On Sun, 24 Sep 2006, Chad Kline wrote: > QUESTIONS: > > 1. how can i find out what options/modules/extensions > are of benefit? > > 2. is there a practical way, or a XFree86 plan to > decrease the amount of memory XFree86 uses? (62MB!) The server is not using 62 Meg. Many OSes do not report actual system memory usage but the sum of virtual mappings, which include things like the graphic card's mapped framebuffer. Also, remember that client resources (like pixmaps) reside on the server. When Firefox starts up and your server grows by some number of megabytes, that is due to Firefox instructing the server to allocate piles and piles of pixmaps. It's not the server's fault that the applications are hogs, but it shows up in the server's memory space never-the-less. As for modules and extensions, I wouldn't worry about it. They generally don't take up much memory and all of them are needed by some app or the other. You can remove them almost arbitrarily, but then some apps stop working or start working strangely when particular extensions are missing. There are too many apps for us to keep track of what-apps-use-which-extensions. If you want to remove extensions, it's your problem to figure out which extensions your apps need. If you want to see which clients are requesting resources, you can run this app: http://www.xfree86.org/~mvojkovi/restest.c Be careful running it though. You should redirect the output, eg.: restest > output.txt because it grabs the server and without the redirection away from stdout, it can cause a race condition with some terminal programs trying to print the stdout. This app uses the X-Resource extension so you don't want to omit loading that one. I notice on my machine that my web browser is using 778 pixmaps totaling over 50 Meg. Mark. > > there should be a good description of > modules/extensions for XFree86. > every module/extension should be > listed somewhere #1, and #2, each > option/module/extension should describe > what it is useful for, and when, > if ever, it is critical. and it > should be explanatory enough for > the average non-Xwindow techie > to comprehend and find useful. > > the man pages just say to look in > /usr/X11R6/lib/... but that isn't > very helpful. it shouldn't be > so difficult to figure out what > to include and what to exclude. > it should be made very clear so > anyone with half a brain can > figure out what they need or > don't need. > > i've been using UNIX type systems for > a dozen years or more, and to this day, > i still find that all the good of UNIX > type systems is dragged down by days/weeks > of trial-and-error type hacking to figure > out things that should take an hour or > two of reading. i mean, sure, hacking > things out is fun, but so is being > efficient and productive :) > > for example, what do these things mean? > how do i know if they are useful to me or not? > do i have to search out each thing for hours > in Google to get a vague notion of each thing? > this isn't a complete list of all options/extensions/modules, > but the point is, these things should be described well enough > for someone to know if they are necessary by a user. > otherwise, having options/extensions/modules is > semi-pointless. > > Option "omit BIG-REQUESTS > Option "omit DPMS > Option "omit Extended-Visual-Information > Option "omit FontCache > # Option "omit MIT-SCREEN-SAVER > Option "omit MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD > Option "omit SYNC > Option "omit TOG-CUP > Option "omit X-Resource > Option "omit XC-MISC > Option "omit XFree86-DGA > Option "omit XFree86-Misc > # Option "omit XFree86-VidModeExtension > # Option "omit XVideo > # Option "omit XVideo-MotionCompensation > > _________________________________________________________________ > The next generation of Search—say hello! > http://imagine-windowslive.com/minisites/searchlaunch/?locale=en-us&FORM=WLMTAG > > _______________________________________________ > XFree86 mailing list > XFree86@xxxxxxxxxxx > http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xfree86 > _______________________________________________ XFree86 mailing list XFree86@xxxxxxxxxxx http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xfree86
