LDP
/
old-www
1
1
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Releases Wiki Activity
old-www/HOWTO/html_single/Ecology-HOWTO/index.html

5815 lines
142 KiB
HTML
Raw Permalink Blame History

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML
><HEAD
><TITLE
>Linux Ecology-HOWTO</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="laptop"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="notebook"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="pda"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="handheld"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="computer"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="mobile"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="linux"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="lcd"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="ecology"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="polution"><META
NAME="KEYWORD"
CONTENT="environment"></HEAD
><BODY
CLASS="book"
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#0000FF"
VLINK="#840084"
ALINK="#0000FF"
><DIV
CLASS="BOOK"
><A
NAME="AEN1"
></A
><DIV
CLASS="TITLEPAGE"
><H1
CLASS="title"
><A
NAME="AEN2"
></A
>Linux Ecology-HOWTO</H1
><H3
CLASS="author"
><A
NAME="AEN4"
></A
> Werner Heuser</H3
><DIV
CLASS="affiliation"
><DIV
CLASS="address"
><P
CLASS="address"
><br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<TT
CLASS="email"
>&#60;<A
HREF="mailto:wehe[AT]tuxmobil.org"
>wehe[AT]tuxmobil.org</A
>&#62;</TT
><br>
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><H3
CLASS="author"
><A
NAME="AEN10"
></A
> Wade Hampton</H3
><DIV
CLASS="affiliation"
><DIV
CLASS="address"
><P
CLASS="address"
><br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<TT
CLASS="email"
>&#60;<A
HREF="mailto:whampton[AT]staffnet.com"
>whampton[AT]staffnet.com</A
>&#62;</TT
><br>
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><H3
CLASS="author"
><A
NAME="AEN16"
></A
> Michael Opdenacker</H3
><DIV
CLASS="affiliation"
><DIV
CLASS="address"
><P
CLASS="address"
><br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<TT
CLASS="email"
>&#60;<A
HREF="mailto:michael[AT]free-electrons.com"
>michael[AT]free-electrons.com</A
>&#62;</TT
><br>
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><P
CLASS="copyright"
>Copyright &copy; 1999-2009 Werner Heuser</P
><P
CLASS="pubdate"
>0.20, 2009-09-28<BR></P
><DIV
><DIV
CLASS="abstract"
><A
NAME="AEN29"
></A
><P
></P
><P
>&#13; The Linux-Ecology-HOWTO discusses ways to make computers less harmful to
our environment and to solve some ecological issues. It explains how to
use Linux to save power and consumables like paper and ink. Since it does
not require big hardware, Linux may be used with old computers to make
their life cycle longer. Games may be used in environmental education and
software is available to simulate ecological processes.
</P
><P
></P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="legalnotice"
><A
NAME="AEN22"
></A
><P
></P
><P
>&#13;Copyright <20> 1999-2009 by Werner Heuser. This document may be
distributed under the terms set forth in the LDP license at
<A
HREF="http://tldp.org/COPYRIGHT.html"
TARGET="_top"
>COPYRIGHT</A
>.
The information in this document is correct to the best of my knowledge, but
there's a always a chance I've made some mistakes, so don't follow
everything too blindly, especially if it seems wrong. Nothing here should
have a detrimental effect on your computer, but just in case I take no
responsibility for any damages incurred from the use of the information
contained herein. All trademarks belong to their owners.
</P
><P
></P
></DIV
><HR></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="TOC"
><DL
><DT
><B
>Table of Contents</B
></DT
><DT
><A
HREF="#ecology-howto-introduction"
>Introduction</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>1. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-objectives"
>Objectives</A
></DT
><DT
>2. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-caveats"
>Caveats</A
></DT
><DT
>3. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-about"
>About the Document and the Authors</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>1. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-power-consumption"
>Reduction of Power Consumption</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>1.1. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-power-management"
>Advanced Power Management (APM/ACPI)</A
></DT
><DT
>1.2. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-pmu"
>Power Management Unit - PMU (Apple PowerBook)</A
></DT
><DT
>1.3. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-monitor"
>Turn Monitor off, use Keyboard LEDs</A
></DT
><DT
>1.4. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-screensavers"
>Screensavers</A
></DT
><DT
>1.5. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-virtualservers"
>Virtual Servers: Consolidation and Virtualization</A
></DT
><DT
>1.6. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-energystar"
>Energy Star Label</A
></DT
><DT
>1.7. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-cpu-cycles"
>Using Spare CPU Cycles</A
></DT
><DT
>1.8. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-power-savings-misc"
>Miscellaneous Power Saving Techniques</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>2. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-power-supplies"
>Alternative Power Supplies - Sun, Wind, Water</A
></DT
><DT
>3. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-noise-reduction"
>Noise Reduction</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>3.1. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-fan"
>Fan</A
></DT
><DT
>3.2. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-hdd"
>Harddisk</A
></DT
><DT
>3.3. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-speakers"
>Speakers</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>4. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-consumables"
>Saving Consumables (Paper, Ink, etc.)</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>4.1. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-printing-drafts"
>Printing of Drafts / Multiple Pages on One Sheet of Paper</A
></DT
><DT
>4.2. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-printing-doublesided"
>Double Sided Printing</A
></DT
><DT
>4.3. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-printing-monitor"
>Reading From the Monitor Instead From Paper</A
></DT
><DT
>4.4. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-printing-other-techniques"
>Other Techniques</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>5. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-convenience"
>Ecological Behaviour is Convenient</A
></DT
><DT
>6. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-recycling-consumables"
>Recycling of Consumables (Paper, Printer Cartridges, CD, Floppies, Tapes)</A
></DT
><DT
>7. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-reduction-emission"
>Reduction of Radiation, Electro Magnetic Fields, Heat</A
></DT
><DT
>8. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-lifecycle"
>Extending the Life Cycle of your Hardware</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>8.1. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-lifecyle-hardware"
>Recycling of Hardware</A
></DT
><DT
>8.2. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-lifecyle-other-techniques"
>Other Techniques</A
></DT
><DT
>8.3. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-lifecyle-badram"
>Linux BadRAM Patch</A
></DT
><DT
>8.4. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-lifecyle-older-hardware"
>Installing Linux on Older Hardware</A
></DT
><DT
>8.5. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-lifecyle-upgrading-and-repairing"
>Upgrading and Repairing Computer Hardware and Communication Devices</A
></DT
><DT
>8.6. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-lifecyle-other-os"
>Other Operating Systems</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>9. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-nonpc"
>Using Linux on non-PC Hardware</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>9.1. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-ce-devices"
>Using Consumer Electronics Devices</A
></DT
><DT
>9.2. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-embedded-boards"
>Using Embedded Linux Boards</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>10. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-home-automation"
>X10 - Home Automation System</A
></DT
><DT
>11. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-ups"
>Uninterruptible Power Supply - UPS</A
></DT
><DT
>12. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-games"
>Games</A
></DT
><DT
>13. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-software"
>Ecology Software (Simulation, Data Collection, Statistics, etc.)</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>13.1. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-software-ecolab"
>Ecolab</A
></DT
><DT
>13.2. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-software-tierra"
>Tierra</A
></DT
><DT
>13.3. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-software-environmental-research"
>Linux in Environmental Research</A
></DT
><DT
>13.4. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-software-swarm"
>SWARM</A
></DT
><DT
>13.5. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-software-climate-dynamics"
>Climate-Dynamics</A
></DT
><DT
>13.6. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-software-uncert"
>UNCERT</A
></DT
><DT
>13.7. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-software-ecotopia"
>EcoTopia</A
></DT
><DT
>13.8. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-software-digiqual"
>Digiqual</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>14. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-related-projects"
>Related Projects, Mailing Lists and Newsgroups</A
></DT
><DT
>15. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-credits"
>Credits</A
></DT
><DT
>16. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-revision-history"
>Revision History</A
></DT
><DT
>A. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-a"
>Appendix A - Linux with Laptops</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>A.1. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-comparison"
>Ecological Comparisons of Computers</A
></DT
><DT
>A.2. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-a-1"
>Battery</A
></DT
><DT
>A.3. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-a-2"
>PCMCIA Card Services and Advanced Power Management</A
></DT
><DT
>A.4. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-a-3"
>Power Saving Techniques</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>B. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-b"
>Appendix B - MP3-Hardware-Decoder at Parallel Port</A
></DT
><DT
>C. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-c"
>Appendix C - Bibliography</A
></DT
><DT
>D. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-d"
>Appendix D - Recommendations for Buying a New Computer</A
></DT
><DT
>E. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-e"
>Appendix E - A New Environmentally Friendly Hardware Design</A
></DT
><DT
>F. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-f"
>Appendix F - Computer Related Eco Labels</A
></DT
><DT
>G. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-g"
>Appendix G - Other Operating Systems</A
></DT
><DD
><DL
><DT
>G.1. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-g-1"
>DOS</A
></DT
></DL
></DD
><DT
>H. <A
HREF="#ecology-howto-appendix-h"
>Appendix H - URLs of Recyclers</A
></DT
></DL
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="preface"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-introduction"
></A
>Introduction</H1
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
WIDTH="100%"
CELLSPACING="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CLASS="EPIGRAPH"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="45%"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="45%"
ALIGN="LEFT"
VALIGN="TOP"
><I
><P
><I
>Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding is the third.</I
></P
></I
></TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="45%"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="45%"
ALIGN="RIGHT"
VALIGN="TOP"
><I
><SPAN
CLASS="attribution"
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://www.margepiercy.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Marge Piercy</A
>
</SPAN
></I
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>&#13;Though computers can be seen as part of environmental pollution, there are
also ways to use computers in a more reasonable manner to help protect the
environment. So I have just started to collect some means to do so with
Linux.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-objectives"
></A
>1. Objectives</H1
><P
>&#13;Some objectives of the HOWTO:
</P
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;Reduction in power consumption.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Reduction in consumables like paper and inks.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Reduction in waste by reusing older components or keeping them in service longer.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Reduction in toxic waste such as used batteries.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Use of Linux in environmental education and research.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-caveats"
></A
>2. Caveats</H1
><P
>&#13;Some of the recommendations in this text are discussed controversial, for instance: powering down a device, when it's not in use. This may save power, but not under all circumstances. Also it may have other additional ecological costs, e.g. the life time of the device can be shortened.
</P
><P
>&#13;I don't have enough technological knowledge to make a decision between these alternatives. Also some alternatives might be rated differently by different persons. So finally the decision what to choose is up to you. Anyway if you have better alternatives please let me know.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-about"
></A
>3. About the Document and the Authors</H1
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN76"
></A
>3.1. Miscellaneous</H2
><P
>&#13;If I didn't provide an URL for a program or a package, you may get it from
<A
HREF="http://www.debian.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Debian</A
>
or as a RPM package, from your favorite RPM server, for instance
<A
HREF="http://rpmfind.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>rpmfind</A
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;Some parts are modified chapters from my
<A
HREF="http://tuxmobil.org/howtos.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Linux-Mobile-Guide and my InfraRed-HOWTO</A
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;The document is included in the <A
HREF="http://tldp.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>LINUX DOCUMENTATION PROJECT</A
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;The latest version of this document is available at
<A
HREF="http://computerecology.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Computers and Ecology</A
> .
</P
><P
>&#13;A
<A
HREF="http://free-electrons.com/articles/linux-ecology"
TARGET="_top"
>summary presentation</A
>
about this HOWTO has been contributed by Michael Opdenacker from
<A
HREF="http://free-electrons.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Free Electrons</A
>,
which also has made many contributions to this document itself.
</P
><P
>&#13;Since Wade Hampton provided a great amount of information included into this text I consider him as a co-author. Though all responsibility for any mistakes is taken by me.
</P
><P
>&#13;Please feel free to contact me for comments or questions about the HOWTO. I know this material is not finished or perfect, but I hope you find it useful anyway.
</P
><P
>&#13;Werner Heuser &#60;wehe[AT]tuxmobil.org&#62;
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN93"
></A
>3.2. Translations</H2
><P
>&#13;Jun Morimoto &#60;morimoto at xantia.citroen.org&#62; has written the <A
HREF="http://www.linux.or.jp/JF/JFdocs/Ecology-HOWTO.html"
TARGET="_top"
>translation into Japanese</A
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;A translation into Chinese(Big5 code) is proposed by Richie Gan. It is part of the <A
HREF="http://www.linux.org.tw/CLDP/"
TARGET="_top"
>Chinese Linux Document Project</A
>. You may contact CLDP coordinator &#60;cwhuang at linux.org.tw&#62; to reach him.
</P
><P
>&#13;Victor Solymossy &#60;victor at lig.dq.ufscar.br&#62; proposed a translation into Portuguese.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-power-consumption"
></A
>Chapter 1. Reduction of Power Consumption</H1
><P
>&#13;There are some means to save power when using a computer which are supported by Linux: Advanced Power Management, certain harddisk settings, working without monitor and others.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-power-management"
></A
>1.1. Advanced Power Management (APM/ACPI)</H1
><P
>&#13;Putting your GNU/Linux PC in suspend or hibernate mode.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN106"
></A
>1.1.1. ACPI</H2
><P
>&#13;Most modern PCs support the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) standard.
The <A
HREF="http://acpi.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>ACPI4Linux</A
> project works on
implementing full ACPI support in the Linux kernel, including fan control, dock/undock detection.
</P
><P
>&#13;All ACPI related information (such as processor or board temperature) is available through files
in <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/proc/acpi</TT
>. For example, this makes it very easy for desktop environments
(or for your own programs) to display to temperature information somewhere on your screen.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN112"
></A
>1.1.1.1. Hibernate to disk</H3
><P
>&#13;Use hibernate to disk and no longer be afraid
of switching off your system. Booting is much faster
than having to wait for services and graphics
to start up. Actually, most of the time is saved by getting back to your work
as you left it before suspending your computer (open files, terminals, browser windows).
There is no need to re-open everything!
</P
><P
>&#13;While hibernating is often considered as a power saving solution
for notebook computers, it should also be used for desktop computers,
to save AC power. Use it when you go for lunch, when you leave the office
in the evening or for holidays...
</P
><P
>&#13;Hibernating also saves a lot of time when you replace a battery of a notebook.
Again, hibernate, install a fresh battery, power up and get back to your
work as you left it off.
</P
><P
>&#13;Technical details
</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;Hibernation to disk is implemented by the
<A
HREF="http://www.suspend2.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>Suspend 2 for Linux</A
> project.
It consists of a kernel driver and a user-space program to control the driver.
Users just need to run the program (usually called <B
CLASS="command"
>hibernate</B
>).
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;It works by copying the whole of used RAM to a swap partition.
As a consequence, it requires the swap partition to be at least as
big as the amount of RAM.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Both the patched kernel and the user-space program are very
easy to install through packages.
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13; Here are
<A
HREF="http://mhensler.de/swsusp/"
TARGET="_top"
>Fedora Core packages</A
>
for download.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; At least in the 6.06 release of (K)Ubuntu,
hibernating is directly available as an option from the battery icon.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; Go to your favorite package source for other distributions
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></LI
></UL
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN135"
></A
>1.1.2. Older hardware with APM</H2
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN137"
></A
>1.1.2.1. Linux Compatibility Check</H3
><P
>&#13;From the
<A
HREF="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Battery-Powered/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Battery Powered Linux Mini-HOWTO</A
>
" .. for APM to work on any notebook or energy-conscious desktop, the system BIOS ROM in the machine must support the APM standard. Furthermore, for APM to work with the Linux operating system, the system BIOS ROM must support either the 1.0 or 1.1 version of the APM standard, and it must also support 32-bit protected mode connections. A system that supports APM 1.1 is preferred, as it provides more features that the device driver and supporting utilities can take advantage of."
You may get information about the APM version with the <B
CLASS="command"
>dmesg</B
> command and in the <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/proc/apm</TT
> file.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN143"
></A
>1.1.2.2. Introduction</H3
><P
>&#13;When you first install Linux, you will probably have to recompile the kernel. The kernel that came with your distribution probably does not have APM enabled.
</P
><P
>&#13;APM support consists of two parts: <B
CLASS="command"
>kernel</B
> support and <B
CLASS="command"
>user-land</B
> support.
</P
><P
>&#13;For <B
CLASS="command"
>kernel</B
> support, enable the parameters in the corresponding kernel section. AFAIK not all features work with laptops. AFAIK the feature <B
CLASS="command"
>CONFIG_APM_POWER_OFF</B
> works with most laptops.
</P
><P
>&#13;The utilities for <B
CLASS="command"
>userland</B
> support may be found at <A
HREF="http://www.worldvisions.ca/~apenwarr/apmd/"
TARGET="_top"
>WorldVisions</A
>. APMD is a set of programs that control the Advanced Power Management system found in most modern laptop computers. If you run a 2.2.x kernel and want to experiment, Gabor Kuti &#60;seasons at falcon.sch.bme.hu&#62; has made a kernel patch that allows you to <B
CLASS="command"
>hibernate</B
> any Linux system to disk, even if your computers APM BIOS doesn't support it directly.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN156"
></A
>1.1.2.3. Caveats</H3
><P
>&#13;If you have another operating system preinstalled or use another operating system at the same disk, make sure there is no "hibernation" or "suspend" tool installed, which could severely interfere with Linux, e.g. it might use disk space which is occupied by Linux or vice versa.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN159"
></A
>1.1.2.4. Troubleshooting</H3
><P
>&#13;Sometimes X windows and APM don't work smoothly together, the machine might even hang. A recommendation from Steve Rader: Some Linux systems have their X server hang when doing <B
CLASS="command"
>apm -s</B
>. Folks with this affliction might want switch to the console virtual terminal then suspend <B
CLASS="command"
>chvt 1; apm -s</B
> as root, or, more appropriately, <B
CLASS="command"
>sudo chvt 1; sudo apm -s</B
>. I have these commands in a script, say, <B
CLASS="command"
>my-suspend</B
> and then do <B
CLASS="command"
>xapmload --click-command my-suspend</B
> .
</P
><P
>&#13;On some new machines (for instance HP Omnibook 4150 - 366 MHz model) when accessing <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/proc/apm</TT
>, you may get a kernel fault <B
CLASS="command"
>general protection fault: f000</B
>. <A
HREF="http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~sfr/"
TARGET="_top"
>Stephen Rothwell</A
> explains: "This is your APM BIOS attempting to use a real mode segment while in protected mode, i.e. it is a bug in your BIOS. .. We have seen a few of these recently, except all the others are in the power off code in the BIOS wher we can work around it by returning to real mode before attempting to power off. Here we cannot do this."
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-cpufreq"
></A
>1.1.3. Processor frequency scaling</H2
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>cpufreq</B
> is a Linux kernel driver to control the CPU frequency.
It is included in all recent kernels and enabled by default by recent distributions.
It supports most recent "mobile" processors. Note that only such
processors support frequency scaling.
</P
><P
>&#13;This driver lets user programs control cpu frequency
by writing files in
<TT
CLASS="filename"
>/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu&#60;n&#62;/cpufreq/</TT
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;Actually, frequency scaling is usually handled by
a <EM
>governor</EM
> program, according
to system or user specific preferences.
</P
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://carlthompson.net/Software/CPUSpeed"
TARGET="_top"
>CPUSpeed
</A
>is the de-facto governor for Linux.
It allows to control the <B
CLASS="command"
>cpufreq</B
> driver
according to user defined criteria: CPU load, board temperature, battery / plugged in...
It is released by default in recent distributions.
</P
><P
>&#13;CPUspeed is usually configured through the <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/etc/cpuspeed.conf</TT
> file
(Fedora Core 4 example):
</P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
><FONT
COLOR="#000000"
><PRE
CLASS="programlisting"
>&#13;VMAJOR=1
VMINOR=1
DRIVER="speedstep-centrino"
OPTS="-i 2
-t /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM/temperature 70
-a /proc/acpi/ac_adapter/AC/state
-p 10 25
-m 600000 -M 1600000"
</PRE
></FONT
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>&#13;After making changes, you can restart CPUspeed with
<B
CLASS="command"
>/etc/init.d/cpuspeed restart</B
> (Fedora Core example).
</P
><P
>&#13;Type <B
CLASS="command"
>/usr/sbin/cpuspeed -h</B
> for details and more options.
</P
><P
>&#13;You can type <B
CLASS="command"
>cat /proc/cpuinfo</B
>
to consult the current processor speed. That's useful
to check that the processor speed is scaled according
to your settings.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-pm-resources"
></A
>1.1.4. Useful Resources for Power Management</H2
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://hdparm.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>hdparm</A
>
- <B
CLASS="command"
>hdparm</B
> is a Linux IDE disk utility that lets you set
spin-down timeouts and other disk parameters. It works also for some SCSI features.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsamwel/laptop_mode/"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>Laptop Mode</B
></A
>
- A feature implemented in the Linux kernel since the 2.6.6 version.
The idea is to spin up the hard disk only when reading uncached data,
to delay and group disk writes, in order to reduce hard disk power consumption
and save battery life. Control scripts are shipped by default by recent
distributions.
</P
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>Laptop Mode</B
> may not be activated by default by distributions,
as it is not recommended for servers and laptops running on AC power,
because of the risk to loose data in a crash or sudden power off.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://muru.com/linux/dyntick/"
TARGET="_top"
>Dynamic Tick</A
>
is available since kernel 2.6.21 and later.
When enabled, this kernel feature allows to disable the
CPU timer interrupts when all processors are idle.
This way, idle systems are not woken up every 4 ms
(default setting in Linux 2.6) just to realize there is nothing to do!
This can save a little bit of power in notebooks
(and CPU cycles in virtual hosting servers).
Regular timer interrupts are re-enabled when something
really happens, when a real hardware interrupt is received.
In kernel configuration, this feature can be selected
from the <B
CLASS="command"
>Kernel Features</B
>
section (<B
CLASS="command"
>NO_IDLE_HZ</B
> setting).
You can verify whether it is enabled with
<B
CLASS="command"
>cat /boot/config-$(uname -r) | grep CONFIG_NO_HZ</B
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/ulrich/linux/tips.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Mobile Update Daemon</A
>
is a drop-in replacement for the standard <B
CLASS="command"
>update</B
> daemon, <B
CLASS="command"
>mobile-update</B
> minimizes disk spin ups and reduces disk uptime. It flushes buffers only when other disk activity is present. To ensure a consistent file system call <B
CLASS="command"
>sync</B
> manually. Otherwise files may be lost on power failure. <B
CLASS="command"
>mobile-update</B
> does not use APM. So it works also on older systems.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;The <B
CLASS="command"
>noatime</B
> and <B
CLASS="command"
>nodiratime</B
>
mount options can be used to reduce disk writings.
In operating systems like Linux which comply with the POSIX standard,
filesystems are supposed to record the last time files are read.
With default kernel settings, even if files are read from the file
cache in RAM, this causes time data to be written to disk every
5 seconds. You may use a line like this
<B
CLASS="command"
>/dev/hda3 /data ext3 defaults,noatime,nodiratime, 1 2</B
> for example
in <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/etc/fstab</TT
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;To avoid this and reduce disk activity, you can add the <B
CLASS="command"
>noatime</B
>
mount option to lines in the <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/etc/fstab</TT
> file.
</P
><P
>&#13;This option doesn't have any known or significant impact on regular programs,
except perhaps for backup / archiving software for which file access time information
is useful.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.buzzard.me.uk/toshiba/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Toshiba Linux Utilities</A
>
- This is a set of Linux utilities for controlling the fan, supervisor passwords, and hot key functions of Toshiba Pentium notebooks. There is a KDE package <B
CLASS="command"
>Klibreta</B
>, too.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>LCDproc</A
>
- "LCDproc is a small piece of software that will enable your Linux box
to display live system information on a LCD display. It
supports a lot of serial and parallel LCDs.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/diald/"
TARGET="_top"
>Dial Daemon</A
>
- The Diald daemon provides on demand Internet connectivity using the SLIP or PPP protocols. Diald can automatically dial in to a remote host when needed or bring down dial-up connections that are inactive.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Getting your computer to use the least amount of power can be problematic.
Intel's
<A
HREF="http://www.linuxpowertop.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://www.linuxpowertop.org/</A
> project provides information on reducing power usage, tips, and tricks for Intel-based computers running Linux.
As a first step, Intel has released PowerTOP, a tool that helps you find what
software is using the most power. By fixing (or closing) these applications or
processes, you can immediately see the power savings in the tool. You'll also
see the estimated time left for battery power if you are running a laptop. The
Tips &#38; Tricks page has fixes for a lot of the issues that are already found.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-restoring"
></A
>1.1.5. Restoring your Work after Shutdown</H2
><P
>&#13;Even if you don't use hibernate or suspend and
switch off your system in a standard way, you still
have ways of saving time getting back to your work.
</P
><P
>&#13;Modern graphical environments (KDE or Gnome)
restart the applications that were open when you logged out.
However, most applications just get back to their initial state
and you will probably need to open your files again.
</P
><P
>&#13;For people who do not want to loose the HTML pages
they were browsing, the <A
HREF="http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;Mozilla Firefox browser</A
> as a nice <B
CLASS="command"
>Bookmark All Tabs...</B
>
command in the <B
CLASS="command"
>Bookmarks</B
> menu.
This is very convenient to restore a set of tabs
or just to start your browser with all your favorite information
sites when you arrive in the morning.
Firefox v3 can save the current state of the browser and will
restore it upon powerup.
</P
><P
>&#13;So, unless your computer is really computing something,
you have less excuses for keeping it on!
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-pmu"
></A
>1.2. Power Management Unit - PMU (Apple PowerBook)</H1
><P
>&#13;PowerBooks don't support the APM specification, but they have a separate protocol for their PMU (Power Management Unit). There is a free (GPL) daemon called <B
CLASS="command"
>pmud</B
> that handles power management; it can monitor the battery level, put the machine to sleep, and set different levels of power consumption. It was written by Stephan Leemburg &#60;stephan at jvc.nl&#62;, and is available from PPC distribution FTP sites. There is also an older utility called <B
CLASS="command"
>snooze</B
> available from the same sites that just puts the PowerBook to sleep.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-monitor"
></A
>1.3. Turn Monitor off, use Keyboard LEDs</H1
><P
>&#13;There are some tools which allow to get information from your computer without using the monitor:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>bl</B
> : Blink Keyboard LEDs
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
<B
CLASS="command"
>blinkd</B
> : "Blinks keyboard LEDs for an answering
machine or fax machine. Blinkd is a client/server pair, that lets the
keyboard LEDs blink, indicating things like the number of incoming voice
calls in the voice box or incoming faxes in the spool."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
<B
CLASS="command"
>mailleds</B
> : Shows new mails with the keyboard LEDs,
<B
CLASS="command"
>mailleds</B
> is a quiet, unobtrusive way to signify that
you have new mail: a user daemon to blink LEDs when there is new mail.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
<B
CLASS="command"
>tleds</B
> : Blinks keyboard LEDs indicating TX and RX network
packets. They blink Scroll-Lock LED when a network packet leaves the
machine, and Num-Lock LED when one is received.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.iki.fi/sampo.niskanen/ledcontrol/"
TARGET="_top"
>ledcontrol</A
>:
is a program that allows you to show different information on the
normally-unused LEDs on your keyboard. You can configure it to show virtually
any true/false condition accessible or indicate an arbitrary number. The
monitoring is by default done by shell scripts to allow for maximal
configurability.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-screensavers"
></A
>1.4. Screensavers</H1
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-screensaver-progs"
></A
>1.4.1. Screensaver Programs</H2
><P
>&#13;Do they only prevent the screen from being burned in or do they save power, too?
</P
><P
>&#13;Some recommendations from Wade Hampton:
Screensavers usually display graphics, look for ETI, or perform other tasks. When using your screensaver in this manner, you may actually consume MORE power. For example a computer using XSETI as a screensaver might get far warmer (hence use more power) than when it was being used to edit a document or perform a compile.
</P
><P
>&#13;Some screen saver programs:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;The purpose of <B
CLASS="command"
>xscreensaver</B
> is to display pretty pictures
on your screen when it is not in use, in keeping with the philosophy that
unattended monitors should always be doing something interesting, just like
they do in the movies. The benefit that this program has over the
combination of the <B
CLASS="command"
>xlock</B
> and
<B
CLASS="command"
>xautolock</B
> programs is the ease with which new graphics
hacks can be installed: you don't need to recompile this program to add a
new display mode, you just change some resource settings. Any program which
can be invoked in such a way that it draws on the root window of the screen
can now be used as a screensaver without modification. The programs that
are being run as screensavers don't need to have any special knowledge about
what it means to be a screensaver.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>LockVC</B
> is a console-locking-program combined with a
starfield screensaver. Executing LOCKVC on a virtual console brings up a
starfield that starts to rotate around all three axes.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-display-power"
></A
>1.4.2. Display Power Control</H2
><P
>&#13;To really save power, and if your X server plus monitor supports it, use the <B
CLASS="command"
>dpms</B
> option of <B
CLASS="command"
>xset</B
> (see the manual page for <B
CLASS="command"
>xset</B
>). For example, to enable the DPMS (Energy Star) features of you X server: <B
CLASS="command"
>xset +dpms</B
>
</P
><P
>&#13;You may also manually change the mode of your X display:
</P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
><FONT
COLOR="#000000"
><PRE
CLASS="programlisting"
>&#13;xset dpms force standby
xset dpms force suspend
xset dpms force off
</PRE
></FONT
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>&#13;Note that <B
CLASS="command"
>suspend</B
> and <B
CLASS="command"
>off</B
> usually save much more energy than just <B
CLASS="command"
>standby</B
>,
especially in CRT displays.
</P
><P
>&#13;According to manufacturers, switching off LCD displays more often doesn't
reduce their lifetime. As user can easily notice, there is no significant penalty
either between suspend and off modes in terms of switching on time.
</P
><P
>&#13;In modern graphical desktop environments (like Gnome and KDE),
it is easy to configure automatic display switch off after a given
inactivity timeout:
</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;KDE display power management: configure it in
<B
CLASS="command"
>Control Center -&#62; Peripherals -&#62; Display -&#62; Power Control</B
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Gnome display power management: configure it in
<B
CLASS="command"
>Desktop -&#62; Preferences -&#62; Screensaver -&#62; AdvancedControl Center -&#62; Peripherals -&#62; Display -&#62; Power Control</B
>.
</P
></LI
></UL
><P
>&#13;AFAIK a CRT consumes on the order of 25 percent more power when displaying a <B
CLASS="command"
>plain white</B
> screen than displaying a <B
CLASS="command"
>plain black</B
> screen. So, a screensaver that's mostly black can help save power, even if it doesn't actually use DPMS to power down the screen. Of course, one that's very bright and colourful, or that keeps the CPU running fast is not much help.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-virtualservers"
></A
>1.5. Virtual Servers: Consolidation and Virtualization</H1
><P
>&#13;On enterprise networks, or on the Internet, security constraints may require
that different services are run on different, isolated servers.
The problem with this one server per service approach
is that most spend a lot of idle time waiting for some rare activity bursts.
</P
><P
>&#13;Several technologies now make it possible to run several GNU/Linux servers
inside a real, physical GNU/Linux server. As in physical servers, each virtual server
is isolated from the others. So, this approach retains the benefits of
separate servers, but makes it possible to share some hardware resources
like the CPU and network bandwidth. On the other hand, each virtual server
enjoys a reserved amount of RAM and disk space.
</P
><P
>&#13;The benefits of virtual servers are obvious in terms of cost, power consumption,
optimum use of hardware resources, and consumption of computer materials.
There is another key advantage for hardware maintenance: virtuals servers
can very easily and transparently be migrated from one physical server to another.
</P
><P
>&#13;Virtualization solutions:
</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://user-mode-linux.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>User Mode Linux</A
>
- The original solution. Allows to run one or several Linux kernel executables
on a Linux machine (with a standard kernel) as regular programs.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xen/"
TARGET="_top"
>Xen</A
>
- An increasingly popular alternative, with very little performance overhead.
Also allows live server migration to other hardware. Requires a patched Linux kernel.
</P
></LI
></UL
><P
>&#13;Virtuals servers all already very popular solutions for website hosting,
but virtualization still has a very strong potential in corporate networks.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-energystar"
></A
>1.6. Energy Star Label</H1
><P
>&#13;Robert Horn &#60;rjh at world.std.com&#62; wrote: "
</P
><P
>&#13;I had a chance to discuss Energy Star with the designers of desktop printers. They confirmed that the allowable stand-by power targets depend on the device, and they only knew their targets. But they made some other interesting comments:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;Energy Star ratings lead to significant operational power savings. Timer based power savings are the exception. Most savings come from designing in power on demand with low leakage drivers. For example, using stepper motors with low leakage current instead of high leakage.
</P
><P
>&#13;This savings is both from individual designs and from the resulting demand for low leakage products causing better and cheaper low leakage product designs. The old-style (e.g. typewriter) design with one motor (always on) and various clutches is no longer the least cost.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Energy Star was good organizational engineering. It never required designers to compromise quality or performance, which made it much harder to argue against design changes to reduce power consumption while idle. Since most of the savings begin the millisecond that parts stop moving, these savings are considerable.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;The power ratings on PC's are a safety rating, not a usage rating. So the 235W and 300W power supplies that commonly found in PCs are specifying their safety limits. Actual full power usage is much less, typically 20-30 percent of the safe limit. The designers also noted that it is actually difficult to measure the power consumption of a switching power supply. You need to use specially designed power meters. The regular AC meters are designed for motors, and are rather inaccurate for switching power supplies.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-cpu-cycles"
></A
>1.7. Using Spare CPU Cycles</H1
><P
>&#13;Some Linux applications use idle time in computers to cure diseases,
study global warming, or any other scientific research.
They run as a
low-priority process (nice 20), so you can work without noticing
that it's doing its task. Another use is for people who use P2P
software and leave the PC turned on for long hours unattended, all
that time the PC can be using the electricity it is consuming for
a practical purpose:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://boinc.berkeley.edu/"
TARGET="_top"
>BOINC</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://distributed.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>Distributed.net</A
>
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-power-savings-misc"
></A
>1.8. Miscellaneous Power Saving Techniques</H1
><P
>&#13;Linux halts the CPU in the idle cycle to further reduce power consumption. Early reports of OS/2, Win3.1/95, NT, and Linux showed Linux to use far less power than DOS-based O/S's that spun in the idle loop and consumed power -- this may have changed hence it would need research to validate.
</P
><P
>&#13;Most Linux-users tend to leave their computer on for years whenever
possible. However, several modern BIOS's support an unattended powerup, and
with <B
CLASS="command"
>cron</B
> you can even do an unattended
<B
CLASS="command"
>shutdown</B
>. No need to leave the computer on night after
night. Other techniques to powerup your computer at certain times
are: ACPI-Wakeup, NVRAM-wakeup and the <B
CLASS="command"
>settime</B
> command.
Computers can even be power up on request remotely by means of
Wake-on-LAN using a network connection or Wake-on-Ring using an
old fashioned serial interface and a modem.
</P
><P
>&#13;Beware of animated web pages! Web pages containing Flash, Java,
or just animated images can consume a lot of CPU.
When you leave your computer and keep it on,
make sure you close all browser pages with animations.
Otherwise, your PC may be left running at full speed while you are not using it.
</P
><P
>&#13;To disable animated images in Mozilla Firefox
go to <A
HREF="about:config"
TARGET="_top"
>about:config</A
>,
find <B
CLASS="command"
>image.animation_mode</B
> and change its value
to <B
CLASS="command"
>none</B
> or <B
CLASS="command"
>once</B
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;Do not forget to switch off your DSL modem / wireless router / ISP box / printers
at night or during vacations if you don't use them.
These devices consume quite a lot (typically 15W).
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-power-supplies"
></A
>Chapter 2. Alternative Power Supplies - Sun, Wind, Water</H1
><P
>&#13;See a survey of links at <A
HREF="http://www.cirkits.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Eklektix</A
> .
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-noise-reduction"
></A
>Chapter 3. Noise Reduction</H1
><P
>&#13;Most of the noise emitted by a computer is produced by the fan, the harddisk and the speakers.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-fan"
></A
>3.1. Fan</H1
><P
>&#13;<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>libsensors0</B
> is a library to read temperature/voltage/fan sensors
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.lm-sensors.nu/"
TARGET="_top"
>lm-sensors</A
>:
"Kernel drivers to read
temperature/voltage/fan sensors. This is a module for reading the
temperature/voltage/fan sensors in Linux via the LM78/79 chip and
possibly sensors on the SMBus (System Management Bus, usually found in
P6 and P-II systems). The LM80 and a LM78-clone called W83781D are
also supported."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
ACPI, see APM chapter
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://www.tinet.org/~com.ea/rtsensors/"
TARGET="_top"
>RTSensors</A
>
can be configured by the user as an expert controller: The user can
specify the max/min speed of the system fans, the maximum affordable
temperature and so on. The controller tries to reduce fan speed to reduce
noise while the temperature is in a safe range chosen by the user. So fan
speed is modified automatically by the control algorithm, you don't have to use
those mechanic or thermal regulators on your fans anymore.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-hdd"
></A
>3.2. Harddisk</H1
><P
>&#13; To avoid unneccessary hard disk noise you may use the same
techniques as described in the power saving chapter.
Hard disks in most laptops are the primary source of noise.
Modern laptop and notebook hard drives come with a so-called
"Acoustic Management", just have a look into the manual
to get an overview about the possible settings.
</P
><P
>&#13; The noise of the hard disk can be very disturbing, see
<B
CLASS="command"
>man hdparm</B
> to reduce the spin of the disk.
</P
><P
>&#13; Some hard disk manufacturers offer dedicated tools, e.g.
Hitachi's
<A
HREF="http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm"
TARGET="_top"
>Feature Tool</A
>
allows to change the drive Automatic Acoustic Management settings to the
Lowest acoustic emanation setting (Quiet Seek Mode), or
Maximum performance level (Normal Seek Mode).
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-speakers"
></A
>3.3. Speakers</H1
><P
>&#13;For the console <B
CLASS="command"
>setterm -blength 0</B
> and for X <B
CLASS="command"
>xset b off</B
> turns the bell off. See also PCMCIA-HOWTO, and much more details in the <A
HREF="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Visual-Bell.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Visible-Bell-mini-Howto</A
> by Alessandro Rubini.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-consumables"
></A
>Chapter 4. Saving Consumables (Paper, Ink, etc.)</H1
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-printing-drafts"
></A
>4.1. Printing of Drafts / Multiple Pages on One Sheet of Paper</H1
><P
>&#13;Use <B
CLASS="command"
>psutils</B
> package to put more than one page on one sheet of paper. This collection of utilities is for manipulating PostScript documents. Page selection and rearrangement are supported, including arrangement into signatures for booklet printing, and page merging for n-up printing.
</P
><P
>&#13;For example, to create a PostScript document with 4 pages per sheet:
</P
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>psnup -nup 4 doc.ps &#62; doc4p.ps</B
>
</P
><P
>&#13;Often HTML pages are not optimised for printing. You may use <B
CLASS="command"
>html2ps</B
>, a HTML to PostScript converter, to print HTML pages. "This program converts HTML directly to PostScript. The HTML code can be retrieved from one or more URLs or local files, specified as parameters on the command line. A comprehensive level of HTML is supported, including inline images, CSS1, and some features of HTML 4.0."
</P
><P
>&#13;Or you may use <B
CLASS="command"
>mpage</B
> to print 2 up or 4 up (PS documents or ASCII text). This may be used to save up to 50 percent or more of your paper.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-printing-doublesided"
></A
>4.2. Double Sided Printing</H1
><P
>&#13;One important way to save paper is to print on both sides of the paper. Depending on the printer capabilities, this can either be done manually (printing odd and even pages in 2 passes), or by instructing the printer to use both sides.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-printing-doublesided-printercontrol"
></A
>4.2.1. Printer control</H2
><P
>&#13;If your GNU/Linux distribution is using the CUPS printing system (as most do nowadays), you can configure double sided printing through the CUPS administration interface. Open the <A
HREF="http://localhost:631"
TARGET="_top"
>http://localhost:631</A
> URL with a browser, type your root password if required, and configure any local printier supporting double sided printing. This applies by default to all future print jobs.
</P
><P
>&#13;Print settings can also be changed on a job by job basis too. In particular, KDE and Gnome let applications select and configure printers for each print job.
</P
><P
>&#13;If you are printing from the command line, you can use the <A
HREF="http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~selinger/lpr-wrapper/"
TARGET="_top"
>lpr-wrapper</A
> to insert printer control instructions to PostScript files at print time. Example:
</P
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>lpr-wrapper -od doc.ps</B
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-printing-doublesided-manual"
></A
>4.2.2. Manual printing</H2
><P
>&#13;If double sided printing is not supported by your printer, you can also achieve this by printing odd/even (or right/left) pages separately. Many graphical applications like OpenOffice.org let you do that.
</P
><P
>&#13;If you print from the command line, you can also do this with <A
HREF="http://www.mesa.nl/pub/mpage"
TARGET="_top"
>mpage</A
>. From the manual page:
</P
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>-jfirst[-last][%interval]</B
>
</P
><P
>&#13;Print just the selected sheets, specified by number, starting at 1. Here last defaults to the end of data, interval to 1. Thus -j1-10 selects the first 10 sheets, while -j 1%2 prints just the odd- numbered sheets and -j 2%2 prints just the even ones.
</P
><P
>&#13;You can do double-sided printing, in two passes, as follows. If you use 3-hole punched paper, put it in the printer such that the holes will appear at the top of the page -- on the right as you pull out the printer tray, in our Laser writer II NTX. Print the odd-numbered sheets with
</P
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>-j 1%2 ...</B
>
</P
><P
>&#13;Note the number of pages it reports. (Only half this many will really be printed). When printing finishes, if mpage reported an odd number of pages, remove the last one from the stack, since there will be no even-numbered sheet to match it. Then arrange the stack of paper for printing on the other side. (If it's punched, the holes will now be on the left.) On our II NTX, the paper comes out blank-side up; replace it in the tray still blank-side up but rotated 180 degrees. For other printers, you figure it out. Now print the even- numbered sheets in reverse order with
</P
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>-r -j 2%2 ...</B
>
</P
><P
>&#13;Hoping no one else reaches the printer before you do.
</P
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="https://sourceforge.net/projects/duplexpr/"
TARGET="_top"
>Duplex</A
>
is a set of sh scripts that emulates duplex printing (on
both sides of the paper) for sheet-fed printers that do not support
duplex printing in hardware. It is intended for use on printers connected
to workstations. It can operate as a pipe so that applications can use it
as a duplex printing driver. Its unique feature is its ability to print
to print many duplex print jobs in one batch, printing the odd sides of
all jobs and then the even sides in just two passes.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-printing-monitor"
></A
>4.3. Reading From the Monitor Instead From Paper</H1
><P
>&#13;Or use <B
CLASS="command"
>less</B
>/<B
CLASS="command"
>xless</B
>/<B
CLASS="command"
>gless</B
> as a viewer instead of printing. You can view PostScript documents with <B
CLASS="command"
>gs</B
> and view PDF documents with either <B
CLASS="command"
>xpdf</B
> or <B
CLASS="command"
>acroread</B
> (from <A
HREF="http://www.adobe.com"
TARGET="_top"
>Adobe</A
>). Ask yourself, do you --really-- need a hardcopy each time you decide to print something out.
</P
><P
>&#13;For your own documents, a good idea is to create them in landscape mode, making them easier to read
without having to scroll up and down. Otherwise, readers may find reading from the screen
inconvenient and may then prefer printing. See PDF editions of the free
<A
HREF="http://www.tuxmagazine.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Tux Magazine</A
> for a nice examples.
</P
><P
>&#13;What are the reasons why people don't read from the monitor:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;Reading is slower up to 30 percent, see <A
HREF="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9602.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Jakob Nielsen: In Defense of Print</A
>. The speed can be improved by better hardware (e.g. TFT display, greater screen, though this is against the other below to take smaller CRTs) and better display software and fonts (type-1, t1lib, truetype, freetype).
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
Paper seems better organizable and more secure to some people. I suppose this can be treated by better software (e.g. Linux) and hardware, too.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
><P
>&#13; Some people use handheld PC (e.g. PalmIII, Newton Message Pad, Psion 5) to
carry around documents to read rather than printing them out. At TuxMobil
you may get information about
<A
HREF="http://tuxmobil.org/pda_linux.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Linux compatibility for handheld PCs and PDAs</A
>.
Or they take eBook readers to read "Electronic Paper". At TuxMobil there is
a section about
<A
HREF="http://tuxmobil.org/ebook.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Linux compatibility for eBook readers</A
>, too.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-printing-other-techniques"
></A
>4.4. Other Techniques</H1
><P
>&#13;Another means of saving paper is through the use of comments and redline/strikeout markings when exchanging a document with a co-worker/colaborator. For example, a draft could be written using WordPerfect, then E-MAILed to a co-worker. They could update the draft and send it back to you. You can use WordPerfect's redline/strikeout features to see the changes. The document need not be printed until it is "final" or in "final draft" status.
</P
><P
>&#13;Question: Can you use the back side of paper in a laser printer? I have not had much luck. You can use the paper that has been in a laser printer in an inkjet printer by using the other side.
</P
><P
>&#13;You should purchase smaller computers and monitors when possible. This will save packaging material translating into less solid waste. For example the box for a 15" CRT monitor is 2-3 times the size of the box for a 15" LCD monitor. Linux works well with 15" LCD monitors on smaller computers like the Netwinder or <A
HREF="http://www.thinworks.com/campaign/try_e3000.html"
TARGET="_top"
>E3000</A
> .
</P
><P
>&#13;Tough smaller monitors may have another ecological caveat: because it's inconvenient to browse to longer documents, people may tend to print the documents instead of reading them from the screen.
</P
><P
>&#13;Some have expressed the concern that LCD displays may use more toxic materials and manufacturing processes than CRT displays, hence their usage actually may be worse on the environment. The original information above concerned the solid waste issue, which is fairly tangible and hence more controllable.
</P
><P
>&#13;Does anyone know of studies or additional research to help clarify and resolve this issue?
</P
><P
>&#13;Recycle your used paper, ink, and packing materials.
</P
><P
>&#13;You may use refillable printer cartridges. In Germany the are marked with the <B
CLASS="command"
>Blauer Engel</B
> label.
</P
><P
>&#13;Laser printer cartridges can often be used much more longer if you shake them when the message <B
CLASS="command"
>toner low</B
> appears at the message panel.
</P
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;LaTeX documents:
Using <B
CLASS="command"
>\usepackage{ccfonts}</B
> replaces the usual fonts by ones with wider lines and bolder serifes, improving readability at low resolutions. They are darker (i.e. use more ink) than the CM fonts and not as beautiful, so I would not recommend them for normal-size printings.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Size-Reduction:
Instead of <B
CLASS="command"
>psnup</B
> or other parts of the <B
CLASS="command"
>pstools</B
> check for enhanced Perl rewritings of <B
CLASS="command"
>psnup</B
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;It has a lot of options, which allow to set all 4 margins and the inner gutter separately. Since reduced documents are not very pretty anyway, this can be used to reduce the margin, leaving more place for the text. This probably requires some experimenting (trying new values over and over, checking the result with <B
CLASS="command"
>ghostview</B
>).
</P
><P
>&#13;The normally used options are:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>-p2</B
> (or <B
CLASS="command"
>-p4</B
> etc., like <B
CLASS="command"
>-2</B
> in the old <B
CLASS="command"
>psnup</B
>)
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>-NIH</B
> (don't decorate)
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>-l10</B
> <B
CLASS="command"
>-r20</B
> <B
CLASS="command"
>-b30</B
> <B
CLASS="command"
>-t40</B
> (add to margins)
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>-g50</B
> (add to gutter)
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
><P
>&#13;(these values vary depending on the papersize and the margins of the original, negative values are allowed).
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://go.warwick.ac.uk/pdfjam"
TARGET="_top"
>PDFjam</A
>
is a small collection of shell scripts that provide a
simple interface to some of the functionality of the pdfpages package for
pdfLaTeX. At present, the utilities available are pdfnup, pdfjoin, and
pdf90. PDFjam depends on a working installation of (pdf)LaTeX. pdfnup puts
multiple document pages together on one physical page at a reduced size.
pdfjoin concatenates multiple PDF documents. pdf90 rotates the pages of
PDF documents. For Mac OS X, some example applications (droplets) are
provided for drag-and-drop access to the scripts.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Different ink printers are more or less capable to print on the
backside of already used paper sheets. That's particularly
useful to reuse all single sided paper sheets you receive
for free every week! Try different manufacturers.
Older Canon ink printers offer 360 dpi, older HP ink printers 300
dpi. The readability of 4 pages/sheet using LaTex 10pt lies in
between this features.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Non-Linux:
If you have to work with MS-Windows you should get the original
Adobe-PostScript-Driver, instead of using the ones from
MS-Windows. These drivers offer more than one page per paper
sheet. AFAIK both <B
CLASS="command"
>psnup</B
> programs don't work
with Adobe-PS, MS-Windows-PS and the PostScript extracted from
MS-Windows-PDF files. The Computer-Modern-Fonts (without German
diacritical characters) are available as TTF fonts on the CTAN
servers. With these fonts you may enhance the aesthetical value of
documents and save some paper space, too.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
Ghostscript has a new output format <B
CLASS="command"
>pswrite</B
>,
which creates output in correct PostScript. This feature can be
used to repair broken PostScript e.g. from Microsoft drivers,
allowing their postprocessing with <B
CLASS="command"
>psnup</B
> etc.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://imagic.weizmann.ac.il/~dov/freesw/impose+/"
TARGET="_top"
>impose+</A
>
is a set of PostScript utilities. The main program is impose,
which is used for two-up printing of DSC-compliant PostScript
(including that from Netscape, dvips, and FrameMaker). It
makes an effort to remove white space from the printout by
probing the original PostScript for the bounding box of the
printed area. This makes the output much more esthetic than
does a simplistic layout of non-cropped original pages.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://www.hpgs.cjb.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>hpgs</A
> is a
printer driver that lets you to print on a HP 6xx Series
printer using economic mode. It relies on the printer driver
included in GhostScript to do everything but put the printer
into economic mode.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
Besides command line tools for sophisticated printing there are also
usefull GUI applications available. KPrinter opens automatically
when you click on the "Print" icon of any KDE application. Choose your
print job settings by going through the dialog and the click on the
"Print" button.
kprinter is a very versatile tool. Depending on the actual features
and power of the print subsystem of your com- puter, kprinter
translates the former's abilities into a nice and easy-to-understand
GUI e.g. if your print subsystem does not support duplexing, kprinter
will not show the option.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://g-manual-duplex.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>gnome-manual-duplex</A
>
is a utility that adds manual duplex to the "Print" menu.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://www.ecofont.eu/"
TARGET="_top"
>ecofont</A
>
is an open source sans serif font with holes added to save printer ink.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; If you need to print a lot of Web pages from inside your FireFox webbrowser, the
<A
HREF="http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/951"
TARGET="_top"
>Nuke Anything Enhanced</A
>
extension will help you to save some ink and paper. Once installed,
it adds a "Remove this object" option to the right-click context menu.
Place your mouse over information you don't need printed (menu bars,
big graphical logos and so on) and use "Remove this object" to zap
them temporarily. Clean up the page, then print just what you need.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
><P
>&#13;Wade Hampton provided the biggest part of this chapter. Some suggestions are from Ralf Muschall.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-convenience"
></A
>Chapter 5. Ecological Behaviour is Convenient</H1
><P
>&#13; The <B
CLASS="command"
>psutils</B
> may not only save paper, they are also a
great tool to produce a convenient page design. Imagine a nice bounded
manual in A5 format, against a losely hefted block of A4 sheets.
</P
><P
>&#13; Depending on wordlength and paragraphlength a multi-column layout
sometimes saves paper space (though the likelihood for a word to be broken
increases, on the other hand the space used by incomplete lines at the end
of paragraphs decreases). This doesn't save very much paper, but may fit
2.1 pages in 2.0, therefore with the use of <B
CLASS="command"
>psnup</B
> it
may fit on one page. Also multicolumn layout is better readable.
</P
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://www.mathstat.dal.ca/~selinger/psdim/"
TARGET="_top"
>psdim</A
>
is a small utility to be used in conjunction with pstops. It looks at
the contents of a postscript document to determine the size of the printed
pages. From this, it calculates the optimal placement of the pages for n-up
printing. It outputs a format string suitable for processing by pstops.
</P
><P
>&#13;Thanks to Ralf Muschall for his suggestions.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-recycling-consumables"
></A
>Chapter 6. Recycling of Consumables (Paper, Printer Cartridges, CD, Floppies, Tapes)</H1
><P
>&#13;All of these consumables are recycleable. I have put a list of URLs into appendix H. You may start this process by separating different kinds of "waste". There should be included some words on the difficulties of recycling (data security, motivation, costs, ...).
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-reduction-emission"
></A
>Chapter 7. Reduction of Radiation, Electro Magnetic Fields, Heat</H1
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;monitors are a source of <B
CLASS="command"
>radiation</B
> and <B
CLASS="command"
>electro magnetic fields</B
>. They may be reduced by lead filters, LCD displays. Some eco labels like TCO95 include maximum levels of radiation, etc.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;especially larger number of PCs or can <B
CLASS="command"
>heat</B
> a room very much therefore it might be necessary to cool the room. This ca be reduced by using standby (powerdown) techniques.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-lifecycle"
></A
>Chapter 8. Extending the Life Cycle of your Hardware</H1
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-lifecyle-hardware"
></A
>8.1. Recycling of Hardware</H1
><P
>&#13;The commercial computer market is largely driven by vendors seeking to sell new hardware and software. There is no commercial marketing benefit in promoting reuse.
</P
><P
>&#13;Hence Linux doesn't require big hardware, it's very useful if you like or need to use old and small hardware.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN571"
></A
>8.1.1. Supported CPU Families</H2
><P
>&#13;Linux runs on Intel-compatible processors (starting from the 386) and compatible processors by AMD, Cyrix and others.
It also supports a long list of 32 and 64 bit processors.
The whole list can be found in the
<A
HREF="http://sosdg.org/~coywolf/lxr/source/arch/"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>arch</B
>
directory in the Linux kernel sources</A
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;The ARM architecture is a fast AND low-power alternative,
used in a great number of embedded systems (Linux and others).
See the <A
HREF="http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;ARM Linux Project</A
> for a wealth of Linux
resources for ARM.
</P
><P
>&#13;Linux is also supported on small, cheap and low power processors with no
Memory Management Unit (MMU), provided they are 32 bit ones.
See the <A
HREF="http://uclinux.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>uClinux</A
> project for details.
</P
><P
>&#13;Mainstream Linux requires at least a 32 bit processor
and doesn't support any 16 bit ones and will never do.
However, there are separate efforts from
the <A
HREF="http://elks.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>ELKS</A
> project
to reuse Linux code for the 286 CPU family.
</P
><P
>&#13;On platforms supported by Linux, or even on some 16 bit processors,
you may also use the <A
HREF="http://ecos.sourceware.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>eCos</A
>
operating system. This is another free, POSIX compatible operating system
targeting very small devices (possibly with real-time requirements).
</P
><P
>&#13;If you like, you may use <A
HREF="http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Minix</A
>,
one of the predecessors of Linux. Minix supports 8088 to 286 with as little as 640K memory.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN586"
></A
>8.1.2. Linux Applications for Old Computers</H2
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN588"
></A
>8.1.2.1. RULE</H3
><P
>&#13;Hardware is only as old as the software it runs.
<A
HREF="http://www.rule-project.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>RULE</A
>
wants to make modern
Free Software useable even on 5 or more years old machines, on which current
Linux distributions won't install or run too slowly.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN592"
></A
>8.1.2.2. ISDN Router</H3
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://schumann.cx/isdn-router/"
TARGET="_top"
>ISDN Router</A
> allows you to convert old hardware into a secure masquerading ISDN router, including caching nameserver, IP Port Forwarding, and on-demand channel bundling. The system fits onto a single disk, and users can change the configuration through a simple menu-based system (on the console or over telnet) and store it permanently on the disk.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN596"
></A
>8.1.2.3. Linux LiveCD Router</H3
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.wifi.com.ar/english/cdrouter.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Linux LiveCD Router</A
>
allows you to share and firewall your broadband
connection and use WiFi. It works with DSL, cable modem, T1, and dial-up
connections and supports inexpensive hardware such as USB and PCMCIA WiFi
and ethernet cards.
Hardware requirements:
One dedicated computer with the following minimum specifications: 486
Processor, 16 MBytes of RAM, 2X CDRom reader, floppy drive, 1 or 2 ethernet
cards. NO hard disk! Optionally a WIFI card.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN600"
></A
>8.1.2.4. FreeS/WAN</H3
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.freeswan.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Linux FreeS/WAN</A
> provides IPSEC
(IP Security, which is both encryption and authentication) kernel extensions
and an IKE (Internet Key Exchange, keying and encrypted routing daemon)
as well as various rc scripts and documentation. This lets a bright Linux sysadmin
build VPN's gateways out of even old 584 and 486 PC Clone boxes.
The 1.00 version is known to inter-operate with other IPSEC and
IKE system already deployed by other vendors such as OpenBSD.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN604"
></A
>8.1.2.5. Print Server</H3
><P
>&#13;A common use for an old computer is running a print server on it.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN607"
></A
>8.1.3. Small Linux Distributions for Old Computers</H2
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Damn Small Linux</A
>
- A full featured Live-CD distribution derived from Knoppix,
with a very active community. It fits within 50 MB
and runs fine on a 486 PC with 16 MB of RAM.
Included software: Firefox, xmms, xpdf,
Sylpheed, FluxBox WM, Siag, spreadsheet, Ted word processor...
Used a lot on USB flashdisks too.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/"
TARGET="_top"
>Basic Linux</A
>
- The lightest distro for old PCs!
It just needs 3 MB of RAM and 6 MB of disk.
Features: X graphics, window manager, clock, calculator,
text based e-mail reader, browser (links), presentations (MagicPoint),
network dial-up...
Great for using an old PC as an X terminal!
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.puppylinux.org"
TARGET="_top"
>Puppy Linux</A
>
Fast and light distribution. Works great on 10 year old computers.
Actively developed.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.delilinux.de/"
TARGET="_top"
>DeLi Linux</A
>
- A Linux distribution for old computers, from 486 to
Pentium MMX 166 or so. It's focused on desktop usage. It includes email
clients, a graphical Web browser, an office package with word processor
and spreadsheet, etc. A full install, including XFree86 and development
tools, needs no more than 300 MB of harddisk space.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/smalllinux2"
TARGET="_top"
>Small Linux 2</A
>
- A distribution which is designed to run on old / low-spec PC computers (386 and 2-3 mb of ram).
It consists of two floppy discs one,containing the kernel and the other the root system.
Built upon uClibc and Busybox.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.mepis.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>MEPISLite</A
>
- Debian based distribution targeting PCs that used to run Windows 98
(typically 128 MB of RAM, 2 GB of disk space and a 500 MHZ CPU).
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Using Gentoo on Old Machines
</P
><P
>&#13; "Old computers don't have to run old software. Old software does not have it's
bugs covered and is bad for security.
</P
><P
>&#13; Most modern distros will be very sluggish when run on those machines; not
because they use new software, but because they expect to be run on new
machines and may automatically install large amounts of software. The thrust
of <A
HREF="http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_old"
TARGET="_top"
>Gentoo-on-old-hardware</A
>
is to obtain a light, minimalist system that runs
what you need it to and no more; unlike many proprietary OSes and the
"heavier" distros such as Fedora, Gentoo starts very light by default."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.minix3.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Minix</A
>
- Not a Linux but a UNIX useful for small systems.
Minimum requirements: 386 CPU, 8 MB of RAM, 50 MB of disk space.
</P
></LI
></UL
><P
>&#13;See Wikipedia for
<A
HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions#Small_or_lightweight_distributions_for_use_with_older_machines"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;a longer list of small Linux distributions</A
>.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect2"
><HR><H2
CLASS="sect2"
><A
NAME="AEN638"
></A
>8.1.4. Dealing with Limited Resources or Tuning the System</H2
><P
>&#13;This chapter is taken from my
<A
HREF="http://tuxmobil.org/howtos.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Linux-Mobile-Guide - A Guide for Laptops, PDAs and Mobile Phones</A
>.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN642"
></A
>8.1.4.1. Related HOWTOs</H3
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Small-Memory/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Small-Memory-HOWTO</A
>
Describes how to run Linux on a system with a small amount of memory.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN649"
></A
>8.1.4.2. Introduction</H3
><P
>&#13;To deal with limited space, memory, CPU speed and battery power, I have written this chapter.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN652"
></A
>8.1.4.3. Small Space</H3
><DIV
CLASS="sect4"
><H4
CLASS="sect4"
><A
NAME="AEN654"
></A
>8.1.4.3.1. Introduction</H4
><P
>&#13;There are different types of techniques to gain more disk space, such as sharing of space, freeing unused or redundant space, filesystem tuning and compression. Note: some of these techniques use memory instead of space. As you will see, there are many small steps necessary to free some space.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect4"
><HR><H4
CLASS="sect4"
><A
NAME="AEN657"
></A
>8.1.4.3.2. Techniques</H4
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;Stripping: Though many distributions come with stripped binaries today it is useful to check this. For details see <B
CLASS="command"
>man strip</B
>. To find every unstripped file you can use the <B
CLASS="command"
>file</B
> command or more convenient the tool <B
CLASS="command"
>findstrip</B
> (find it in the Debian <A
HREF="http://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/perforate"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>perforate</B
></A
> package) . Attention: don't strip libraries, sometimes the wrong symbols are removed due to a bad programming technique.
</P
><P
>&#13;A recommendation from Russell Marks &#60;rus at beeb.net&#62;:
</P
><P
>&#13;These days a lot of people compile with <B
CLASS="command"
>-g</B
>, which I find a bit annoying (though AFAIK this <B
CLASS="command"
>only</B
> loses you disk space, in practice).
</P
><P
>&#13;<B
CLASS="command"
>strip</B
> has a <B
CLASS="command"
>--strip-debug</B
> option which doesn't strip symbols, but does still get rid of the debugging stuff. This is almost as good, in many cases, and it's ok to use it on libraries. As it happens, I recently got SuSE 6.3, so I can give you a <B
CLASS="command"
>live</B
> example:
<TABLE
BORDER="0"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
><FONT
COLOR="#000000"
><PRE
CLASS="programlisting"
>&#13;bash-2.03# cd /lib
bash-2.03# ls -l libc.so.6
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4223971 Nov 6 16:22 libc.so.6
bash-2.03# strip --strip-debug libc.so.6
bash-2.03# ls -l libc.so.6
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1200355 Dec 8 00:13 libc.so.6
</PRE
></FONT
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Sparse files: in the case when files contain blocks
with only null characters, these blocks can be replaced by <B
CLASS="command"
>lseek</B
>
command calls, saving space. Applications (and not the operating system) are
responsible for creating or handling such files in a correct way.
For example, both the <B
CLASS="command"
>tar</B
> and <B
CLASS="command"
>cp</B
>
commands have options for handling sparse files in a correct way.
See the <A
HREF="http://www.lrdev.com/lr/unix/sparsefile.html"
TARGET="_top"
>this page</A
>
for more details and for a <B
CLASS="command"
>sparse</B
> command
to create such files. In Debian, you can also use the <B
CLASS="command"
>zum</B
> command
from the <A
HREF="http://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/perforate"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>perforate</B
></A
> package.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Remove Odd Files and Duplicates: Check your system for core files,
emacs recovery files &#60;#FILE#&#62; vi recovery files
&#60;FILE&#62;.swp, RPM recovery files &#60;FILE&#62;.rpmorig and
<B
CLASS="command"
>patch</B
> recovery files. Find duplicates, you may try
<A
HREF="http://www.shelldorado.com/scripts/cmds/finddup"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>finddup</B
></A
>.
Choose a system to name your backup,
temporary and test files, e.g. with a signature at the end.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Clean Temporary Files: , e.g. <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/tmp</TT
>, there is even a tool <B
CLASS="command"
>tmpwatch</B
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Shorten the Log Files: usually the files in <TT
CLASS="filename"
>/var/log</TT
>. There are some nice helpers for this task around, e.g. <B
CLASS="command"
>savelog</B
> .
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
Remove Files: Remove files which are not "necessary"
under all circumstances such as man pages, documentation
<TT
CLASS="filename"
>/usr/doc</TT
> and sources e.g.
<TT
CLASS="filename"
>/usr/src</TT
> .
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
Unnecessary Libraries: You may use the <A
HREF="http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~etzpc/binstats.html"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>binstats</B
></A
>
package to find unused libraries (Thanks to Tom Ed White).
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Filesystem: Choose a filesystem which treats disk space
economically e.g. <B
CLASS="command"
>rsfs</B
> aka Reiser Filesystem.
Tune your filesystem e.g. <B
CLASS="command"
>tune2fs</B
>. Choose an
appropriate partition and block size.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Reduce Kernel Size: Either by using only the necessary kernel
features and/or making a compressed kernel image
<B
CLASS="command"
>bzImage</B
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Compressed read-write filesystems:
</P
><P
>&#13;- There was a project to add compression support to ext2 filesystems:
<A
HREF="http://e2compr.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>e2compr</A
>.
This project has a very limited usefulness as it is currently
inactive and only supports very old 2.4 and 2.6 kernel versions.
No chance to get a working patch on the latest 2.4 and 2.6 releases.
</P
><P
>&#13;- Fortunately, a very serious solution exists in the
<A
HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems"
TARGET="_top"
>Reiser4 filesystem</A
>
which includes a compression plugin. Using compression is even reported
to be faster than not using it. Actual results should of course
vary with the CPU and disk speed, and results might be disappointing on
old machines.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Compressed read-only filesystems
</P
><P
>&#13;- The idea is store parts of the system (typically executables and libraries through
the <B
CLASS="command"
>/bin</B
>, <B
CLASS="command"
>/sbin</B
> and
<B
CLASS="command"
>/usr</B
> directories) in a separate, compressed and read-only
filesystem. This is great for saving space and for protecting the system from
extern attacks. However, the constraint is that software upgrades can no
longer be done when the filesystem is mounted. The whole filesystem contents must
be rebuilt and replaced at once.
</P
><P
>&#13;- <A
HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cramfs"
TARGET="_top"
>CramFS</A
>
was the first implemented solution, used by many embedded system makers.
Though still maintained, it is dramatically outperformed by SquashFS.
</P
><P
>&#13;- <A
HREF="http://squashfs.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>SquashFS</A
>
is the solution everyone should use now. Unlike CramFS, it has
no limitations on filesystem and file size, and it achieves
much better compression and read speed (up to 5 times!).
On slow storage (like USB flash drives), replacing ext2
with SquashFS resulting in a 50% reduction on system boot time
(observed in a Linux demo developped by <A
HREF="http://free-electrons.com"
TARGET="_top"
>Free Electrons</A
>).
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Partition Sharing: You may share swap-space (see
Swap-Space-HOWTO) or data partitions between different OS
(see <B
CLASS="command"
>mount</B
>).
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;C library: use <A
HREF="http://uclibc.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>uClibc</A
> instead of the default
<A
HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/"
TARGET="_top"
>GNU C library</A
> aka <B
CLASS="command"
>glibc</B
>.
It takes approximately 400 KB instead of 1700 (glibc). It used by many embedded Linux projects
as well as by several tiny Linux distributions. It should satisfy most needs, as the whole
Debian 3.0 was ported to it. Caution: if you replace the C library, all applications
also need to be recompiled with a dedicated gcc toolchain.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://busybox.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>Busybox</A
>
- A toolbox implementing most Unix commands.
It takes at most 500 KB instead of approximately 10-30 MB with GNU implementations!
It is used by almost all embedded Linux projects and small Linux distros.
Most commands are implemented, even <B
CLASS="command"
>vi</B
>, <B
CLASS="command"
>wget</B
>,
a dhcp server and client, and even a http server sufficient for most needs.
Even if some rare command options are not implemented, even an experienced
Unix user hardly makes the difference with GNU commands!
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Kernel: If your needs are fitted with an older kernel version, you can save some space.
</P
><P
>&#13;However, with old kernels, you will miss cool features (such as real-time preemption,
making your system much more responsive) and support for recent peripherals.
It is true that the Linux kernel accumulated bloat over the years: more features, support for more special cases...
Now that Linux is taking an increasingly dominant place in embedded systems, work is being done to control the kernel size.
The <A
HREF="http://www.selenic.com/linux-tiny/"
TARGET="_top"
>LinuxTiny</A
> project releases a set of patches to
the Linux kernel sources. In the <B
CLASS="command"
>Configure Standard Kernel Features for Small Systems</B
>
kernel configuration section, you can unselect features you do not need in a simple computer.
The minimum compressed size you can achieve for a Linux 2.6 kernel for a simple PC is approximately 350 KB.
Note that more and more LinuxTiny changes are now available in the standard Linux kernel (no patching necessary).
</P
><P
>&#13;With the latest kernel releases, you may also try
the <A
HREF="http://people.redhat.com/~mingo/realtime-preempt"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;real-time preemption patches</A
> from Ingo Molnar.
When full preemption is enabled, it adds unprecedented
responsiveness to the Linux kernel. The latency is much reduced,
suitable for real real-time systems (less than 100 us!).
It is definitely worth trying on old systems
to give them a new youth and improve the user experience!
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
GUI: Avoid as much Graphical User Interface (GUI) as possible.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Tiny Distributions: There are some distributions available which fit from one 3.5" floppy to 10MB disk space and fit for small memories, too. See <A
HREF="http://tuxmobil.org/howtos.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Laptop-HOWTO</A
>
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN757"
></A
>8.1.4.4. Harddisk Speed</H3
><P
>&#13;Use the tool <B
CLASS="command"
>hdparm</B
> to set up better harddisk performance. Though I have seen laptop disk enabled with <B
CLASS="command"
>stripping</B
>, I can't see a reason to do so, because IMHO aka RAID0 stripping needs at least to different disks to increase performance.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN762"
></A
>8.1.4.5. Small Memory</H3
><DIV
CLASS="sect4"
><H4
CLASS="sect4"
><A
NAME="AEN764"
></A
>8.1.4.5.1. Related HOWTOs</H4
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Small-Memory/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Small-Memory-mini-HOWTO</A
> by Todd Burgess
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
<A
HREF="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/4mb-Laptops.html"
TARGET="_top"
>4MB Laptop-HOWTO</A
> by Bruce Richardson.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Module-HOWTO/"
TARGET="_top"
>Linux Loadable Kernel Module HOWTO</A
>by Bryan Henderson.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Kerneld/"
TARGET="_top"
>Kerneld-mini-HOWTO</A
> by Henrik Storner.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect4"
><HR><H4
CLASS="sect4"
><A
NAME="AEN780"
></A
>8.1.4.5.2. Techniques</H4
><P
>&#13;Check the memory usage with <B
CLASS="command"
>free</B
> and <B
CLASS="command"
>top</B
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;You may also reduce the <B
CLASS="command"
>kernel size</B
> as much as possible by removing any feature which is not necessary for your needs and by modularizing the kernel as much as possible.
</P
><P
>&#13;Also you may shutdown every service or <B
CLASS="command"
>daemon</B
> which is not needed, e.g. <B
CLASS="command"
>lpd</B
>, <B
CLASS="command"
>mountd</B
>, <B
CLASS="command"
>nfsd</B
> and close some <B
CLASS="command"
>virtual consoles</B
>. Please see the <A
HREF="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Small-Memory/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Small-Memory-mini-HOWTO</A
> for details.
</P
><P
>&#13;And of course use swap space, when possible.
</P
><P
>&#13;If possible you may use the resources of another machine, for instance with X,
VNC or even <B
CLASS="command"
>telnet</B
>. For more information on Virtual Network
Computing (VNC), see <A
HREF="http://www.realvnc.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>VNC</A
> .
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN798"
></A
>8.1.4.6. Low CPU Speed</H3
><P
>&#13; You may want to overdrive the CPU speed but this can damage
your hardware and I don't have experience with it. For some
examples look at
<A
HREF="http://www.silverace.com/libretto/overclocking.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Adorable Toshiba Libretto - Overclocking</A
>.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect3"
><HR><H3
CLASS="sect3"
><A
NAME="AEN802"
></A
>8.1.4.7. Tiny Applications and Distributions</H3
><P
>&#13;A small collection yet, but I'm looking for more information.
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;
<A
HREF="http://www.boa.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>BOA</A
> - "Lightweight and High Performance WebServer.
<B
CLASS="command"
>boa</B
> is a single-tasking HTTP server. That means that
unlike traditional web servers, it does not fork for each incoming
connection, nor does it fork many copies of itself to handle multiple
connections. It internally multiplexes all of the ongoing HTTP connections,
and forks only for CGI programs (which must be separate processes).
Preliminary tests show boa is capable of handling several hundred hits per
second on a 100 MHz Pentium."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Low Bandwidth X - Alan Cox in LINUX REDUX February 1998: " ...
(<A
HREF="http://www.vigor.nu/dxpc/"
TARGET="_top"
>Differential X Protocol Compressor - Dxpc</A
>)
is the alternative most people prefer. These systems act as proxy X11
servers and compress datastreams by well over 50 percent for normal
requests, often reaching a reduction to 25 percent of the original
bandwidth usage. With dxpc, X windows applications are quite usable over a
28.8 modem link or across the Internet."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
<A
HREF="http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>Blackbox</A
>
- "This is a window manager for X. Ixt is similar in many
respects to such popular packages as Window Maker, Enlightenment, and
FVWM2. You might be interested in this package if you are tired of
window managers that are a heavy drain on your system resources, but you
still want an attractive and modern-looking interface."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>screen</B
></A
>
- Tiny but powerful console manager.
John M. Fisk &#60;fiskjm at ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu&#62; in
<A
HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue01to08/lg_issue7.html#screen"
TARGET="_top"
>LINUX
GAZETTE</A
> : "It's a GUI, GUI,
GUI, GUI world! " - or so the major OS manufacturers would
have you belief. Truth is, that while this is increasingly the
case, there are times when the command line interface (CLI) is
still a very good choice for getting things done. It's fast,
generally efficient, and is a good choice on memory or CPU
constrained machines. And don't forget that there are still a lot
of very nifty things that can be done <B
CLASS="command"
>at the
console</B
>." "<B
CLASS="command"
>screen</B
> is a
full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal
between several processes, typically interactive shells. Each
virtual terminal provides the functions of the DEC VT100 terminal
and, in addition, several control functions from the ANSI X3.64
(ISO 6429) and ISO 2022 standards (e.g., insert/delete line and
support for multiple character sets). Real multiuser support,
split screen support, hardstatus emulation support, configurable
window seperator and hardstatus strings, permanent window
seperator, many new escapes, logfile timestamps and flush timeout,
optional builtin telnet, optional Braille support, support for
history compaction."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://linux.maruhn.com/sec/tinyirc.html"
TARGET="_top"
>tinyirc</A
>
- "A tiny, stripped down IRC Client. Doesn't have
most of the more advance commands in the ircII family of IRC
Clients, nor does it have any color, but it works, and it's
tiny."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
<A
HREF="https://www.banu.com/tinyproxy/"
TARGET="_top"
>tinyproxy</A
>
- "is a lightweight HTTP proxy
designed to do the job with a minimum of system resource use.
It's ideal for small networks where a larger HTTP proxy such
as squid might be overkill or a security risk. This simplicity
also makes tinyproxy an ideal candidate for customization - it
takes very little time to read and understand the tinyproxy
source, and thus you can start adding your own desired
features on short order."
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
><P
>&#13;Actually, with the progress of Linux in embedded systems,
countless lightweight applications now exist.
<A
HREF="http://free-electrons.com/training/devtools"
TARGET="_top"
>A presentation
from Free Electrons</A
> tries to list the most popular ones.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-lifecyle-other-techniques"
></A
>8.2. Other Techniques</H1
><P
>&#13;NiCad batteries need to be discharged periodically to prevent the memory effect and prolong their lifespan.
</P
><P
>&#13;Batteries such as NiCad, Lead Acid, and NiMH contain TOXIC chemicals. Techniques should be taken to prolong their lifespan, and when you do discard them, they should be recycled, not thrown in the trash.
</P
><P
>&#13;One technology to watch is the <A
HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_iron_battery"
TARGET="_top"
>Iron battery</A
>.
Such a battery could reduce some of the toxic waste problems associated with used batteries, however such a battery is probably a few years away.
</P
><P
>&#13;Some remarks about backlights in laptops, monitors (screensavers), harddisks (hdparm), etc. have to be written.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-lifecyle-badram"
></A
>8.3. Linux BadRAM Patch</H1
><P
>&#13; The objective of the <A
HREF="http://rick.vanrein.org/linux/badram/"
TARGET="_top"
>BadRAM Patch</A
>
is to run the Linux kernel in such a way that it can handle defective RAM modules.
With defective RAM, I mean RAM which has some bits wrong at some (known)
addresses. Normally, such RAM is considered useless and thrown away; the
larger RAMs get, the higher the chances of failing addresses. With ever
growing RAM sizes, it would therefore be pleasant to have an alternative to
discarding of defective RAM chips.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-lifecyle-older-hardware"
></A
>8.4. Installing Linux on Older Hardware</H1
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-lwl1/"
TARGET="_top"
>Lightweight Linux, Part 1</A
>:
Hardware is only as old as the software it runs: a modern operating system and
up-to-date applications return an older system to productivity. This article
provides best practices and step-by-step guidance on how to build a working
Linux system on older hardware or on modern hardware with limited memory and
storage.
</P
><P
>&#13; Purging of uneeded Locales:
<A
HREF="http://packages.debian.org/stable/admin/localepurge"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>localepurge</B
></A
>
for Debian/GNU Linux is just a simple script to recover disk space wasted for unneeded
locale files and localized man pages. Depending on your installation, it
is possible to save some 20, 30, or even more megabytes of disk space
usually dedicated for locales you'll probably never have any usage for.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-lifecyle-upgrading-and-repairing"
></A
>8.5. Upgrading and Repairing Computer Hardware and Communication Devices</H1
><P
>&#13; Usually manufacturers declare the warranty to be void if the case
was opened by people other than their own staff. If you want to try it
anyway you may find some interesting links about how to
<A
HREF="http://repair4laptop.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair, disassemble, upgrade or mod laptops or notebooks</A
>,
<A
HREF="http://repair4pda.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair broken PDAs and HandHelds</A
>, as well as
<A
HREF="http://repair4mobilephone.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair mobile (cellular) phones</A
>,
<A
HREF="http://repair4player.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair portable audio and video players</A
>,
<A
HREF="http://repair4mouse.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair, clean and mod a computer mouse</A
>,
<A
HREF="http://repair4printer.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair printers, ink and toner cartridges</A
>,
<A
HREF="http://repair4harddisk.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair hard disk drives</A
>,
<A
HREF="http://repair4keyboard.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair and clean computer keyboards</A
> and
<A
HREF="http://repair4gps.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair and mod GPS navigation devices</A
> and
<A
HREF="http://repair4pc.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair personal computers - PCs</A
>.
</P
><P
>&#13; BTW: here are some non-computer related links to guides explaining, how to
<A
HREF="http://repair4camera.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair (digital) cameras</A
>,
<A
HREF="http://repair4car.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>repair cars</A
>.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-lifecyle-other-os"
></A
>8.6. Other Operating Systems</H1
><P
>&#13;Courtesy of George White &#60;gwhite at bodnext.bio.dfo.ca&#62;:
Or you can buy an older computer (SGI, Sun, NeXT) that comes with unix and is capable of running a wide range of open source software. In some cases (SGI Indigo2) you can still run current OS versions, in others you may do better with an open source OS such as Linux, but in either case you have access to lots of good software and tools to write your own.
The lower power consumption of older computers means you get more reserve time from an UPS or can use a small alternative power source if you don't have access to "mains" power.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-nonpc"
></A
>Chapter 9. Using Linux on non-PC Hardware</H1
><P
>&#13;As mentioned in the previous chapter, Linux can be run on non-PC architectures.
This is particularly useful for the small applications old PCs can be used for.
Recent netbooks either ARM-based or MIPS-based provide an even smaller power
footprint. Check <A
HREF="http://moblin.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>moblin</A
> Linux, which is dedicated to
such machines.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-ce-devices"
></A
>9.1. Using Consumer Electronics Devices</H1
><P
>&#13;Linux is increasingly used in Consumer Electronics (CE) devices,
in particular in network appliances such as Wifi routers, DSL modems,
Network Attached Storage (NAS) servers, IP cameras and other small devices.
</P
><P
>&#13;Thanks to the GNU GPL license, kernel and application source code for these devices
are freely available. More and more device owners are taking advantage of this
to develop other uses for these devices. Thanks to the progress of Linux in
embedded systems, making its own embedded system is increasingly easy.
</P
><P
>&#13;Using such devices instead of regular PCs yields many advantages:
much lower power consumption, no noise (no fans), built with much
fewer materials (small size), and much lower cost (for your purse
and for the environment).
</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.nslu2-linux.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>NSLU2-Linux</A
>
- A community of people running Linux on the
Linksys NSLU2 device. This device is originally a Network
Attached Storage server, featuring a 266 MHz ARM CPU, 8MB of flash, 32MB of SDRAM
and a rich connectivity: Connectivity: USB (for attached storage), Ethernet and a serial port.
That's all you need in a versatile Linux computer.
Many different <A
HREF="http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/Applications/HomePage"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;cool applications</A
> are listed by the project.
</P
><P
>&#13;The NSLU2 device is still available in the shops on all continents,
for a very cheap price: approximately 90 &#8364; or 90 US Dollars.
This makes this device extremely popular!
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://openwrt.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>OpenWRT</A
>
- A project to run Linux on WiFi routers based
on the Linksys WRT chipset. A typical configuration
includes a 125 to 200 MHz ARM CPU, 4 MB of flash, 16 MB of RAM,
and Ethernet, WiFi, serial port (often) and a USB host port
(often).
</P
><P
>&#13;Devices based on the Linksys WRT chipset
are available for sale on all continents,
costing between 50 and 100 &#8364; / US Dollars.
They are very popular too!
</P
></LI
></UL
><P
>&#13;In a nutshell, do not buy a new PC for small applications.
Reuse your old computers or buy a consumer device on which you can run Linux!
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-embedded-boards"
></A
>9.2. Using Embedded Linux Boards</H1
><P
>&#13;Instead of using a PC, or even instead reusing a consumer device,
you may also create your own system using dedicated embedded system boards.
Because of lower volumes, such boards may be a bit more expensive,
but they can achieve much reduced size and power consumption.
Both low and higher volumes are available too.
</P
><P
>&#13;Here are a few noteworthy examples:
</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.picotux.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Picotux</A
>
- The smallest Linux computer in the world, only slighly larger
than a RJ45 connector. Pretty cheap too.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://gumstix.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Gumstix</A
>
- Small, affordable embedded boards with the size of a gumstick.
Backed by an active community too.
</P
></LI
></UL
><P
>&#13;See this
<A
HREF="http://free-electrons.com/community/hardware/boards/"
TARGET="_top"
>independent list of interesting board suppliers</A
>
for more details.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-home-automation"
></A
>Chapter 10. X10 - Home Automation System</H1
><P
>&#13;"X-10 modules are devices that plug into an electrical outlet and allow you to remotely control the power to a lamp or an appliance that is plugged into them. There are also X-10 modules that install in place of wall switches to control lights, and there's one that can be used to set back a thermostat."
</P
><P
>&#13;These <A
HREF="http://www.x10.com"
TARGET="_top"
>X10</A
> folks make a really cool dongle called the Firecracker.
These allow for the control of X10 devices via a serial-port of your PC.
Programs like <A
HREF="http://www.linuxha.com/bottlerocket/"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>Bottlerocket</B
></A
>
and <A
HREF="http://www.miscreation.net/projects/gtkx10/"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>GtkX10</B
></A
>
allow Linux programs to control X10 devices using the Firecracker device.
You may be able to get the Firecracker, a remote control, a receiver,
and a lamp module for as little as $5.95 U.S. (special promotion).
</P
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.joethielen.com/phantom/home/"
TARGET="_top"
>GNU Phantom.Home</A
> is a computer controlled home automation system. The software includes a circuit diagram for building the Phantom.Home.Controller, a simple circuit board that attaches to your PC's parallel port. Using the combination of hardware/software you can control (i.e. flip on or off) nearly any 120V device. And with a little bit of electronics know-how, you can probably control nearly any device at any voltage by modifying the circuit board to meet your needs. The simple circuit included can be created and built for around $25. The modules cost around $10 (basically a heavy duty relay).
</P
><P
>&#13;More details on this topic are available on the <A
HREF="http://www.linuxha.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;Linux Home Automation</A
> website.
</P
><P
>&#13;Turn that light off when not in use!
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-ups"
></A
>Chapter 11. Uninterruptible Power Supply - UPS</H1
><P
>&#13;You should use a protection against lightening and power surges or a UPS
if you have many thunderstorms in the area.
That will save hardware, software, your time, and money, and help prevent you from throwing out
that old monitor, CPU, or modem when it gets trashed by lightening.
For details consult the <A
HREF="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/UPS-HOWTO.html"
TARGET="_top"
>UPS-HOWTO</A
>.
</P
><P
>&#13;For desktop PCs, in areas prone to lightening or power outages, UPSs could save hours
of work each week, potentially translating into power savings.
However, there is some concern over their additional usage of AC power.
If anyone has any studies or research on this issue, could they please forward it to us?
That would be an interesting question to post to APC, BEST, etc.
</P
><P
>&#13;UPSs also contain batteries with a high environmental cost.
So, just use a UPS when really needed and when benefits
outweight environmental costs.
For example, if you are using a notebook, a much cheaper surge protection is enough
thanks to your battery.
</P
><P
>&#13;People have also reported issues using unreliable power
sources, for example in trains. Make sure you use a surge protection
device then!
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-games"
></A
>Chapter 12. Games</H1
><P
>&#13;Personally I'm not much a player of computer games but maybe they can be used for environmental education.
In a first investigation I found
<A
HREF="http://lincity.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>Lincity</B
></A
>
and <A
HREF="http://www.sunysb.edu/philosophy/faculty/gmar/realife.html"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>Real Life</B
></A
>,
please check their usefulness by yourself.
</P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://lincity.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>Lincity</B
></A
>
- Build &#38; maintain a
city/country. You are required to build and maintain a city.
You must feed, house, provide jobs and goods for your
residents. You can build a sustainable economy with the help
of renewable energy and recycling, or you can go for broke
and build rockets to escape from a pollution ridden and
resource starved planet, it's up to you. Due to the finite
resources available in any one place, this is not a game
that you can leave for long periods of time. This game is
similar to the commercial simulation game with a similar
name. This package provides files common to both the X and
SVGALIB versions of the game.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.sunysb.edu/philosophy/faculty/gmar/realife.html"
TARGET="_top"
><B
CLASS="command"
>Real Life</B
></A
>
- "In
<A
HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life"
TARGET="_top"
>Conway's Game of Life</A
> every cell
is either fully alive (has the value of 1) or completely
dead (has the value 0). In Real Life this restriction to
bivalence is lifted to countenance -real-valued- degrees
of life and death. Real Life contains Conway's Game of
Life as a special case; however, Real Life, in contrast to
Conway's Game of Life, exhibits sensitive dependence on
initial conditions which is characteristic of chaotic
systems."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.sierra.com"
TARGET="_top"
>Sierra</A
>
has produced (some time ago) Eco Quest 1 - <B
CLASS="command"
>Lost in
Rainforest</B
> and <B
CLASS="command"
>Eco Quest 2 - The
Search for Cetus</B
>. The EcoQuest games were for
MS-DOS and Windows 3.x. These were targeted at younger
players.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;SimEarth, 1988, Maxis (DOS, Win3.x, Mac) Simulates the
development of a planet from the forming of the crust
to the spread of civilization. Based on James
Lovelock's Gaia theory. Somewhat dull and difficult to
learn, but there's a good amount of educational value
to be gotten out of fiddling around with the models,
particularly greenhouse effect.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Balance of the Planet, 1991, Chris Crawford (DOS, Mac):
You take the role of a government policy-maker
who must try to balance industry and ecology.
Remarkably complicated and drab (even moreso than
SimEarth), but certain to be educational and
thought-provoking if time is spent with the manual.
The Mac version can now be downloaded for free from
<A
HREF="http://www.erasmatazz.com/free.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Crawford's website</A
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Global Effect, 1992, Millennium (DOS, Amiga):
An early real-time strategy game where you must try
to conquer your opponent while dealing with the
ecological ramifications of your weapons and
industry upon your population. Clunky interface,
not a lot of fun compared to current Warcraft-type
games.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;SimIsle, 1995, Maxis (DOS, ???) Develop a
tropical island without destroying the
rainforest ecology. Large learning curve but
supposedly a lot of fun.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;SimPark, 1997, Maxis (Win 95, ???) Sort of a
children's version of SimIsle, which is
simpler and more education-focused.
</P
></LI
></UL
><P
>&#13;I suspect the older games should run just fine on <B
CLASS="command"
>dosemu</B
>.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-software"
></A
>Chapter 13. Ecology Software (Simulation, Data Collection, Statistics, etc.)</H1
><P
>&#13;Though I know there is some MS-Windows based software which is used in ecological science (there is even a branch environmental informatic), I know only <B
CLASS="command"
>Ecolab</B
> available for Linux yet. But I guess Linux software (for instance databases or statistics programs) may easily adopted. Also it might be possible to use a Linux cluster to solve ecological simulations.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-software-ecolab"
></A
>13.1. Ecolab</H1
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://ecolab.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>Ecolab</A
>
is both the name of a software package and a research project that is
looking at the dynamics of evolution. EcoLab is a system that implements an abstract ecology model. It is written as a set of Tcl/Tk commands so that the model parameters can easily be changed on the fly by means of editing a script. The model itself is written in C++.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-software-tierra"
></A
>13.2. Tierra</H1
><P
>&#13;
<A
HREF="http://life.ou.edu/tierra/"
TARGET="_top"
>Tierra</A
>
by Tom Ray is a tool for studying digital evolution and ecology that runs on Linux and other OSes.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-software-environmental-research"
></A
>13.3. Linux in Environmental Research</H1
><P
>&#13;Courtesy of Wade Hampton: Linux is ideally suited for use as a research tool for environmental experiments. There are small embedded Linux solutions that can be used for remote monitoring or telemetry. There are VERY small Linux implementations from PC-104 systems to embedded systems like the <A
HREF="http://www.uclinux.com"
TARGET="_top"
>uCsimm</A
>. Linux even flew on the shuttle controlling biological experiments.... Linux has been used for weather research on NOAA's Hurricane Hunter aircraft.
</P
><P
>&#13;Linux is also an ideal platform for researching ecological and environmental information via the Internet using standard WWW-based tools like Netscape.
</P
><P
>&#13;Linux may even be used to model complex biological and environmental processes.
<A
HREF="http://www.beowulf.org"
TARGET="_top"
>beowulf clusters</A
>
have been used to run complex simulations of environmental processes,
for example Earthdome, listed in the
<A
HREF="http://www.beowulf.org/overview/projects.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Beowulf projects page</A
>.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-software-swarm"
></A
>13.4. SWARM</H1
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.swarm.org"
TARGET="_top"
>SWARM</A
> is a software package for multi-agent simulation of complex systems that is being developed by the Swarm Development Group (SDG).
</P
><P
>&#13;Swarm is intended to be a useful tool for researchers in a variety of disciplines, especially artificial life. The basic architecture of Swarm is the simulation of collections of concurrently interacting agents: with this architecture, we can implement a large variety of agent based models. The source code is freely available under GNU Licensing terms.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-software-climate-dynamics"
></A
>13.5. Climate-Dynamics</H1
><P
>Linux clusters are used in climate modeling,
for example in the <A
HREF="http://www.climate.unibe.ch/CCSM/renold04eos.pdf"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;University of Bern</A
> in Switzerland.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-software-uncert"
></A
>13.6. UNCERT</H1
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.uncert.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>UNCERT</A
> is a geostatistical uncertainty analysis package applied to groundwater flow and contaminant transport modeling. This package was developed for evaluating the inherent uncertainty in describing subsurface geology, hydraulic properties, and the migration of hazardous contaminants in groundwater flow systems. It is well suited for the aforementioned purposes, but is also sufficiently general to be usable by researchers in a wide range of disciples.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-software-ecotopia"
></A
>13.7. EcoTopia</H1
><P
>&#13;The <A
HREF="http://www.ecotopia.org"
TARGET="_top"
>EcoTopia</A
> web site uses computer simulation to model Santa Cruz, California as an ideal environmental community. For Ecotourists and Green Consumers, EcoTopia strives to offer the nation a model of integration of technology and environmental remediation using computer modeling and image forecasting.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-software-digiqual"
></A
>13.8. Digiqual</H1
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/digiqual/"
TARGET="_top"
>Digiqual</A
>
is a package to manage a quality and environmental control
system for a factory. The package consists of six modules, but only the
first module has been released. The modules are Supplier Evaluation, Non
Conformity, Documentation, Maintenance, and Internal Audit, and Training.
All data are stored in a PostgreSQL database by the psycopg connector.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-related-projects"
></A
>Chapter 14. Related Projects, Mailing Lists and Newsgroups</H1
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;
Though I searched the WWW, I couldn't find neither a dedicated newsgroup
nor a mailing list yet. Please let me know of such projects, otherwise
I will create a list a FreeLists.org .
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.repairfaq.org"
TARGET="_top"
>Repair FAQ</A
> .
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.celinuxforum.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>CE Linux Forum</A
>
is a non profit consortium of embedded system makers
(such as Sony, Panasonic, Philips...) which works to
develop the suitability of Linux as an operating system
for Consumer Electronics (CE) devices.
<A
HREF="http://tree.celinuxforum.org/CelfPubWiki/FrontPage"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;Its Wiki</A
> is full of useful resources for embedded system
makers to reduce size, power consumption, and to increase speed.
You may find lots of interesting ideas and resources there.
Free Electrons has a <A
HREF="http://free-electrons.com/articles/optimizations"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;overview presentation</A
> summarizing these ideas and resources.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;"The
<A
HREF="http://egj.lib.uidaho.edu/"
TARGET="_top"
>Electronic Green Journal</A
>, published by the
University of Idaho Library, is a
professional, refereed publication devoted
to disseminating information concerning
sources on international environmental
topics including: assessment,
conservation, development, disposal,
education, hazards, pollution, resources,
technology, and treatment. We are
academically sponsored; our focus,
however, is to publish articles,
bibliographies, reviews, and announcements
for the educated generalist as well as the
specialist. We welcome original
contributions from authors on any
of the above topics." . You
may also find a survey about
Environmental Resources on the
World Wide Web there.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;BAN is a global network of toxics and development activist organizations that
share a vision of international environmental justice. We seek to prevent all
forms of "toxic trade" -- in toxic wastes, toxic products and toxic
technologies. BAN members will work nationally, regionally and globally to
accomplish the following mission:
The
<A
HREF="http://www.ban.org"
TARGET="_top"
>Basel Action Network (BAN)</A
>
works to prevent the globalization of the toxic
chemical crisis. In particular, we seek to ensure that the Basel Convention
and its ban (Decisions II/12 and III/1) on the export of hazardous wastes from
OECD to non-OECD countries will not be weakened, but rather ratified and
implemented at the earliest possible date. We also seek to ensure that the
Basel Convention and other instruments and efforts, serve to prevent the trade
and growth of the world's most hazardous, and often obsolete industries,
particularly with respect to developing or newly industrializing countries.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.svtc.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC)</A
>
is a diverse grassroots coalition that
for almost twenty years has engaged in research, advocacy, and organizing
associated with environmental and human health problems caused by the rapid
growth of the high-tech electronics industry. Our goal in addressing these
problems is to advance environmental sustainability and clean production in the
industry and to improve health, promote justice, and ensure democratic
decision-making for communities and workers affected by the high-tech
revolution in Silicon Valley and other high-tech areas of the US and the world.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Non-profit
<A
HREF="http://www.freegeek.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Free Geek</A
>
turns old PCs and laptops into Linux boxes and gives them
to poor people. Any computer equipment, working or not, can be donated to Free Geek.
They will repair and reuse what computers they can. Non-functioning computers and scrap
will be recycled responsibly.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2192333/green-linux-attack-power"
TARGET="_top"
>VuNet</A
>
"The Linux Foundation has formed a Green Linux initiative to focus on
reducing the open source operating system's power consumption..."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Whitepaper: <A
HREF="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-green-linux/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Linux: Lean, clean, and green - How GNU/Linux is becoming more eco-friendly</A
>:
"Green IT is one of the hottest of today's technology trends, and the GNU/Linux community has risen to the challenge. Along with several corporate partners, the
GNU/Linux operating system provides solutions for dealing with power consumption, carbon emissions, and e-waste."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Whitepaper: <A
HREF="http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linux-memory.html?ca=dgr-lnxw02LinuxMemory"
TARGET="_top"
>Reduce your Linux memory footprint - A few tweaks can boost performance</A
>:
"In this article, learn how to accurately measure the amount of memory your
Linux system uses. You also get practical advice on reducing your memory
requirements using an Ubuntu system as an example..."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Whitepaper: <A
HREF="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-smart-monitors/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Reduce Power Consumption Through Smart Activity Monitors</A
>:
"Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) and the power configuration systems
built into moderncomputers provide a wide range of options for reducingoverall power
consumption. Linux and its associateduser space programs have many of the tools necessary
tomaster your PC power consumption in a variety of contexts."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Whitepaper: <A
HREF="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-cpufreq-1/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Reduce Linux power consumption, Part 1: The CPUfreq subsystem</A
>
"This three-part series is your starting point for tuning your system for power efficiency. In Part 1, get up to speed on the components and concepts you need to fine-tune a Linux-based System x server for power efficiency. Learn how to enable the Linux CPUfreq subsystem, get instruction on C and P states, and determine which of the five in-kernel governors you need to boost power efficiency on your system."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Whitepaper: <A
HREF="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-recycle-hardware/"
TARGET="_top"
>Three ways to recycle commodity hardware with Linux - Creating Linux appliances with spare parts</A
>:
"Outdated computer hardware may be too old to rely on, but it represents a value to your organizationwhether in an office or at home. Discover how you can realize that value by repurposing older machines with Linux."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-lwl1/"
TARGET="_top"
>Lightweight Linux, Part 1</A
>:
Hardware is only as old as the software it runs: a modern operating system and
up-to-date applications return an older system to productivity. This article
provides best practices and step-by-step guidance on how to build a working
Linux system on older hardware or on modern hardware with limited memory and
storage.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Whitepaper: <A
HREF="http://www.osor.eu/case_studies/airaware-managing-the-skies-of-bucharest-using-free-software"
TARGET="_top"
>http://www.osor.eu/case_studies/airaware-managing-the-skies-of-bucharest-using-free-software</A
>:
"In 2005 the Romanian National Meteorological Administration (NMA) received EU funding for its AirAware project. The project's objective was to improve the air quality monitoring system currently in place and to enhance the system with forecasting capabilities. For the management of all the information and the presentation thereof, the team at the NMA developed a portal that is entirely built on Free/Libre Open Source Software. In the future, the team is hoping to open the project to the public."
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;The German <A
HREF="http://www.prtr.bund.de/"
TARGET="_top"
>PRTR - Pollutant Release and Transfer Register</A
>
provides data about environmental pollution. The data are stored with Open Source
software and presented with OpenStreepMap.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Whitepaper: <A
HREF="http://www.weed-online.org/publikationen/2353772.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Buy IT fair - Leitfaden zur sozial-<2D>kologischen Beschaffung von Computern</A
>:
This German guide gives assistance for local governments when buying IT.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-credits"
></A
>Chapter 15. Credits</H1
><P
>&#13;Thanks to:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;Hristo Bojinov &#60;hib at mit.edu&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Thomas Boutell &#60;boutell at boutell.com&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Lionel "trollhunter" Bouchpan-Lerust-Juery&#60;trollhunter at linuxfr.org&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Ben De Rydt &#60;ben.de.rydt at pandora.be&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Manuel Palomo Duarte &#60;manuel.palomo at uca.es&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Richie Gan &#60;csardas at gate.sinica.edu.tw&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://bogmog.sourceforge.net"
TARGET="_top"
>Andreas Gohr</A
> &#60;a.gohr at web.de&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Jeandre &#60;jeandre at techie.com&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Wade Hampton &#60;wadehamptoniv at gmail.com&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Malcolm Herbert &#60;Malcolm.Herbert at fulcrum.com.au&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Robert Hoehne &#60;hoehne at eng.usf.edu&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Robert Horn &#60;rjh at world.std.com&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Larry Lade &#60;lade at midco.net&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Volodymyr M. Lisivka &#60;vlisivka at gmail.com&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Verena Lorenz-Meyer
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.msquared.id.au/"
TARGET="_top"
>M<EFBFBD></A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Russell Marks &#60;rus at beeb.net&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Don Marti &#60;dmarti at varesearch.com&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Jun Morimoto &#60;morimoto at xantia.citroen.org&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Hanno Mueller &#60;kontakt at hanno.de&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Ralf Muschall &#60;rmuschall.fih at t-online.de&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Martin &#60;Niteskate at aol.com&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Michael Opdenacker, for tips and tricks about PDAs and moral support
<A
HREF="http://free-electrons.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Free-Electrons</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Klaus Peichl &#60;pei at iis.fhg.de&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Mathieu Peyrega &#60;mathieu.peyrega at orange.fr&#62;;
<A
HREF="http://www.incub.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>IncuB</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Daniel Pirone &#60;cocteau at wact.net&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Martin Pool &#60;martinp at mincom.com&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Bernhard Reiter &#60;bernhard at uwm.edu&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Matthias Scheller &#60;mscheller at access.diax.ch&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Georg Schwarz &#60;schwarz at physik.tu-berlin.de&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Victor Solymossy &#60;victor at lig.dq.ufscar.br&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Knut Suebert &#60;ksueber at gwdg.de&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Charlie Triplett &#60;crtfcc at missouri.edu&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Sotiris Vassilopoulos &#60;Sotiris.Vassilopoulos at betatech.gr&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;George White &#60;gwhite at bodnext.bio.dfo.ca&#62;
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Yan Wong &#60;yan.wong at linacre.ox.ac.uk&#62;
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="chapter"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-revision-history"
></A
>Chapter 16. Revision History</H1
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.1, 18 June 1999, first draft
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.2, 10 September 1999, changed &#60;htmlurl ... &#62; tag to &#60;url ...&#62;, another motto, added appendix B about MP3 player, created and added eco_com mailing list, added chapter about alternative power supplies, added recommendations for buying a new computer, improved screensaver section, added UPS chapter, added chapter about hardware design, minor changes
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.3, 17 September 1999, added information about Tierra, added information about wasting of resources during computer production, added some comments about UPS, minor changes
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.4, 05 December 1999, added appendix G about other operating systems, added information about CD recycling, added appendix H URLs of recyclers, removed link to Linux Games Survey, added links to SWARM, UNCERT and Climate-Dynamics, added chapter about Energy Star label (courtesy of Robert Horn), minor changes
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.5, 04 January 2000, some additional information about PostScript utilities, new chapter Caveats, URL corrections and minor changes
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.6, 01 March 2000, link to Japanese translation added and some spell checking (thanks to Jun Morimoto), correction of URLs
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.7, 14 April 2000, new chapter about double sided printing, some links added to the Games chapter, Power Management Unit - PMU section added, proposition of Chinese translation
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.8, 4 November 2000, some more hints on using small space and small memory added, new chapter about Linux applications for old hardware, some more hints how to save paper included, proposal of Portuguese translation, links updated, new document URL, minor changes
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.9, 27 February 2003, some links corrected (TuxMobil.org, tldp.org), minor changes
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.10, 22 November 2003, conversion to XML, some remarks about the ecological
comparison between laptops and desktops were added, minor changes
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.11, 23 March 2004, conversion to XML, some remarks about the ecological
comparison between laptops and desktops were added, minor changes
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.12, 27 July 2005,
Added a chapter about "Installing Linux on Older Hardware",
bumped to DocBook 4.2,
minor changes.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.13, 9 February 2006,
All URLs have been checked
and some minor changes were made.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.14, 12 March 2006,
A link to ledcontrol has been added
and some minor changes were made.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.15, 11 May 2006,
Many updates, hyperlinks to existing resources and additions by Michael Opdenacker
(<A
HREF="http://free-electrons.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Free Electrons</A
>). Most added ideas
and resources come from the embedded Linux system development community.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.16, 24 October 2006,
Some link and spell checking has been done.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.17, 30 May 2007,
A short description of Intel's LinuxPowerTop project has been added to the Powermanagement section,
the Nuke Anything Enhanced FireFox extension and kprinter are now mentioned in the Printer section,
some minor enhancements have been done and
all URLs have been checked.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.18, 19 June 2007,
A new chapter about using spare CPU cycles has been added,
the Green Linux initiative of the Linux Foundation has been mentioned, and
the abstract has been made more precise.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.19, 22 June 2007,
Some information about energy-efficient products and standards
has been added.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;0.20, 28 September 2009,
All URLs have been checked, and many minor enhancements have been made.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="appendix"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-a"
></A
>Appendix A. Appendix A - Linux with Laptops</H1
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-comparison"
></A
>A.1. Ecological Comparisons of Computers</H1
><P
>&#13; Scientists of
<A
HREF="http://www.reuse-computer.de/"
TARGET="_top"
>ReUse project</A
>
located at the
<A
HREF="http://www.tu-berlin.de/"
TARGET="_top"
>Technical University of Berlin</A
> recently compared the
energy consumption of different computer types along the life cycle. The
production of computers actually needs 535 kWh which is 10 % less than 4
years ago. Most of the energy will be consumed while the computer is used
for example at work for 8 hours/day. The energy consumption of new
computers with 2,5-3 GHz processors is even in the
stand-bye-mode still 100 Watt, whereas a 1,4 GHz PC needs 80
Watt and a 4 year old PC only needed 60 Watt. Therefore from the
ecological point of view it is better to buy an old computer
that didn't need the energy for a new production and which
consumes less electricity while it is being used.
</P
><P
>&#13; LCD displays need less energy than other monitors. For this reason
laptops are the most ecological types of the compared computers. They
need the smallest amount of energy when they are used. And 3 year old
laptops are better than new ones since their processors need less
energy than new examples. There is also an article in the
German computer magazine
<A
HREF="http://heise.de/ct/"
TARGET="_top"
>C't 21/ 2003</A
>.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-a-1"
></A
>A.2. Battery</H1
><P
>&#13; Has to be written. See
<A
HREF="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Battery-Powered/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Battery-Powered-mini-HOWTO</A
>
, too.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-a-2"
></A
>A.3. PCMCIA Card Services and Advanced Power Management</H1
><P
>&#13; Quoted from the <A
HREF="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/PCMCIA-HOWTO.html"
TARGET="_top"
>PCMCIA-HOWTO</A
>:
"Card Services can be compiled with support for APM
(Advanced Power Management) if you've configured your kernel
with APM support. ... The PCMCIA modules will automatically
be configured for APM if a compatible version is detected on
your system. Whether or not APM is configured, you can use
<B
CLASS="command"
>cardctl suspend</B
> before suspending your
laptop, and <B
CLASS="command"
>cardctl resume</B
> after resuming,
to cleanly shut down and restart your PCMCIA cards. This will
not work with a modem that is in use, because the serial
driver isn't able to save and restore the modem operating
parameters. APM seems to be unstable on some systems. If you
experience trouble with APM and PCMCIA on your system, try to
narrow down the problem to one package or the other before
reporting a bug. Some drivers, notably the PCMCIA SCSI
drivers, cannot recover from a suspend/resume cycle. When
using a PCMCIA SCSI card, always use <B
CLASS="command"
>cardctl
eject</B
> prior to suspending the system."
</P
><P
>&#13;You should use the internal modem in a laptop instead of a PCMCIA modem, if possible (it may be a WinModem).
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><HR><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-a-3"
></A
>A.4. Power Saving Techniques</H1
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;If you don't need infrared support,
disable it in the BIOS or shutdown the
IrDA device driver. There are also some
IrDA features of the kernel which are
useful for saving power.
In the specifications of my HP
OmniBook 800 it is recommended to turn
off the IR port, if it is not in use,
because it may consume up to 10
percent of the battery time.
If necessary, you may also try to
disable the <B
CLASS="command"
>Fast RRs</B
> feature in the IrDA
section of the kernel. This option
will give you much better latencies
but will consume more power.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;
PCMCIA services consume much power, so shut them down if you don't need them.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;I'm not sure to which extend the
<B
CLASS="command"
>backlight</B
>
consumes power. WARNING: AFAIK
this device can only bear a
limited number of uptime circles.
So avoid using screensavers too
much.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;For some examples to build
batteries with increased uptime
up to 8 hours look at
<A
HREF="http://www.silverace.com/libretto/"
TARGET="_top"
>Adorable Toshiba Libretto</A
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;For information about APM look at the APM chapter above.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~bbense/toys/"
TARGET="_top"
>A hacked rclock</A
>.
Booker C. Bense has hacked the
<B
CLASS="command"
>rclock</B
> program to include a simple battery power
meter on the clock face.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; <A
HREF="http://www.kde.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>KDE</A
> provides
<B
CLASS="command"
>KAPM</B
>, <B
CLASS="command"
>Kbatmon</B
> and
<B
CLASS="command"
>Kcmlaptop</B
>. Written by Paul Campbell
<B
CLASS="command"
>kcmlaptop</B
> is a set of KDE control panels that
implements laptop computer support functions, it includes a dockable
battery status monitor for laptops - in short a little icon in the
KDE status bar that shows how much battery time you have left. It
also will warn you when power is getting low and allows you to
configure power saving options.
Similar packages you may find at the
<A
HREF="http://www.gnome.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>GNOME project</A
> . See the
software maps at both sites.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; Please see
<A
HREF="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Battery-Powered/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Battery-Powered-mini-HOWTO</A
>
for more information.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13; <B
CLASS="command"
>toshiba-fan</B
> Turn the fan on a Toshiba Pentium laptop on
or off. This is a command line utility to turn the fan of a Toshiba laptop
on or off, or view its current state. It should work on all Toshiba Pentium
laptops that have fans.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="appendix"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-b"
></A
>Appendix B. Appendix B - MP3-Hardware-Decoder at Parallel Port</H1
><P
>&#13;In the German computer magazine
<A
HREF="http://www.heise.de/ct/"
TARGET="_top"
>CT</A
>
issue 9/1999 p. 200 and 10/1999 p. 260 I found an article about turning an old
PC (from 286 upward) into a MP3 player, by using a MP3-Hardware-Decoder at the
parallel port.
<A
HREF="http://www.mp3pump.de/english/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Authors Homepage</A
> .
</P
><P
>&#13;Also mentioned there, is a software by <A
HREF="http://leute.server.de/peichl/mpegcd.htm"
TARGET="_top"
>Klaus Peichl</A
>, which doesn't need a hardware decoder.
</P
><P
>&#13;Though both programs are DOS based, I mention them here. I hadn't time to look for an according Linux solution.
</P
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://cajun.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>Cajun</A
> is a program that allows you to turn any computer (&#62;75mhz) into a massive audio jukebox for your car or home. It uses the
<A
HREF="http://www.matrixorbital.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>MatrixOrbital</A
>
serial display and supports the IRman infra-red remote control interface. Soundcard output is delivered to your (car or home) stereo for amplification. The software supports a hotlist and shuffle mode. It includes FM/Video4Linux support, icecast/shoutcast support, CrystalFontz serial display support, and choice of mpg123 or xaudio for driving the sound card.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="appendix"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-c"
></A
>Appendix C. Appendix C - Bibliography</H1
><P
>&#13;<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;Ellringmann, H. /Hrsg.): Softwarefuehrer Umweltschutz. Anbieter - Produkte - Maerkte; 1999ff.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Koellner, W. / Fichtler, W.: Recycling von Elektro- und Elektronikschrott; 1996
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Rohwedder, W.J. "Rocky" / Alm, Andy: Using Computers in Environmental Education; 1994
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Schloegl, M.:Recycling von Elektro- und Elektronikschrott; 1995
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Tiltmann, K.O. (Hrsg.): Recyclingpraxis Elektronik; 1994
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;Andreas Grote: (be): Gruene Rechnung - Das Produkt Computer in der Oekobilanz - Report, Oekologie, Rohstoffverbrauch, Energieverbrauch und Schadstoff-Emissionen bei Herstellung, Betrieb und Entsorgung, EPA, Energy Star, Green-PC (c't 12/1994, Seite 92) <A
HREF="http://www.heise.de/ct/"
TARGET="_top"
>CT</A
> .
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="appendix"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-d"
></A
>Appendix D. Appendix D - Recommendations for Buying a New Computer</H1
><P
>&#13;Courtesy of Wade Hampton (modifications by wh): Purchase a low-power computer such as a laptop or network computer. These typically don't use as much power as desktop systems. For example, someone on the WWW had a Corel/Rebel Netwinder powered by solar cells. I find it funny that an "Energy Star" desktop still has a 300W power supply and uses far more power than a computer like the Netwinder which uses something like 10 Watts of power, (though this is consistent with the Energy Star goals for computer equipment, since they have targeted unused power consumption).
</P
><P
>&#13;Maybe there should be a new class of computers called "Energy Miser" (or similar) that use nearly an order of magnitude less power than Energy Star systems?
</P
><P
>&#13;To save power for the display, one could purchase a LCD monitor instead of a CRT. LCD monitors consume 30-40 Watts of power versus the 100's of Watts used by most monitors. The price of an LCD is still 2-3 times that of a similar monitor, but as LCDs become more widely used, the price will come down.
</P
><P
>&#13;Make sure that any new computer purchase includes APM-compliant hardware and low-radiation. Use TCO, DPMS or Energy Star compliant monitors.
</P
><P
>&#13;R Horn &#60;rjh at world.std.com&#62; wrote: " I personally have found the <A
HREF="http://eande.lbl.gov/"
TARGET="_top"
>Lawrence Berkeley Labs - LBL</A
> web site to be the best source for information on energy efficient equipment. They go into considerable details on how to reduce energy consumption from many kinds of equipment, including much more than computers. They also have a good collection of links to related sites. The Energy Star program is defined by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which has a web site on it. So far all of the Energy Star regulations have been defined to reduce energy usage without requireing change or restrictions on regular usage. There is an amazingly large amount of electricity consumed by idle equipment (computers, televisions, microwave ovens,...) and also large amounts consumed unnecessarily by equipment that must be continuously one (emergency exit signs, traffic lights, ...). Since this energy can be saved without asking users to make any compromises on performance, it is being targeted first.
</P
><P
>&#13;Somewhere on the LBL web site they have the actual power consumption figures for various PCs. The 300W power supply is quite misleading. Actual power usage varies depending upon what programs you run and whether the disks can be powered down. Genuine usage while in operation is usually in the 50-75W range. When the system is idle, it drops significantly.
</P
><P
>&#13;The NetWinder is a nice machine, but does force operational compromises. The peak CPU performance is much lower. The operating system is not Windows. And there are other limitations. A closer comparison is the typical laptop PC. These can generally be operated from a modest solar panel because their average power drain is quite low. With these you can see the cost vs power consumption tradeoff. They achieve the same performance as the desktop units, but the low power consumption has doubled or tripled the cost.
</P
><P
>&#13;(I personally use a Psion. A decent slow computer that requires only 200mw of power. It may even run Linux once they deal with some of the ROM issues.)
</P
><P
>&#13;The big debate in setting the energy star regulations was deciding which would have greater overall benefit: small negligible cost improvements to almost all equipment sold, or greater improvements at much higher cost? Could that cost be invested elsewhere to greater benefit? How will the purchasers react to the higher cost? So far the consensus has been that improving a large number of machines at negligible cost is wiser than improving a smaller number of machines at high cost."
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="appendix"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-e"
></A
>Appendix E. Appendix E - A New Environmentally Friendly Hardware Design</H1
><P
>&#13;Courtesy of Wade Hampton and Knut Suebert: New hardware designs that plan
to use Linux should take advantage of environmentally friendly technologies
such as low-power CPUs e.g., the ARM from Intel:
, environmentally friendly battery design, low-power displays (e.g., non-backlit LCDs), smaller packaging, etc. Linux supports a WIDE variety of hardware and technologies. These could be leveraged into powerful, flexible, environmentally friendly Linux-based solutions.
</P
><P
>&#13;An "Environmental Rating" could be created for new Linux-based hardware and even some Linux-based software such as <B
CLASS="command"
>bottlerocket</B
> (X10). Devices such as the Netwinder or the uCsimm would receive high ratings for their size, power consumption, capabilities, etc.
</P
><P
>&#13;At <A
HREF="http://www.telepolis.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/1367/1.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Telepolis (German Computer Magazine)</A
> you might find an article about wasted resources during computer manufacturing.
</P
><P
>&#13;Generally speaking PPC CPUs consume less power than x86 CPUs.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="appendix"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-f"
></A
>Appendix F. Appendix F - Computer Related Eco Labels</H1
><P
>&#13;
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
><A
HREF="http://www.energystar.gov.au/"
TARGET="_top"
>ENERGY STAR Australia Home Page</A
></P
></LI
><LI
><P
><A
HREF="http://www.blauer-engel.de/"
TARGET="_top"
>Blauer-Engel.de</A
></P
></LI
><LI
><P
><A
HREF="http://www.svanen.nu/Eng/"
TARGET="_top"
>SIS Ecolabelling, The Swan, Nordic ecolabel</A
></P
></LI
><LI
><P
><A
HREF="http://www.eco-label.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Eco-Label</A
></P
></LI
><LI
><P
><A
HREF="http://www.eccj.or.jp/top_runner/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Top Runner - Energy Conservation Center,Japan / Top Runner Program REVISED EDITION/OCT 2006</A
></P
></LI
><LI
><P
><A
HREF="http://www.gealabel.org/About.htm"
TARGET="_top"
>GEEA -Group for Energy Efficient Appliances</A
></P
></LI
><LI
><P
><A
HREF="http://www.unescap.org/esd/energy/publications/psec/guidebook-part-two-standby-power.htm#244"
TARGET="_top"
>Swiss ordinances on standby power</A
></P
></LI
><LI
><P
><A
HREF="http://www.mtprog.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Market Transformation Programme - Supporting UK Government policy on sustainable products</A
></P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="appendix"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-g"
></A
>Appendix G. Appendix G - Other Operating Systems</H1
><DIV
CLASS="sect1"
><H1
CLASS="sect1"
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-g-1"
></A
>G.1. DOS</H1
><P
>&#13;To my surprise there are still many tools available to make an old 286 PC useful. I started a search for <B
CLASS="command"
>286</B
> at <A
HREF="http://www.simtel.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>Simtel.Net</A
> and found many useful shareware programs. For instance:
</P
><P
>&#13;<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.simtel.net/product.php?id=47316"
TARGET="_top"
>Full-featured LAN for MSDOS computers, 286+req</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.simtel.net/product.php?id=48441"
TARGET="_top"
>RoseMail, PCBoard offline mail, 8086/286 exe's</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.simtel.net/product.php?id=50547"
TARGET="_top"
>Multitasking/multiuser environment for 286-586</A
>
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
><P
>&#13;There is even a free DOS around, see
<A
HREF="http://www.500mhz.net/ndx.html"
TARGET="_top"
>The OS Developers Homepage</A
> and
<A
HREF="http://www.freeos.com"
TARGET="_top"
>The FreeOS</A
> page.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="appendix"
><HR><H1
><A
NAME="ecology-howto-appendix-h"
></A
>Appendix H. Appendix H - URLs of Recyclers</H1
><P
>&#13;<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.remedia.de/"
TARGET="_top"
>REMEDIA</A
> - Germany - recycling of data storage media (CD, floppy, tape)
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.alcad.com/site_map.htm"
TARGET="_top"
>ALCAD</A
> - worldwide - Ni-Cd Battery Recycling
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.cd-collect.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>CD-COLLECT</A
> - CD recycling
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.rbrc.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation</A
> RBRC is a non-profit, public service organization created to promote the recycling of Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) rechargeable batteries.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;The <A
HREF="http://www.epba-europe.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>European Portable Battery Association (EPBA)</A
> is the European organisation of companies manufacturing, selling or distributing portable batteries. The mission of the EPBA is to ensure that the ideal conditions are created for responsible development of the portable battery industry in Europe. Acting in the common interests of all of its members, the EPBA aims to sustain a competitive industry in an increasingly complex commercial climate.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;<A
HREF="http://www.batterycouncil.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Battery Council International</A
> is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of promoting the interests of the international lead-acid battery industry. With more than 175 members worldwide, the Battery Council International (BCI) brings together lead-acid battery manufacturers and recyclers, marketers and retailers, suppliers of raw materials and equipment, and industry consultants.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
><P
>&#13;When computer waste processing channels are not available yet in
your country, or are just not mature enough yet, another idea is too keep
your computer waste a few more years in your attic or in your cellar (provided
you have storage space). Better processing channels and recycling technologies
will become available over the years.
</P
><P
>&#13;In some countries like France (and probably in the whole European Union),
local law makes it mandatory for consumer device shops to accept
old devices for free when you buy a new one, to ensure suitable processing
or recycling of waste.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
></BODY
></HTML
>
Reference in New Issue View Git Blame Copy Permalink