Running LXQT on a Lenovo Thinkpad T 520 - is this appropiate

General system Newbie
1

running LXQT on a Lenovo Thinkpad T 520 - is this appropiate, see this is my hardware:

[martin@martinkaspar-4243f53 ~]$ inxi -Fxxx
System:
  Host: martinkaspar-4243f53 Kernel: 6.4.7-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    compiler: gcc v: 13.1.1 Desktop: LXQt v: 1.3.0 tk: Qt v: 5.15.10
    info: lxqt-panel wm: Openbox v: 3.6.1 vt: 2 dm: SDDM Distro: EndeavourOS
    base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 4243F53 v: ThinkPad T520
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 4243F53 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI-[Legacy]: LENOVO v: 8AET51WW (1.31 ) date: 08/08/2011
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 3.6 Wh (100.0%) condition: 3.6/47.5 Wh (7.6%) volts: 11.9
    min: 10.8 model: SANYO 45N1001 type: Li-ion serial: 25318 status: full
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-2520M bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    smt: enabled arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB
    L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/3200 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800
    bogomips: 19947
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
    vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad T520 driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-6 ports:
    active: LVDS-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2, HDMI-A-3,
    VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0126 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.8 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,intel,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99")
    s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 model: LG Display 0x02e3 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 101
    size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5") modes: 1366x768
  API: OpenGL v: 3.3 Mesa 23.1.4 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 3000 (SNB
    GT2) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio
    vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad T520 driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
    chip-ID: 8086:1c20 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.4.7-arch1-1 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.76 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad T520
    driver: e1000e v: kernel port: 6080 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:1502
    class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: f0:de:f1:d6:46:e2
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter driver: rtl8192ce
    v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 5000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8176 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 60:d8:19:d0:97:c0
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM2045B (BDC-2.1) driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
    rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 2-1.4:3 chip-ID: 0a5c:217f
    class-ID: fe01 serial: 60D819B4161B
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: down bt-service: disabled
    rfk-block: hardware: no software: no address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 13.37 GiB (5.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD2500BEVT-08A23T1
    size: 232.89 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s tech: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: WD-WX11A6188722
    fw-rev: 1A02 scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 228.17 GiB used: 13.37 GiB (5.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Info:
  Processes: 213 Uptime: 55m wakeups: 1 Memory: total: 4 GiB
  available: 3.71 GiB used: 2.7 GiB (72.6%) Init: systemd v: 253
  default: graphical Compilers: gcc: 13.1.1 Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 888
  Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: qterminal inxi: 3.3.28
[martin@martinkaspar-4243f53 ~]$

what do you say - is this okay or should i

a. create a swapfile here
b. go and choose another more lightwheight - DE

or do something else

look forward

2

More lightweight then lxqt? I’m not sure you’ll find much more. You may get a few extra mb from mate or lxde, but it’s not really going to make s difference.

2 Likes
3

having a swapfile is ok if you have long time on your desktop, is not much as extra ram… but atleast can dump unused ram to swap :slight_smile: edit unused data

2 Likes
4

I see your machine is OK, but if I were you I would add some more RAM to be minimum 8GB. The more the better.

If you got 8GB RAM or more you can even run KDE Plasma without any problems.

1 Like
5

hi there @fbuddymechanic and @limotux - good evening dear @ringo

first of all - many many thanks for the reply and for all your tipps. awesome!
i am so glad to be part of this great forum - it makes me very very happy!!

well regarding the swapfile - well i thought that i should do the following

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/1G.swap bs=10M count=100 status=progress
# mkswap /1G.swap
# swapon /1G.swap
# echo "/1G.swap none swap sw,auto 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

then i got back

$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/1G.swap bs=10M count=100 status=progress
dd: konnte '/1G.swap' nicht öffnen: Keine Berechtigung
[martin@martin-4243f53 ~]$ su 
Passwort: 
su: Fehler bei Authentifizierung
[martin@martin-4243f53 ~]$ su
Passwort: 
[root@martin-4243f53 martin]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/1G.swap bs=10M count=100 status=progress
1017118720 Bytes (1,0 GB, 970 MiB) kopiert, 13 s, 78,1 MB/s
100+0 Datensätze ein
100+0 Datensätze aus
1048576000 Bytes (1,0 GB, 1000 MiB) kopiert, 13,8079 s, 75,9 MB/s
[root@martin-4243f53 martin]# mkswap /1G.swap
mkswap: /1G.swap: unsichere Zugriffsrechte 0644, korrigieren mit: 0600 /1G.swap
Auslagerungsbereich Version 1 wird angelegt, Größe = 1000 MiB (1048571904 Bytes)
keine Bezeichnung, UUID=150b0270-9ac9-4c4a-9478-c0a81cdc8b22
[root@martin-4243f53 martin]# swapon /1G.swap
swapon: /1G.swap: unsichere Zugriffsrechte 0644, 0600 wird empfohlen
[root@martin-4243f53 martin]#

guessing that the swapfile has been readable by everyone, which is why swapon is complaining. so therefore i should run

chmod 600 /1G.swap.

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/1G.swap bs=10M count=100 status=progress
# mkswap /1G.swap
# chmod 600 /1G.swap
# swapon /1G.swap
# echo "/1G.swap none swap sw,auto 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

well dear @fbuddymechanic and @limotux - dear @ringo what do you say

is this the correct way to setup the swapfile

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/1G.swap bs=10M count=100 status=progress
# mkswap /1G.swap
# chmod 600 /1G.swap
# swapon /1G.swap
# echo "/1G.swap none swap sw,auto 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
6

If you’re not interested in hibernation I usually just use zram. It’s easy to configure after the fact also with zram-generator. You can look it up in the wiki.

1 Like
7

Even if you have 64 GB of RAM, and you’re not interested in hibernation, you should always have some swap. At least 1 GB. I prefer a swap file, and I always put it on my fastest SSD.

1 Like
8

hello dear @Kresimir hello dear @fbodymechanic

many thanks for the ideas and all your thoughts - i am happy to be part of this great forum.

well i love EOS and on that old machine i have to use a leightweitht Version - i have the LXQT

btw: is there any way and method to make LXQT (with some customization ) even more leight weitght or so.

and besides this - which DE is even more ligth - even less hungry and needs even less performative Hardware!?

i have to make up my mind here.

btw: perhaps i use a too stressful and hungry setup:

i use vivaldi - as a browser and sometimes here 20 tabs are open. _Guessing tat this is not a good idea - regarding the perfomance

perhaps - mozilla is not so “hungry”! here…!?

looking forward to hear from you

9

So modern web browsers are similar.

10

Hello,

That’s the problem here, you expect from a light desktop to compensate for the big memory usage of some applications, but it won’t.
Zram will help you more :
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Zram

1 Like