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  • From: Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [BL] BL3 in 3M with links and viewer
  • Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 00:22:23 -0400 (EDT)

I know BL3 with X won't work in 3MB, but I would like to try to get links
in BL3 working with a viewer, online.

How much RAM does the kernel take up?

I ran top and got the following info:

BL3 BL2
kernel ? ?
/sbin/agetty 464
init 196 (x3) 492 (x3)
sh 252 (per terminal) bash 892 (per terminal)
(I can try using only 2 terminals instead of 3 or 4)

links 0-90 692 links-0.93 608 (smaller!)
links2 (delilinux) - 4-bit 2628

(While viewing a 24-bit digital photo)
seejpeg ? 2072
seejpeg -g (greyscale) 1176
zgv - 3248
zgv -j (8-bit) - 1648
links2 4-bit - 3272

Seejpeg for SW4.0 is the same size as for SW7.1. I did not check for
dependencies - svgalib?


Xvesa 1296
swm 680
menu 592
xli 1084 (with the sample image)
rxvt 696

The Xvesa route is clearly not going to work in 3M RAM, but seejpeg
greyscale might. This is the same memory usage as 4-bit (16-color VGA)
but looks a lot better on my mono VGA monitor, which is what my 3M laptop
386 also has.

eznet while dialing takes up about 640 bytes but this memory is free up
for use by other programs such as links and seejpeg. links-0.93 can be
set up to use seejpeg as a viewer, which I did once in BL2, on the example
of how this was done in Bl1 for another viewer.


I add things up to 2516 (2.5K) plus whatever RAM the kernel uses, for
viewing a greyscale 640x480 image in links-0.90 in BL3 with one terminal,
and I think about 450 more with 2 terminals. (You sort of lose the
advantages of using linux if you cannot use 2 terminals, though). So in
theory it should be possible to go online and browse and display one
640x480 image at a time with BL3 and links. Lynx and a viewer, or kermit,
won't fit in BL3 in 3M RAM but they are available for DOS and work in 3M
RAM on my 386 laptop.

Another option is to download any images and view offline after unloading
links. Or maybe view at lower resolution (320).

Steven, please correct my theory and/or my arithmetic here. Does a second
terminal actually add 450 bytes or is some of this shared RAM?

Apart from the gif viewer in Bl1, is there another viewer available for
BL3 that can handle jpegs and that uses less RAM than seejpeg?

If you were to compile links-0.93 for BL3, would it come out as small or
smaller than the version for BL2? The difference is nearly 100K.

I can install seejpeg and boot with 3M RAM and see if this works, if the
theory looks okay to other people.





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