SuSE 11.0 on EFIKA

[TheMagicM]

I'm pro-linux so I wanted to give SuSE 11.0 a shot on my EFIKA.  I know this board is not the most powerful so I told the installer to install everything.  LOL.  Gnome is too slow, didnt try KDE.  Right now I'm typing this under IceWM and Firefox 3 beta 5.  If I minimize Firefox it does that quick but bringing it back is a little slow but very tolerable.  I havent went through my services or anything else to see what I can shut off to save on CPU cycles.

So far this is very cool.

[mike-]

xfce4 would be better, i dropped gnome/kde on my amd 3200+ just because xfce4 is as small and clean as it is.

[TheMagicM]

I also shutdown beagle.  

[spihunter]

@TheMagicM,

Have you had any crashes?. I guess this would be a good test to tell if any of hardware was the cause of crashing in MorphOS?

I thought about doing the same thing.

[Crumb]

Use Fluxbox or JWM.

[Colani1200]

IceWM is a good choice already. It is very resource efficent.

[adolescent]

I don't think it's the CPU cycles you need to worry about, but the limited memory.  Firefox alone will happily consume all of your 128MB of RAM if you let it.

[TheMagicM]

no crashes whatsoever under SuSE 11.0.

Ok, I uninstalled KDE and beagle.  This thing is very useable.  Once my external enclosure gets here I'll put it in a case and post some pics.  Need to come up w/a way to shut it off since the PicoPSU doesnt have a way to shut it off w/a switch (unless i'm wrong)

pic:
http://tinyurl.com/6zyrl9

the piece of paper underneath the vid card is just there to make sure nothing touches since its not in a case.  Its not really needed since I have a network cable holding it up.  

[spihunter]

Cool man!

Its good to know that it isnt a hardware problem thats causing these crashes on the Efika. I might install Linux on mine while I'm waiting on a MorphOS update of some kind.

Thanks for the info.

[takemehomegrandma]

@TheMagicM

I havent went through my services or anything else to see what I can shut off to save on CPU cycles.

Without doubt, Linux can run very efficiently and fast on *much* weaker HW than the Efika. Not those standard desktop distros though, who can become quite bloated if you don't pay attention.

In fact, I'm a bit "disappointed" that we haven't seen special streamlined, purpose oriented distros from Genesi yet. Like a thin client setup, a streamlined desktop setup, a server setup, etc. Internet installation from the OF prompt, specially adapted and optimized (all overweight cut off) and precompiled for the specific hardware.

Note that when I say "disappointed" I'm not actually disappointed. I know that Genesi has worked hard to bring the Pegasos and Efika hardware into the official support trees of various distros, which is *great*! What I'm talking about is the next step.

Maybe that would be best handled through a community effort?

[TheMagicM]

you can streamline SuSE 11.0 on your own, meaning, look through yast to see whats installed and remove it if you're not using it or do that at installation time.

[adolescent]

Power and reset pins are on the Efika motherboard next to the IDE.  RS = Reset, PS = Power.