How to optimize Fedora?

[JamesNZ]

Hi everyone,
Recently I've been doing some rather intensive stuff on my system, which makes Blender regularly use 1.5-2.3 gigs of RAM. This worries me a bit because I've only got 3GB installed

So my question is, how can I get Fedora to use less RAM? ATM it uses about 300MB...

Any advice is appreciated

(and no, buying more memory isn't an option until I get a job. Which is a few weeks away )

[DBelton]

From what I have experienced, blender will use as much RAM as you have available up to about 8GB, I believe.

One thing you can do is to stop all services you don't need, and not run any other applications while rendering, but other than that, not a lot you can do.

I found a link awhile back for some tips on improving blender performance, some things may be old, some may not work for you, but check it out and see what you can do with it

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Do...er/Performance

[smr54]

Using a small window manager like dwm instead of Gnome, KDE, or even XFCE might help. (However, NO idea if it would make a difference with your blender issue, nor do I know how important your desktop environment (or window manager) is to your individual style of working. For me, using mostly a few x terminals and often having a browser, document, or spreadsheet open, dwm works well.

[JamesNZ]

Originally Posted by DBelton

From what I have experienced, blender will use as much RAM as you have available up to about 8GB, I believe.

One thing you can do is to stop all services you don't need, and not run any other applications while rendering, but other than that, not a lot you can do.

I found a link awhile back for some tips on improving blender performance, some things may be old, some may not work for you, but check it out and see what you can do with it

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Do...er/Performance

Yes, it will use everything Thanks for the link, hadn't seen it. I'll try increasing the priority next time it renders.

Originally Posted by smr54

Using a small window manager like dwm instead of Gnome, KDE, or even XFCE might help. (However, NO idea if it would make a difference with your blender issue, nor do I know how important your desktop environment (or window manager) is to your individual style of working. For me, using mostly a few x terminals and often having a browser, document, or spreadsheet open, dwm works well.

Yeah I've been thinking about that too. Are window managers difficult to set up? I don't need it to be pretty since I'll only use it when working on Blender, but desktop shortcuts + menu bar would be nice. I've tried using openbox in the past but I could never figure out how to theme it, so I ended up just running Blender from the terminal

[sonoran]

Originally Posted by JamesNZ

I've tried using openbox in the past but I could never figure out how to theme it

http://box-look.org/ for openbox themes. ObConf to apply them guily. LXAppearance does the same for gtk themes, icons, fonts in openbox.

[smr54]

I have a page with some instructions on openbox at http://home.roadrunner.com/~computer.../fluxopen.html

As for dwm, if you install the default Fedora package, you would have dmenu included, so you could hit windows + p and dmenu opens up. It's less intimidating to build it from scratch than it might seem--I have a page on that one too, at http://home.roadrunner.com/~computeratijutsu/dwm.html

[JamesNZ]

Originally Posted by sonoran

http://box-look.org/ for openbox themes. ObConf to apply them guily. LXAppearance does the same for gtk themes, icons, fonts in openbox.

Thanks, will look into it

Originally Posted by smr54

I have a page with some instructions on openbox at http://home.roadrunner.com/~computer.../fluxopen.html

As for dwm, if you install the default Fedora package, you would have dmenu included, so you could hit windows + p and dmenu opens up. It's less intimidating to build it from scratch than it might seem--I have a page on that one too, at http://home.roadrunner.com/~computeratijutsu/dwm.html

Not really into compiling I installed LXDE yesterday which brought openbox with it, so I may as well stick with that

LXDE seems ridiculously light, there's a noticeable improvement in Blender's openGL framerate. Only quiggle is that I can't figure out how to use the FN keys to change the brightness

[sonoran]

You can also use openbox and some other WMs to "roll your own" DE:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Stalonetray
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Tint2

I don't use a tray anymore, but I do find gkrellm invaluable as a system monitor and eyecandy appetite appeaser. Note the moonclock - crucial in werewolf country.