Improve memory footprint for the ARM desktop

Registered by Steve Langasek

Identify low-hanging fruit for improving memory usage of a standard graphical environment on ARM. This may include:
 - fixing bugs in upstream sources related to memory use
 - selecting different applications
 - disabling optional features at build-time

Blueprint information

Status:
Not started
Approver:
Steve Langasek
Priority:
Medium
Drafter:
Dave Martin
Direction:
Needs approval
Assignee:
Dave Martin
Definition:
Approved
Series goal:
None
Implementation:
Not started
Milestone target:
None

Related branches

Sprints

Whiteboard

Work items for 11.05-alpha-3:
define where memory metrics should be output in the filesystem to ease automated extraction: TODO
define use cases for use-case-specific footprint measurement: TODO

Work items:
define an upstart job to run {{{smemcap}}} at a given phase during startup, suggest "start on stopped rc RUNLEVEL=[2345]": TODO
For GUI-enabled images, define a GNOME desktop startup job to run "smemcap" at an appropriate time: TODO
For GUI-enabled images, define a GNOME desktop startup job to capture X resource usage at an appropriate time: TODO
add in kernel memory usage measurement when methodology has been defined: TODO
coordinate with infrastructure team to create scripts for automatically extracting and submitting the memory usage data to an appropriate tracking system, and for extracting metrics from the data: TODO
coordinate with infrastructure team to define how and when memory usage data will be captured: TODO
determine how to use (or hack) xrestop for non-interactive automated data capture: TODO
coordinate with Ubuntu/Debian on the best way to reduce the packaging system footprint and system load (dpkg, apt and apt-xapian-index): TODO
implement packaging system footprint reduction in the linaro images: TODO
fix low-hanging fruit #1: TODO
fix low-hanging fruit #2: TODO
fix low-hanging fruit #3: TODO
Report on status of hot/cold code separation support in gcc: TODO

(?)

Work Items