[ydl-gen] making YDL lean for a PS3

[Toan T Nguyen]

On 5/11/07, David Seikel <onefang at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 09 May 2007 18:59:42 -0400 Hal Martin <hal.martin at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Perhaps you could also recompile your kernel to be compressed (it's
> > in the config options), and thus use less memory.
>
> A compressed kernel will take up less space on the disk, but gets
> decompressed as it is loaded into memory, so it wont make YDL any
> leaner on RAM usage.  It's likely that the kernel is already compressed
> anyway.
>
> If you do feel like going the recompiled kernel route, find out which
> actual modules you use and which ones you don't use, then compile them
> all directly into the kernel, there is quite a bit of overhead in
> loading things as modules. On the other hand, some modules prefer to
> remain as modules.  Only do this sort of thing if you are comfortable
> with compiling your own kernel, the TSS developers went to a lot of
> trouble in setting up the kernel just right so that you don't have to,
> but they have no idea what each individual really needs, so they went
> with generic options sometimes.
>
> I believe the general tendency for the TSS developers is "modules are
> bad, M'kay", so you may find that you can't squeeze much out of the
> kernel.
>
> If you do stick to E17, pick backgrounds with no animation, based on
> small images, maybe even just a single pixel image stretched across the
> screen for a single coloured background.  Unload any modules that you
> don't really need.  Keep it down to one shelf.  E17 has config options
> in the configuration panel (performance dialog from memory) that let
> you tell it to use less memory for caches and things.
>
> If you don't need nautilus, disable it.  The same goes for any other
> package that was designed for GNOME or KDE, as they tend to drag large
> parts of GNOME and KDE in with them, thus negating the memory
> efficiency of light weight window managers like E17.
>
> Measure the effect of each thing you do with a good memory meter.  Keep
> an eye out for false positives when things get pushed into swap.
> Sometimes things get pushed into swap just because they have not been
> used for a while, and they tend to just stay there.  This is not using
> up any real RAM, but may give you a false idea of what caused any
> sudden drop in the amount of used memory.
>

On the topics of windows managers, I don't always have the mouse
available for the PS3, so I had to choose KDE because you can do
everything in KDE with only a keyboard (GNOME likely can do the same,
but for me KDE has smaller memory requirement). If somebody can
suggest a light windows manager which supports keyboard only
interface, please let me know. Thanks.