Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

brjoon1021 · 2009-08-10 18:09:01

I installed Jaunty from scratch (minimal install CD) for the first time, but I wimped out a little and installed gdm and gnome-core to make it familiar and quicker. I want to make another partition and start from scratch again but using lighter software - probably lxde and/or iceWM. Some of the Linux for old computer sites imply that slim is significantly lighter to warrant using it instead of gdm or kdm.

Is that so ?

If so, would I be able to select at login whether to use iceWM or lxde (assumeing they are both installed, of course) as one can do with gdm or kdm ?

Thanks,
B

Awebb · 2009-08-10 18:21:53

I'm not sure if this is contra productive... but we had an interesting discussion about slim/gdm a while ago: http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … dm-issues/

snowpine · 2009-08-10 19:04:46

Yo B, you can switch windows managers in slim by pressing F1... but they need to be listed in your /etc/slim.conf.

anonymous · 2009-08-10 19:09:37

The Arch wiki has good info on configuring SLiM:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SLI … vironments

iggykoopa · 2009-08-10 20:28:04

I've been running slim on karmic for a little while now, it works well and is really easy to theme.

jinnstar · 2009-08-10 23:25:46

Are there any advantages to running slim vs booting into command line and using startx? I'm keen the idea of no login manager, however is there any advantage to having one?

Awebb · 2009-08-11 00:13:28

jinnstar wrote:

Are there any advantages to running slim vs booting into command line and using startx? I'm keen the idea of no login manager, however is there any advantage to having one?

with login manager:
type username <enter>
type password <enter>

without login manager:
type username <enter>
type password <enter>
type startx <enter> <- you need longer to type this than the exta time gdm or slim might need to show up

that's 1/3 of the steps eleminated that you need to boot into X big_smile

gdm has some nice features, you can reboot and shutdown without admin rights, you can do a fast user switch without having to worry about a seperate xserver per user and it has a XDMPC client built in. If you have multiple WMs installed, you don't have to change your xinitrc everytime you want to use another WM.

It depends on what you do. If you're the only one using that pc with only one WM, it might be ok to login+startx or if you prefer working at tty1 and only startx if you need it. Of course, gdm is nothing more but some cool scripts you can start with your mouse instead of typing them.

But in fact, while playing around with arch linux, I found the lack of a default login manager usefull, since the method logon+startx gave me a way to debug stuff that didn't work.

Summary:
° looks nice
° use your mouse
° feature/security-threat hybrid of shutdown/reboot without sudo
° fast user switching

I personally prefer graphical login, since it's cheap eye candy. It's 2009 and I'm not running a ZX81 anymore...

jinnstar · 2009-08-11 00:46:23

Awebb wrote:

that's 1/3 of the steps eleminated that you need to boot into X

LOL tongue

fair enough. After having a really crap notebook for a while, I've become resource miserly. With my current notebook I don't truly need to shave off a few mbs of ram but it's like an instinct lol.

I'm currently using slim which is about as simple as it gets for login, but sit on the fence on what I'm going to stick with.

hailukahh · 2009-08-11 02:09:05

Awebb wrote:
without login manager:
type username <enter>
type password <enter>
type startx <enter> <- you need longer to type this than the exta time gdm or slim might need to show up

You can actually autologin without a display manager. There's a few different methods I've found through google. I've tried it to get a faster bootup, but login can't happen until after everything has started, whereas gdm starts much earlier in the boot process.

As for the multiple WM problem either create aliases such as startob, startflux, startdwm, etc., or use a case statement in .xinitc. Damnsmalllinux made good use of the latter.

Awebb · 2009-08-11 11:22:57

jinnstar wrote:

I don't truly need to shave off a few mbs of ram but it's like an instinct lol.

Same here, my notebook runs well with compiz and so on, but I love seeing <200mb ram consumed after boot big_smile

@hailukahh: You're absolutely right. Like I said: Graphical login screens basically are a set of scripts arranged in a GUI so you can click instead of typing.

ADcomp · 2009-08-11 11:48:36

Awebb wrote:

[..] If you have multiple WMs installed, you don't have to change your xinitrc everytime you want to use another WM.

You can select another WM from Slim .. just add entry in your config file ( /etc/slim.conf ) :

sessions            default,wimpiggy-session,startxfce4,jwm,icewm-session,fvwm-crystal,antico-deluxe,gnome-session,fvwm2

Work fine for me .. wink

Awebb · 2009-08-11 11:50:30

ADcomp wrote:

Awebb wrote:
[..] If you have multiple WMs installed, you don't have to change your xinitrc everytime you want to use another WM.
You can select another WM from Slim .. just add entry in your config file ( /etc/slim.conf ) :
sessions            default,wimpiggy-session,startxfce4,jwm,icewm-session,fvwm-crystal,antico-deluxe,gnome-session,fvwm2
Work fine for me ..

I know. We were talking about no login manager vs. login manager. A bit offtopic, I know... big_smile

ADcomp · 2009-08-11 11:53:57

Awebb wrote:

I know. We were talking about no login manager vs. login manager. A bit offtopic, I know...

shame on me .. neutral I read too quickly smile

astrocisco · 2009-08-11 15:39:06

Hello friends!
Awebb wrote:

Summary:
° looks nice
° use your mouse
° feature/security-threat hybrid of shutdown/reboot without sudo
° fast user switching
I personally prefer graphical login, since it's cheap eye candy. It's 2009 and I'm not running a ZX81 anymore...

I agree with you. That's why I returned to a graphical login manager smile .

A+ Francis.

dobbs · 2009-08-18 08:49:55

Hi #! guys !!

I have an issue with Slim login manager : the openbox sessions doesn't seem to launch my autostart.sh, since i have no tint2 panel, nor conky, etc., and i keep the slim wallpaper.
I installed slim from the repo to see if it hangs at login the way gdm sometimes does.

Do you have that issue and can you tell me how to fix it ?

Thanks a lot !

iggykoopa · 2009-08-18 09:24:24

Mine seems to launch fine, the only issue I have is openbox-session is the first choice, but it still defaults to gnome unless I press F1. Did you already make sure everything in your slim.conf is correct?

dobbs · 2009-08-20 16:08:33

Thanks for the help !

In fact in slim.conf, without any other modification to the ~/.xinitrc or .Xsession, it should be :

openbox-session instead of openbox

in the sessions names.

I'm moving on a multi session system wide .xinitrc now.

Thanks a lot for your guidance ! Have a good #! !!

xj9578cd · 2010-07-15 03:05:38

jinnstar wrote:

Are there any advantages to running slim vs booting into command line and using startx? I'm keen the idea of no login manager, however is there any advantage to having one?

I usually do startx without a login manager or anything. I imagine that login managers and such make the desktop run slower take up memory and CPU as some kind of background processes.

I usually use Debian Lenny with Xmonad, but recently I really wanted some updated software, so I switched to Crunchbang. I am finding that startx is not working right especially with xmonad rather than openbox. Not sure why. Considering Sidux again. I like crunchbang, but startx is not working right with my xinitrc file. Dont know what is wrong but it worked good in Debian lenny for many months. Might even go back to Lenny. I generally go back to Debian after trying others. Debian starts to feel stuffy though with its outdated software! I get claustrophobic.

anonymous · 2010-07-15 03:19:31

@xj9578cd - do you get an error or something? You did disable or get get rid of GDM, right? Whats the contents of your .xinitrc?

BTW if you don't like Debian (Stable's) outdated software, you could try its testing or unstable branches.

AnInkedSoul · 2010-07-15 03:27:38

xj9578cd wrote:

I imagine that login managers and such make the desktop run slower take up memory and CPU as some kind of background processes.

GDM stays active in the background and uses about 1.8mb of memory....never seen it register anything using top to measure. That is even light enough for me... wink

Debian starts to feel stuffy though with its outdated software!

http://backports.org/

CrunchBang Linux

SEARCH

#1 2009-08-10 18:09:01

Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#2 2009-08-10 18:21:53

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#3 2009-08-10 19:04:46

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#4 2009-08-10 19:09:37

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#5 2009-08-10 20:28:04

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#6 2009-08-10 23:25:46

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#7 2009-08-11 00:13:28

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#8 2009-08-11 00:46:23

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#9 2009-08-11 02:09:05

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#10 2009-08-11 11:22:57

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#11 2009-08-11 11:48:36

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#12 2009-08-11 11:50:30

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#13 2009-08-11 11:53:57

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#14 2009-08-11 15:39:06

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#15 2009-08-18 08:49:55

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#16 2009-08-18 09:24:24

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#17 2009-08-20 16:08:33

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#18 2010-07-15 03:05:38

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#19 2010-07-15 03:19:31

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

#20 2010-07-15 03:27:38

Re: Is slim much lighter than gdm or kdm ?

Board footer