Trisquel running a desktop or window manager with lowest memory usage

Some things I've been doing with Trisquel to try to reduce resource usage [these changes are NOT recommended, as they could screw things up for you]:

1. Reduce the frequency that the man page database is automatically updated. Currently it is updated daily, which is far more often than I need. Here's how I reduced that frequency to once per week by editing the "man-db.timer" file in the pluma text editor:
sudo pluma /lib/systemd/system/man-db.timer

Once that file was open in pluma, I replaced the line "OnCalendar=daily" to "OnCalendar=weekly"
Then saved and closed pluma.

2. I've disabled all services related to telephony [dundee and ofono], bluetooth, modems, printers [cups], unattended upgrades, and update notifiers:
sudo systemctl disable bluetooth.service
sudo systemctl disable cups.service
sudo systemctl disable dundee.service
sudo systemctl disable ofono.service
sudo systemctl disable ModemManager.service
sudo systemctl disable unattended-upgrades.service
sudo systemctl disable update-notifier-download.timer
sudo systemctl disable update-notifier-motd.timer

I hope I'm not screwing anything up by disabling these services. So far everything is working as normal, including wifi with my Atheros card.

3. I've purged some bluetooth packages from my system:
sudo apt purge bluez-cups blueman

The packages bluez and bluez-obexd both appear to be important dependencies for the entire Trisquel system, so for the moment I haven't removed them. I'll probably try to figure out how to remove them as dependencies and then remove them from the system in the future.

4. I've attempted to drastically reduced the amount of logging that systemd-journald is doing on the system. [This is doubly NOT recommended, as I have no idea what I am doing here and it could cause all kinds of chaos].

First I backed up journald.conf:
sudo cp /etc/systemd/journald.conf /etc/systemd/journald.conf.bak

Then I opened journald.conf in the pluma text editor:
sudo pluma /etc/systemd/journald.conf

And I made this extensive list of changes, all of which I got from reading the journald man page, and none of which I'm sure they really do much or won't screw up the system:
Storage=none
Compress=no
Seal=no
SplitMode=none
SyncIntervalSec=10m
RateLimitIntervalSec=120s
RateLimitBurst=100
SystemMaxUse=1%
#SystemKeepFree=
SystemMaxFileSize=50M
SystemMaxFiles=10
RuntimeMaxUse=1%
#RuntimeKeepFree=
RuntimeMaxFileSize=50M
RuntimeMaxFiles=10
#MaxRetentionSec=
#MaxFileSec=1month
#ForwardToSyslog=yes
#ForwardToKMsg=no
#ForwardToConsole=no
ForwardToWall=no
#TTYPath=/dev/console
MaxLevelStore=err
MaxLevelSyslog=err
MaxLevelKMsg=err
MaxLevelConsole=err
MaxLevelWall=emerg
LineMax=4K
ReadKMsg=no
#Audit=no

I saved pluma and closed and rebooted the computer at that point. As I said, after using it like this for a couple of days I haven't noticed any problems. I thought that messing with telephony and the modem manager could possibly kill wifi, but wifi is still working with my Atheros card.

============================

If anyone knows good reasons I should not be doing any of the above, I'd be happy to read your replies and consider your arguments. I'm looking for good guides on how to minimize systemd or to replace it altogether on an Ubuntu-based distro like Trisquel. If anyone knows of good guides of that sort, please let me know, as I'm having a hard time finding any. I found one guide from about 6 years ago of how to replace systemd with runit, but it looks to me like that method no longer works.

back when I used DWM I think with mini I would have like 200-220 but I don't remember all that well, it may have been less tbh

I've been getting super annoyed with Trisquel not wanting to give me a grub menu by default - why is it this way?

Anyway, to get a grub menu, I set the grub defaults to what I like to call "the correct and proper ones".

1. backup grub
sudo cp -n /etc/default/grub /etc/default/grub.backup

2. open the grub configuration file in a text editor as the super user
sudo pluma /etc/default/grub
or use "mousepad" instead of "pluma" in that command if you are using Trisquel Mini

3. Change the following in the grub file:
a. The grub timeout style is "hidden" by default, which means you don't get a grub menu, and you get to spend time searching around for the correct key or key combo for your machine to get to a grub menu or get to bios or something. Let's change that. Change the line that says "GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden" to:
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
b. Trisquel comes with a default grub timeout of 0 seconds, which means you still don't get any grub menu options before it boots to the default grub option, which is also just super annoying. Change "GRUB_TIMEOUT=0" to:
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
to give yourself 5 seconds to decide which option in the grub menu you'd like to select.
c. Save and close pluma or mousepad
d. Update grub:
sudo update-grub
e. Reboot and revel in the glory of a proper grub menu on restart.

If one of the Trisquel developers would like to debate on why sticking with Ubuntu's super annoying grub defaults is a good idea, I'd be happy to have that discussion here. Although the fix is super simple, and I'm sure there's some good reason somewhere (such as the ever present Ubuntu mantra "think of the poor new users who don't know anything and are used to the Windows startup defaults!!!") for this, so it doesn't really matter in the end.

So the other super annoying thing is that when I want to remove default programs, I get hit with "you can't do that or it will remove trisquel*", or "you can't do that or it will remove trisquel-mini*", or "you can't do that or it will remove trisquel-mini-recommended*".

I guess I have some research to do on how to surgically cut away at these installations to my satisfaction. Once again, the defaults here are just super annoying. I know that this is the way Ubuntu does things, but I'm used to the Debian(ish) world and being able to add or remove anything I want. I don't want these Ubuntu default behaviors.

/rant off

Otherwise, this Trisquel Mini 11 is just a fantastic experience. Very light and fast and just overall fantastic work by the dev team.

EDIT: I just read magic banana's many many statements in the forum that trisquel* and trisquel-mini* and trisquel-mini-recommends are just metapackages that are safe to remove and don't install or uninstall anything by themselves. Please disregard my moronic rant above.

I decided to try dwm.

The manual is really small as there is not so much to learn, which is nice. However, it is only after I found https://ratfactor.com/dwm that I quickly became reasonably comfortable with it, in about 1 hour.

Indeed it is fast. I never used a tiling window manager before and it feels like my x200 screen has become much more usable.

I am somehow missing a system tray, so I started stalonetray and have put it in all tags. I run nm-applet for the network, cbatticon for battery status, but I have not found how to get a volume icon.

Thank you andyprough! I am smiling, as I agree and am experiencing the very thing:

Serendipitous discovery of interesting people and content through random exploration, rather than searching for what you know or think you want

Thanks all for this very informative thread, I bookmarked it for reference!

Have you tried twm? It is the default WM for X and it looks very simple.
@Magic Banana and @andyprough I use 4 seconds timeout in GRUB by the way

What do you think of WindowMaker? I'm interested to it because of GNUstep, AppImage and helloSystem. I think it will have a very low memory usage although I have not yet tried.

http://www.windowmaker.org

https://gnustep.github.io

Sincerely yours,

Malsasa

ratpoison has a pretty small memory footprint.