Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How low can you go?

[Pandu Poluan]

On Sat, Apr 2, 2011 at 03:28, Albert Hopkins <marduk@×××××××××××.org> wrote:
> On Sat, 2011-04-02 at 02:22 +0700, Pandu Poluan wrote:
>> Good grief! How'd you do that?!
>>
>> *bow in respect*
>>
>> Rgds,
>>
>>
>
> Well, firstly, I managed to get it down to 3MB (though I cheated *a
> little*):
>
> lilpenguin ~ # sync ; echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches # kinda cheating
> lilpenguin ~ # free -m
>             total       used       free     shared    buffers
> cached
> Mem:            43          5         37          0          0
> 1
> -/+ buffers/cache:          3         39
> Swap:            0          0          0
> lilpenguin ~ # uname -srm
> Linux 2.6.36-gentoo-r8 x86_64
> lilpenguin ~ # df -h
> Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> /dev/vda1             4.0G  157M  3.6G   5% /
> shm                    22M     0   22M   0% /dev/shm
>
>
> So what it is is this:
>
> * kvm with virtio devices
> * no udev (static /dev)
> * serial console only
> * no services in default runlevel
> * tight module-less virtio-based kernel (booted externally)
> * no extra (virtual) hardware
> * everything compiled with -Os
>

Unfortunately, I can't go module-less; xtables-addons requires modules support.

How do you get static /dev ?

> I could probably get it lower by tweaking the kernel a bit more.  Also
> it would probably use slightly less RAM if it were 32-bit.  Also, the
> biggest user of memory are /bin/bash and /bin/login.  I could minimize
> memory further by making the login shell ash or dash.
>

I also rely on lots of bash scripts.

*sigh* ... I'll never get it as small as yours... but still I *am*
interested in your memory-saving tricks :-)

Rgds,
--
Pandu E Poluan
~ IT Optimizer ~
Visit my Blog: http://pepoluan.posterous.com