Mason Loring Bliss wrote:
> 
> I'm wondering... How much memory does running X use? How much additional
> drive space? I've got an SE/30 with eight megs of RAM and twenty of swap,
> and if it's feasable, I'd like to start running X.
> 
> I typically run with four to five megs in swap and between half a meg and a
> meg of free chip RAM.
> 
> Presently free drive space:
> 
> /dev/sd0a      143055   107642    21107    84%    /
> /dev/sd1g       75194    19832    47842    29%    /icebox
> 
> If this looks like it won't bring my system to its knees, I'd like to give
> it a whack.

Well, it would be usable, but it might also be _slow_.  I think that the X
server itself takes up a fair chunk of RAM, like 6-8MB.  Of course, not
all of this needs to be paged in at any point in time.  A big window
manager will probably take a couple more MB, plus whatever client's you're
running.  So, you'll probably swap alot.  Fortunately, it's not like it
will break anything to try it, so go ahead and download X and see how it
works for you.  I'm pretty sure that X will fit within about 20MB of disk,
but I'm not certain.  If I were you, I'd install it on the sd1g partition
and create a symbolic link from /usr/X11R6 to it.

Keep in mind that running X on a 9" screen is probably going to be less
than thrilling.....but you never know.

[SLirP problems snipped -- sorry I just don't know :-) ]

> Lastly, I've heard rumours of freeware Mac-side software that serves X.
> Does anyone have any information this way? What I *think* I'm looking for
> is something akin to eXodus or MacX. Another, related question: Would
> running an X connection over a 19200 baud SLIP connection be too painful to
> consider? Or would it be okay?

Yes, there is the MicroImages X server (i.e. MI/X).  I can't quite
remember the URL, but www.microimages.com would probably be a decent
start.  I've used the server before, and it does work, but it's not nearly
as full featured as MacX, and probably not quite as stable.  They have
just released a new version, tho, so perhaps it'll get better :-)  I
generally find that as long as I don't try to set the options, it will
work just fine...

> If I manage to get one of the jobs I'm pursuing, lots of this will be
> irrelevant, as my first monetary goal would be to pick up something with
> ethernet and lots of memory and drive space on which I can run NetBSD, but
> I'd like to consider the options available with my current setup, given
> that my resume hasn't pulled in any job offers yet. (If anyone out in the
> New England area hires mildly-experienced Unix admins, let's talk!)

Good luck!

Later.

-- 
Colin Wood                                 cwood@ichips.intel.com
Component Design Engineer - MD6                 Intel Corporation
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I speak only on my own behalf, not for my employer.