which wm to pick?

[anystupidassname]

On an old Stinkpad T30, what window manager would be the lightest but still have a wifi manager and battery indicator and volume on a toolbar? I put core on there to start and fluxbox is snapy but I'm completely unfamiliar with it. I've used gnome and xfce in the past but think those wouldn't be lightweight enough. Is there a simple way to add wifi manager and battery indicator in openbox or fluxbox or would you recommend something else? I'd like to experiment with awesome and some other tiling WMs but this isn't the time or the box to experiment on. Just need to get it functional for somebody else. Thanks!

[micia]

Hi, welcome to the Sabayon Linux forums!

You can try Xfce, it isn't too heavyweight, provided that you don't pull in GNOME dependencies.
You could try this setup:
* login manager: slim or lxdm
* battery: xfce4-power-manager
* browser: midori
* media-player: audacious, parole (+ gstreamer plugins)
* text editor: leafpad (for development: geany)
* network:
- if a bit of resources can be wasted: nm-applet-gtk2
- otherwise try either wicd or connman

Also be sure to take a close look to:
(as root)

Code: Select all

rc-update


to remove useless services, and to Xfce Session Startup to remove unnecessary autostart applications.

This should do pretty well while keeping low on resources, once you have a minimal setup and see how much resources you can play with (and if it works fine), you can decide where to spend them, like having firefox rather than midori, VLC rather than parole and so on.

[Fitzcarraldo]

E17 will also allow you to have indicators on a toolbar for wireless, battery and volume.

[anystupidassname]

Thank you both for your advice. Having used xfce before, I'm trying enlightenment. I might try lxde if this doesn't work out as well.

Power indicator "worked out of the box" but I have no wireless applet. I guess I need to install the equivalent of nm-applet-gtk2? Priority right now seems to be sound though. Whether as root or another user, "aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav" doesn't make any sound. This includes onboard speakers, docking station ports and chassis ports.

lspci
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)

cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [I82801CAICH3 ]: ICH - Intel 82801CA-ICH3
Intel 82801CA-ICH3 with AD1881A at irq 11
1 [Modem ]: ICH-MODEM - Intel 82801CA-ICH3 Modem
Intel 82801CA-ICH3 Modem at irq 11
29 [ThinkPadEC ]: ThinkPad EC - ThinkPad Console Audio Control
ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw 1IHT20WW-1.07

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Install nm-applet.

Regarding the sound, looks to me like you've got Intel HDA so try HOWTO: Resolve Problems with HDA-Intel Sound Cards.