Starting XFce4 without kdm or gdm

[Brian Masinick]

Paul M. Bucalo wrote:

>Up until this point I have either used kdm or gdm to login to XFce-4,
>depending on whether I'm using Mandrake or Red Hat. Is there any other
>Desktop Manager I could use that's lighter, but would still allow for a
>user/password login? 
>
>Appreciate any advise and experiences. I really want to trim the memory
>usage down to the bare minimum in getting XFce-4 up and running.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Paul
>
Paul, I don't know what you consider to be high overhead, but on my
Libranet Debian system, I use gdm with either XFCE 3 or 4 probably
90% of the time (or more) and I don't consider the overhead too great.
According to the lines below, the two process slots that get used up
by gdm have a virtual size of 11 MB or so each, but they carry a real
size of between 1-2 MB for a total footprint of around 3 MB, not bad.
XFCE 3, which I'm running at this instant, seems to carry a memory
footprint of less than 4 MB, so that's pretty modest, too.

root       598  0.0  0.5 11096 1536 ?        S    Oct24   0:00 /usr/bin/gdm
root       605  0.0  0.8 11436 2252 ?        S    Oct24   0:00 /usr/bin/gdm
masinick 23582  0.0  1.5  6536 3928 ?        S    03:33   0:00 
/usr/bin/xfce 7 4 /etc/X11/xfce/xfwmrc 0 10 XFwm

Incidentally, Libranet is a great way to get into a Debian system.  If 
you find Debian to be too intimidating to install, try Libranet.  
Version 2.7 is free, the current 2.8.1 version can either be downloaded 
or purchased on CD from the Libranet Web site.  Two other great ways to 
get into Debian software are to try Live CD implementations.  Since 
you're tight on resources, one of them, the highly regarded Knoppix, 
might not be the best choice for you, but I've had great results with a 
similar Live CD, the Mepis distribution.  Mepis can run directly from CD 
or you can load it on CD, then run a procedure to write the software 
directly to disk, a really easy way to install it.

LindowsOS is really fast to install, too, if you want a more consumer 
oriented system, and Xandros is really easy if you're more interested in 
a stable system that has good interoperability with Windows software.  
Libranet, Knoppix, Mepis, LindowsOS, and Xandros are all based on the 
extremely solid Debian GNU/Linux packaging method.  Personally, I base 
the bulk of my work on a system I have customized myself from an older 
Libranet release.

It works great with XFCE, I've used it for over a year with XFCE 3 and 
now I also use it with XFCE 4.

-- 
Brian Masinick
mailto:masinick at yahoo.com