot on Palantir), but the issue of usability has come up 
>again.
> >
> > On all of the non-netbooting computers I've set up (Isildur, Strider, 
>and
> > some that are still sitting in my garage), I've used the KDE desktop 
>because
> > it appears to be the most user-friendly environment available.  However,
> > when I checked the memory usage on Isildur (which, like the NT 
>workstations,
> > has 64MB of RAM), it's using about 34MB of its swap space when KDE is
> > running, not counting any user applications (Konqueror, KWord, etc.) 
>that it
> > might be running.  These netbooting systems will not have the luxury of 
>swap
> > space, but everything I could come up with using FVWM looked a bit too
> > intimidating (I won't be completely satisfied until every technophobe I 
>know
> > can use it by intuition).
> >
> > Is there a way to strip down the default KDE installation in Red Hat 7.2 
>so
> > that it won't cause the machine to run out of memory?  If not, is it
> > possible to do so with GNOME?  Or is my idea doomed, and do I need more
> > practice with the FVWM configuration?
> >
> >
> > And, no, I don't have the kind of authority that would allow me to 
>perform
> > any sort of upgrades on the NT workstations.  I cannot add memory or
> > re-partition them; the only thing that makes the netbooting project
> > acceptable is that it doesn't mess with the hard drives on the NT
> > workstations (and the real technician still doesn't know what I'm 
>doing).
> >
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>



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