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    / /  __/ /_(__  )  __/ /_/ /  / /_/ / /  / /  
 __/ /\___/\__/____/\___/\__/_/   \__,_/_/  /_/   
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Linux on the Nintendo Wii - Part II - Trying to use it for actual productive tasks

(Originally posted to Cohost on Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 3:09 PM)

I had to split this blog post into two because I fear the first was getting too long. Way too long. Plus, I feel like most people would be more interested in seeing what it's capable of than exactly how to set it up.

Usage

Now let's get to the interesting stuff.

I want to see how it performs with the latest applications provided by Debian 8, which is arguably the most important part of this post. There's a lot I'll test, so I'll keep it brief.

I rebooted it to a fresh system (twice. The first time stopped my keyboard/mouse from working, so I forcefully shut it off via power button).

The command-line running consumes about 16MB of RAM, including the htop I ran to check the memory usage.
IceWM takes about 3-4 seconds to boot. LXTerminal, ironically, takes almost as long. Running IceWM, LXTerminal and htop brings the memory usage to about 30MB.
LXDE's other tools like GPicView, Leafpad, PCManFM also take about 2-3 seconds to start. Ironically, Galculator felt like it took the longest at around 3-4 seconds. I didn't check the RAM usage, but I was able to run PCManFM, GPicView, and (possibly) LXTerminal at the same time.

Alright, now let's try more packages.

Installing more packages (firefox-esr, netsurf, gimp, krita, blender, libreoffice, abiword, and dosbox all of which promise to put an extra gig-and-a-half of storage on my SD card):

First of all, package management is gonna be slow, so it's best to grab a cup of tea and be patient. I think it's taken over half an hour to complete, but it felt like more. I lost track.
Testing GIMP (2.8.14-1+deb8u2) first, it felt like 2 minutes to start for the first time, and 30 seconds to start the second time. There's a noticeably delay (in seconds) when doing things, especially drawing with a brush (unusable), selecting a new tool, or opening a new menu. The interface is also very cramped, but can be partially remedied by sticking to the multiple-window setup (instead of single-window like I prefer), ALT + dragging everything, using LXAppearance to make the font size smaller, and turning on the "small" theme. Opening up the autumn picture, htop reports 52MB of regular RAM being used and 40MB of ZRAM being used. Closing it brings the usage to 26MB of regular RAM and 17MB of ZRAM.
Now onto LibreOffice Writer (1:4.3.3-2+deb8u11). Like GIMP it takes a long time to start, but its interface seems better optimized for the low resolution. Text input was sluggish at first (taking seconds to show what I wanted to type), but after I gave it some more time to start, it feels snappy with little hiccup. It takes 4 seconds for the "File" tab to show its results, then later CTRL + S (save dialog) also took about 6 seconds to show. LibreOffice took about 10 seconds to close. 39MB of RAM and 30MB of ZRAM was used. I'm pleasantly surprised by this thus far.
AbiWord (3.0.0-8+b1) doesn't start. I see the Wii use about 100% of CPU (as it does for literally every task) for about 15-20 seconds, then it stops.
I couldn't find Krita (1:2.8.5+dfsg-1+b1) anywhere in IceWM's menus, so I started it via LXTerminal. I didn't get very far in the next 4 minutes. 63MB RAM and 84MB ZRAM were getting used, so the Wii was unusable, and I shut off Krita via an SSH session.
Blender (2.72.b+dfsg0-3) fails to launch, similar to AbiWord. (But I remember being able to launch and use Blender on Easy Wii Linux, based on Debian 6.) I'm starting to think that it's because these applications expect more memory than the Wii can provide. If that's the case, shucks. I was hoping AbiWord would be lighter than LibreOffice.
Netsurf (3.2+dfsg-2) claims to run on a "humble 30MHz ARM 6 computer with 16MB of RAM", and boy does it deliver. It takes about 12 seconds to fully start. I can browse the internet, but many websites are missing the assets that make them usable (Searx Belgium, for example). I can play it safe by sticking with "small," JS-less websites like Frogfind and my previous blog. So far, 47MB RAM and 21MB ZRAM is being used. Visiting Cohost flooded the screen with about seven certificate errors at once, so I can't imagine visiting much of the internet with this.
Firefox (52.8.1esr-1~deb8u1) wasn't available in the menus either, so I opened it via the terminal. It took too long for me to consider it "comfortable." 4 minutes in, about 54MB RAM / 43MB ZRAM was used, and I still didn't see the browser. Like Krita, I've given up on it.

All in all, I might revisit Debian 5 (Whiite) or Debian 6 (Easy Wii Linux) because I feel like their package repository was a "sweet spot" when it comes to using well-known open-source software.

That's about it for this blog post. If I ever make a part III, it'll focus on DOSBOX performance.