Linux Ecology HOWTO

Linux Ecology HOWTO
Werner Heuser, < [email protected] > Wade W. Hampton <whamp�
[email protected]>
v0.3, 17 September 1999

The Ecology-HOWTO discusses ways Linux computers can be used as a mean
to protect our environment, by using its features to save power or
paper. 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 ecologi�
cal processes.
______________________________________________________________________

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Reduction of Power Consumption

2.1 Advanced Power Managment (APM/ACPI)
2.1.1 Linux Compatibility Check
2.1.2 Introduction
2.1.3 Caveats
2.1.4 Troubleshooting
2.1.5 ACPI
2.2 Power Saving Techniques
2.3 Turn Monitor off, use Keyboard LEDs
2.4 Screensavers

3. Alternative Power Supplies - Sun, Wind, Water

4. Noise Reduction

4.1 Fan
4.2 Harddisk
4.3 Speakers

5. Saving Consumables (Paper, Ink, etc.)

5.1 Printing of Drafts / Multiple Pages on One Sheet of Paper
5.2 Reading From the Monitor Instead From Paper
5.3 Other Techniques

6. Extending the Life Cycle of your Hardware

6.1 Recycling of Hardware
6.1.1 Supported CPU Families
6.1.2 Dealing with Limited Resources or Tuning the System
6.1.2.1 Related HOWTOs
6.1.2.2 Introduction
6.1.2.3 Small Space
6.1.2.3.1 Introduction
6.1.2.3.2 Techniques
6.1.2.4 Harddisk Speed
6.1.2.5 Small Memory
6.1.2.5.1 Related HOWTOs
6.1.2.5.2 Techniques
6.1.2.6 Low CPU Speed
6.1.2.7 Tiny Applications and Distributions
6.2 Other Techniques
6.3 Other Operating Systems

7. X10

8. Uninterruptable Power Supply - UPS

9. Games

10. Ecology Software (Simulation, Datacollection, Statistics, etc.)

10.1 Ecolab
10.2 OpenClassroom
10.3 Tierra
10.4 Linux in Environmental Research

11. Related Projects, Mailing Lists and Newsgroups

12. Credits

13. Revision History

14. Copyright and Disclaimer

15. Appendix A - Linux with Laptops

15.1 Battery
15.2 PCMCIA Card Services and Advanced Power Management
15.3 Power Saving Techniques

16. Appendix B - MP3-Hardware-Decoder at Parallel Port

17. Appendix C - Bibliography

18. Appendix D - Recommendations for Buying a New Computer

19. Appendix E - Recommendations for a New Environmentally Friendly Hardware Design

20. Appendix F - Computer Related Eco Labels

______________________________________________________________________

1. Introduction

Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding is the
third. -- Marge Piercy <http://www.capecod.net/~tmpiercy/>

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.

Some objectives of the howto:

� Reduction in power consumption.

� Reduction in consumables like paper and inks.

� Reduction in waste by reusing older components or keeping them in
service longer.

� Reduction in toxic waste such as used batteries.

� Use of Linux in environmental education and research.

If I didn't provide an URL for a package, you may get the package from
Debian <http://www.debian.org> or as a RPM package, from your favorite
RPM server, for instance Rufus
<http://rufus.w3.org/linux/RPM/ByName.html>.

Some parts are modified chapters from my Laptop-HOWTO and my IR-HOWTO
http://www.snafu.de/~wehe/index_li.html
<http://www.snafu.de/~wehe/index_li.html>.

The document is intended to be included in the LINUX DOCUMENTATION
PROJECT <http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP>. But though I have submitted it
sometimes, it is still not included into the LDP. - Please ignore this
paragraph if you have got this text through the LDP finally.

The latest version of this document is available at LiLAC
<http://www.snafu.de/~wehe/index_li.html> .

Since Wade W. 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.

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.

Werner Heuser <[email protected]>

2. Reduction of Power Consumption

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.

2.1. Advanced Power Managment (APM/ACPI)

2.1.1. Linux Compatibility Check

From the Battery-Powered-mini-HOWTO " .. 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 dmesg command
and in the /proc/apm file.

2.1.2. Introduction

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.

APM support consists of two parts: kernel support and user-land
support.

For kernel support, enable the parameters in the corresponding kernel
section. AFAIK not all features work with laptops. AFAIK the feature
CONFIG_APM_POWER_OFF works with most laptops.

The utilities for userland support may be found at
http://worldvisions.ca/~apenwarr/apmd/
<http://worldvisions.ca/~apenwarr/apmd/>. 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 <[email protected]> has made a kernel patch that
allows you to hibernate any Linux system to disk, even if your
computers APM BIOS doesn't support it directly.

Richard Gooch wrote: I'have had a look at the beta version of apmd,
and I still don't like it, because:

� Only supports one command to run at suspend time.

� Doesn't distinguish between user and system suspends.

� doesn't provide a way to disable policy (the sync(); sleep(0) ;
sync(); sleep(1); sequence)

� Does not document extra features.

� And I'm not sure that what we want is a single super daemon. A
collection of smaller daemons might be better, since it allows
people to pick and choose. A super daemon is bloat for those who
only want one small feature.

Though this topic was discussed controversly Richard Gooch has put
together a package suspendd at http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/
<http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/> .

Also, have a look at apmcd (apm based crontab) at
ftp.binary9.net/pub/linux/apmcd-1.15.tar.gz
<ftp.binary9.net/pub/linux/apmcd-1.15.tar.gz> . A tool made by Nicolas
J. Leon <[email protected]> http://mrnick.binary9.net/
<http://mrnick.binary9.net/>.

Note: I didn't check wether this features are merged into one package
(apmd eventually) already.

2.1.3. Caveats

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.

2.1.4. Troubleshooting

If your machine worked with 2.0.x kernels but not with the 2.2.x
series, take this advice from Klaus Franken [email protected] :
"The default changed in 2.2. Search in the init-scripts for halt and
change it to halt -p or poweroff. See man halt , if you don't have
this option you need a newer version of halt." You may find it in the
SysVinit package.

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 apm -s. Folks with this affliction
might want switch to the console virtual terminal then suspend chvt 1;
apm -s as root, or, more appropiately.sudo chvt 1; sudo apm -s. I have
these commands in a script, say, my-suspend and then do xapmload
--click-command my-suspend .

On some new machines (for instance HP Omnibook 4150 - 366 MHz model)
when accessing /proc/apm, you may get a kernel fault general
protection fault: f000. Stephen Rothwell
<[email protected]> http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~sfr/
<http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~sfr/> explaines: "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."

2.1.5. ACPI

The latest standard is ACPI. The ACPI4Linux project has started at the
beginning of 1999. The ACPI4Linux project is a kernel driver project
aimed at implementing full ACPI support for Linux, including fan
control, dock/undock detection and a WindowMaker dockable temperature
meter. You may reach it at http://phobos.fachschaften.tu-
muenchen.de/acpi/ <http://phobos.fachschaften.tu-muenchen.de/acpi/> .

2.2. Power Saving Techniques

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.

Most Linux-users tend to leave their computer on for years whenever
possible. However, several modern BIOS's support an unattended
powerup, and with cron you can even do an unattended shutdown. No need
to leave the computer on night after night.

1. hdparm
<ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/sources/sbin/hdparm-3.0.tar.gz>
hdparm is a Linux IDE disk utility that lets you set spin-down
timeouts and other disk parameters. It works also for some SCSI
features.

2. Mobile Update Daemon
<http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/ulrich/linux/tips.html> This is a
drop-in replacement for the standard update daemon, mobile-update
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 sync manually. Otherwise files may be lost on
power failure. mobile-update does not use APM. So it works also on
older systems.

3. Toshiba Linux Utilities
<http://www2.prestel.co.uk/hex/toshiba.html> 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
Klibreta, too.

4. LCDproc <http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/> . "LCDproc is a small
piece of software that will enable your Linux box to display live
system information on a 20x4 line backlit LCD display. AFAIK it
connects only to the external Matrix-Orbital 20x4 LCD display
Matrix-Orbital <http://www.matrix-orbital.com/>, which is a LCD
display connected to a serial port.

5. Dial Daemon <http://www.loonie.net/~eschenk/diald.html> . 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.

2.3. Turn Monitor off, use Keyboard LEDs

There are some tools which allow to get information from your computer
without using the monitor:

� bl : Blink Keyboard LEDs

� blinkd : "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."
� mailleds : Shows new mails with the keyboard LEDs, mailleds is a
quiet, unobtrusive way to signify that you have new mail: a user
daemon to blink LEDs when there is new mail.

� tleds : 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.

2.4. Screensavers

Do they only prevent the screen from being burned in or do they save
power, too?

Some recommendations from Wade W. 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.

To really save power, and if your X server plus monitor supports it,
use the dpms option of xset (see the manual page for xset). For
example, to enable the DPMS (Energy Star) features of you X server:
xset +dpms

You may also manually change the mode of your X display:

______________________________________________________________________
xset dpms force standby
xset dpms force suspend
xset dpms force off
______________________________________________________________________

Some screen saver programs:

� The purpose of xscreensaver 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 xlock and xautolock 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.

� LockVC 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.

3. Alternative Power Supplies - Sun, Wind, Water

See a survey of links at Eklektix <http://www.eklektix.com/solar> .

4. Noise Reduction

Most of the noise emitted by a computer is produced by the fan, the
harddisk and the speakers.

4.1. Fan

� libsensors0 Library to read temperature/voltage/fan sensors

� lm-sensors "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."
http://www.lm-sensors.nu/ <http://www.lm-sensors.nu/>

� ACPI, see APM chapter

4.2. Harddisk

See man hdparm .

4.3. Speakers

Has to be written. PCMCIA-HOWTO, "Speakerrektomie"

5. Saving Consumables (Paper, Ink, etc.)

5.1. Printing of Drafts / Multiple Pages on One Sheet of Paper

Use psutils 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.

Often HTML pages are not optimised for printing. You may use html2ps,
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."

Or you may use mpage 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.

5.2. Reading From the Monitor Instead From Paper

Or use less/xless/gless as a viewer instead of printing. You can view
postscript documments with gs and view PDF documents with either xpdf
or acroread (from Adobe <http://www.adobe.com>). Ask yourself, do you
--really-- need a hardcopy each time you decide to print something
out.

What are the reasons why people don't read from the monitor:

� Reading is slower up to 30 percent, see N.N.
<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9602.html>. 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 (type-1, t1lib, truetype, freetype).

� 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.

5.3. Other Techniques

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.

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.

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 E3000
<http://www.thinworks.com/campaign/try_e3000.html> .

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
tangable and hence more controllable.

Does anyone know of studies or additional research to help clarify and
resolve this issue?

Recycle your used paper, ink, and packing materials.

You may use refillable printer cartridges. In Germany the are marked
with the "Blauer Engel" lable.

Laser printer cartridges can often be used much more longer if you
shake them when the message "toner low" appears at the message panel.

Wade W. Hampton provided the biggest part of this chapter.

6. Extending the Life Cycle of your Hardware

6.1. Recycling of Hardware

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.

Hence Linux doesn't require big hardware, it's very useful if you like
or need to use old and small hardware.

6.1.1. Supported CPU Families

Linux runs on Intel-compatible processors, including Intel's 386, 486,
Pentium, Pentium Pro and Pentium II, and compatible processors by AMD,
Cyrix and others.

Linux doesn't support the 286 CPU family yet. But there are some
efforts at ELKS http://www.linux.org.uk/ELKS-Home/index.html
<http://www.linux.org.uk/ELKS-Home/index.html> or
http://www.elks.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ <http://www.elks.ecs.soton.ac.uk/>.

If you like, you may use Minix <http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html>
one of the predecessors of Linux. Minix supports 8088 to 286 with as
little as 640K memory.

Of coarse there are also ports to other systems, such as ALPHA,
PowerPC, etc. For details about systems which are supported by the
Linux Kernel, see the Linux FAQ
<http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/iwj10/linux-faq/> .

The ARM is a fast AND low-power alternative. For example, the
Corel/Rebel Netwinder is based on the ARM processor see Rebel
<http://www.rebel.com> and Strong-ARM
<http://developer.intel.com/design/strong/>.

6.1.2. Dealing with Limited Resources or Tuning the System

This chapter is taken from my Laptop-HOWTO.

6.1.2.1. Related HOWTOs

1. LBX-HOWTO

2. Small-Memory-HOWTO

6.1.2.2. Introduction

To deal with limited space, memory, CPU speed and battery power, I
have written this chapter.

6.1.2.3. Small Space

6.1.2.3.1. Introduction

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.

6.1.2.3.2. Techniques

1. Stripping: Though many distributions come with stripped binaries
today it is useful to check this. For details see man strip. To
find every unstripped file you can use the file command or more
convenient the tool findstrip. Attention: don't strip libraries,
sometimes the wrong symbols are removed due to a bad programming
technique.

2. Perforation: zum(1)reads a file list on stdin and attempts to
perforate these files. Perforation means, that series of null bytes
are replaced by lseek, thus giving the file system a chance of not
allocating real disk space for those bytes. Example: find . -type f
| xargs zum

3. Remove Odd Files and Duplicates: Check your system for core files,
emacs recovery files <#FILE#> vi recovery files <FILE>.swp, RPM
recovery files <FILE>.rpmorig and patch recovery files. Find
duplicates, you may try finddup. Choose a system to name your
backup, temporary and test files, e.g. with a signature at the end.

4. Clean Temporary Files: , e.g. /tmp, there is even a tool tmpwatch.

5. Shorten the Log Files: usually the files in /var/log. There are
some nice helpers for this task around, e.g. savelog .

6. Remove Files: Remove files which are not "necessary" under all
circumstances such as man pages, documentation /usr/doc and sources
e.g. /usr/src .

7. Unnecessary Libraries: You may use the binstats package to find
unused libraries (Thanks to Tom Ed White).

8. Filesystem: Choose a filesystem which treats disk space
economically e.g. rsfs aka Reiser Filesystem. Tune your filesystem
e.g. tune2fs. Choose an appropriate partition and block size.

9. Reduce Kernel Size: Either by using only the necessary kernel
features and/or making a compressed kernel image bzImage.

10.
Compression: I didn't check this but AFAIK you may compress your
filesystem with gzip and decompress it on the fly. Alternatively
you may choose to compress only certain files. You can even execute
compressed files with zexec

11.
Compressed Filesystems:

- For e2fs filesystems there is a compression version available
e2compr , see http://debs.fuller.edu/e2compr/
<http://debs.fuller.edu/e2compr/> .

- DMSDOS which enables your machine to access Windows95 compressed
drives (drivespace, doublestacker). If you don't need DOS/Windows95
compatibility, i.e. if you want to compress Linux-only data, this
is really discouraged by the author of the program. See
http://fb9nt-ln.uni-duisburg.de/mitarbeiter/gockel/software/dmsdos/
<http://fb9nt-ln.uni-
duisburg.de/mitarbeiter/gockel/software/dmsdos/> .

12.
Partition Sharing: You may share swap-space (see Swap-Space-HOWTO)
or data partitions between different OS (see mount). For mounting
MS-DOS Windows95 compressed drives (doublespace, drivespace) you
may use dmsdos
http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/dosfs/
<http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/dosfs/>.

13.
Libraries: Take another (older) library, for instance libc5 , this
library seems to be smaller than libc6 aka glibc2 .
14.
Kernel: If your needs are fitted with an older kernel version, you
can save some space.

15.
GUI: Avoid as much Graphical User Interface (GUI) as possible.

16.
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 Laptop-HOWTO
http://www.snafu.de/~wehe/index_li.html
<http://www.snafu.de/~wehe/index_li.html>

6.1.2.4. Harddisk Speed

Use the tool hdparm to set up better harddisk performance. Though I
have seen laptop disk enabled with striping, I can't see a reason to
do so, because IMHO aka RAID0 striping needs at least to different
disks to increase performance.

6.1.2.5. Small Memory

6.1.2.5.1. Related HOWTOs

1. Small-Memory-mini-HOWTO by Todd Burgess <[email protected] >
http://eddie.cis.uoguelph.ca/~tburgess
<http://eddie.cis.uoguelph.ca/~tburgess>

2. Modules-mini-HOWTO

3. Kerneld-mini-HOWTO

6.1.2.5.2. Techniques

Check the memory usage with free and top.

Mergemem Project <http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/ulrich/mergemem/>.
Many programs contain memory areas of the same content that remain
undetected by the operating system. Typically, these areas contain
data that have been generated on startup and remain unchanged for
longer periods. With mergemem such areas are detected and shared. The
sharing is performed on the operating system level and is invisible to
the user level programs. mergemem is particularily useful if you run
many instances of interpreters and emulators (like Java or Prolog)
that keep their code in private data areas. But also other programs
can take advantage albeit to a lesser degree.

You may also reduce the kernel size as much as possible by removing
any feature which is not necessary for your needs and by modularizing
the kernel as much as possible.

Also you may shutdown every service or daemon which is not needed,
e.g. lpd, mountd, nfsd and close some virtual consoles. Please see
Small-Memory-mini-HOWTO for details.

And of coarse use swap space, when possible.

If possible you may use the resources of another machine, for instance
with X, VNC or even telnet. For more information on Virtual Network
Computing (VNC), see http://http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/
<http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc> .

6.1.2.6. Low CPU Speed

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 Adorable Toshiba Libretto - Overclocking
http://www.cerfnet.com/~adorable/libretto.html
<http://www.cerfnet.com/~adorable/libretto.html>.

6.1.2.7. Tiny Applications and Distributions

A small collection yet, but I'm looking for more information.

1. BOA - "Lightweight and High Performance WebServer. boa 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."

2. MGR - a graphical windows system, which uses much less resources
than X.

3. Low Bandwidth X - Alan Cox in LINUX REDUX February 1998 " .. there
are two that handle normal applications very nicely. LBX (Low
Bandwidth X) is the official application of the X Consortium (now
OpenGroup www.opengroup.org). Dxpc
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~zvonler/dxpc
<http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~zvonler/dxpc> 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."

4. blackbox - "This is a window manager for X. It 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."

5. linux-lite - distribution based on a 1.x.x kernel for systems with
only 2MB memory and 10MB harddisk. URL see above.

6. smallLinux - http://smalllinux.netpedia.net/
<http://smalllinux.netpedia.net/> . Three disk micro-distribution
of Linux and utilities. Based on kernel 1.2.11. Root disk is ext2
format and has fdisk and mkfs.ext2 so that a harddisk install can
be done. Useful to boot up on old machines with less than 4MB of
RAM.

7. cLIeNUX - client-use-oriented Linux distribution.

8. minix - not a Linux but a UNIX useful for very small systems, such
as 286 CPU and 640K RAM http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html
<http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html> . There is even X support
named mini-x by David I. Bell
ftp://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/alan/
<ftp://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/alan/> .
9. screen - tiny but powerful console manager. John M. Fisk
<[email protected]> in LINUX GAZETTE July 1, 1996 :"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 at the console." "screen 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."

10.
tinyirc - "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."

11.
tinyproxy - "Tinyproxy 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."

6.2. Other Techniques

NiCad batteries need to be discharged periodically to prevent the
memory effect and prolong their lifespan.

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.

One technology to watch is the "Iron" battery mentioned in the article
at N.N. <http://news.excite.com/news/r/990815/01/science-battery-iron>
. 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.

Some remarks about backlights in laptops, monitors (screensavers),
harddisks (hdparm), etc. have to be written.

6.3. Other Operating Systems

Courtesy of George White <[email protected]>:

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.

7. X10

"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."

These X10 <http://www.x10.com> 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 bottlerocket and gtk-x10 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).

Turn that light off when not in use!

8. Uninterruptable Power Supply - UPS

You should use 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 UPS-HOWTO
<http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP>.

UPSs do save hardware, save work, etc. In areas prone to lightening,
they could save hours of work each week, potentially translating into
power savings. They do save hardware in areas prone to power outages.
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.

9. Games

Personally I'm not much a player of computer games but probably they
can be used for environmental education. In a first investigation I
found lincity and Real Life, please check their usefulness by
yourself.

Overview at Linux Games Survey <http://www.pcisys.net/~futant138/> .

� lincity build & 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.

� Real Life <http://www.sunysb.edu/philosophy/RealLife.html> - "In
Conway's Game of Life 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."

10. Ecology Software (Simulation, Datacollection, Statistics, etc.)

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 Ecolab 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.

10.1. Ecolab

Ecolab is both the name of a software package and a research project
that is looking at the dynamics of evolution.
http://parallel.acsu.unsw.edu.au/rks/ecolab.html
<http://parallel.acsu.unsw.edu.au/rks/ecolab.html> 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++.

10.2. OpenClassroom

"OpenClassroom - distribution for Education. Pre-alpha. homepage:
OpenClassroom <http://www.openclassroom.org/> is integrating a package
of software that allows educational and community organizations to
create communities of knowledge by connecting their existing PCs (old
or new) into a network, both local and worldwide, such as the
Internet. A central focus of this initiative is to allow such
organizations to extend the usable life of their equipment by bringing
them state-of-the-art software that runs on their existing PCs. Our
toolset allows organizations and citizens to own and operate their own
digital printing press."

10.3. Tierra

Tierra <http://www.hip.atr.co.jp/~ray/tierra/tierra.html> is a tool
for studying digital evolution and ecology that runs on Linux and
other OSes.

10.4. Linux in Environmental Research

Courtesy of Wade W. 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 uCsimm <http://www.uclinux.com>. Linux even
flew on the shuttle controlling biological experiments.... Linux has
been used for weather research on NOAA's Hurricane Hunter aircraft.

Linux is also an ideal platform for researching ecological and
environmental information via the Internet using standard WWW-based
tools like Netscape.

Linux may even be used to model complex biological and environmental
processes. A (beowulf cluster <http://www.beowulf.org> could be used
to run complex simulations of environmental processes, for example
Earthdome <http://www.methaz.com/earthdome.htm>.
11. Related Projects, Mailing Lists and Newsgroups

� Though I searched the WWW, I couldn't find neither a dedicated
newsgroup nor a mailing list yet. So I decided to create the Eco-
Com mailing list. You can subscribe to this list via email. Write
to [email protected], and you will be sent a
verification message.

� Repair FAQ <http://itp1.physik.tu-berlin.de/~schwarz/> .

� Obsolete Computer Helpline
<http://www.ncsc.dni.us/fun/user/tcc/cmuseum/helpline/helpline.htm>
.

� 386 World <http://come.to/386> by Gaute Hvoslef Kvalnes
<[email protected]> . He provides one of the greatest recources
available on 386 computers and software. Though his work is mainly
related to MS-Windows, he also supports Linux.

� "The Electronic Green Journal <http://www.lib.uidaho.edu>,
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.

12. Credits

Thanks to:

� Verena Lorenz-Meyer <[email protected]>

� George White <[email protected]>

� Wade W. Hampton <[email protected]>

� Daniel Pirone <[email protected]>

� Knut Suebert <[email protected]>

� Ben De Rydt <[email protected]>

� Hanno Mueller <[email protected]>

� Bernhard Reiter <[email protected]>

� Yan Wong <[email protected]>

13. Revision History

� v0.1, 18 June 1999, first draft

� v0.2, 10 September 1999, changed <htmlurl ... > tag to <url ...>,
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

� v0.3, 17 September 1999, added information about Tierra, added
information about wasting of resources during computer production,
added some comments about UPS, minor changes

14. Copyright and Disclaimer

Copyright � 1999 by Werner Heuser. This document may be distributed
under the terms set forth in the LDP license at COPYRIGHT
<http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/COPYRIGHT.html>.

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.

15. Appendix A - Linux with Laptops

15.1. Battery

Has to be written. See LDP - Battery-HOWTO
<http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP> by Hanno Mueller, too.

apmd-rhcn-2.4phil-1 by RedHat ftp://rhcn.redhat.com/pub/rhcn/
<ftp://rhcn.redhat.com/pub/rhcn/> contains an unofficial patch for
shutting down the PCMCIA sockets before a suspend and patches for
multiple batteries.

15.2. PCMCIA Card Services and Advanced Power Management

Quoted from the LDP - PCMCIA-HOWTO <http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP>:
"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 cardctl suspend before suspending your laptop,
and cardctl resume 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
cardctl eject prior to suspending the system."

You should use the internal modem in a laptop instead of a PCMCIA
modem, if possible (it may be a WinModem).

15.3. Power Saving Techniques

1. 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 Fast RRs feature in
the IrDA section of the kernel. This option will give you much
better latencies but will consume more power.

2. PCMCIA services consume much power, so shut them down if you don't
need them.

3. I'm not sure to which extend the backlight consumes power. WARNING:
AFAIK this device can only bear a limited number of uptime circles.
So avoid using screensavers AFAIK this device can only bear a
limited number of uptime circles. So avoid using screensavers too
much.

4. For some examples to build batteries with increased uptime up to 8
hours look at Adorable Toshiba Libretto
http://www.cerfnet.com/~adorable/libretto.html
<http://www.cerfnet.com/~adorable/libretto.html>.

5. For information about APM look at the APM chapter above.

6. A hacked rclock <http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~bbense/toys/>.
Booker C. Bense has hacked the rclock program to include a simple
battery power meter on the clock face.

7. xbatstat <http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~daisuke/Linux/xbatstat.html>. A
battery level status checker for Linux and X.

8. KDE http://www.kde.org <http://www.kde.org> provides KAPM, Kbatmon
and Kcmlaptop. Written by Paul Campbell kcmlaptop 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 GNOME project
http://www.gnome.org/ <http://www.gnome.org/> . See the software
maps at both sites.

9. Please see Battery Powered Linux Mini-HOWTO by Hanno Mueller,
[email protected] http://www.lava.de/~hanno/
<http://www.lava.de/~hanno/> for more information.

10.
toshiba-fan 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.

16. Appendix B - MP3-Hardware-Decoder at Parallel Port

In the German computer magazine CT <http://www.heise.de/ct/> 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. Authors Homepag <http://www.ieee.rwth-
aachen.de/mp3/> .

Also mentioned there, is a software by Klaus Peichl <http://cip8.e-
technik.uni-erlangen.de:8080/hyplan/kspeichl/mpegcd.htm>, which
doesn't need a hardware decoder.

Though both programs are DOS based, I mention them here. I hadn't time
to look for an according Linux solution.

17. Appendix C - Bibliography

� Ellringmann, H. /Hrsg.): Softwarefuehrer Umweltschutz. Anbieter -
Produkte - Maerkte; 1999ff.

� Koellner, W. / Fichtler, W.: Recycling von Elektro- und
Elektronikschrott; 1996

� Rohwedder, W.J. "Rocky" / Alm, Andy: Using Computers in
Environmental Education; 1994

� Schloegl, M.:Recycling von Elektro- und Elektronikschrott; 1995

� Tiltmann, K.O. (Hrsg.): Recyclingpraxis Elektronik; 1994

� 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) CT
<http://www.heise.de/ct/> .

18. Appendix D - Recommendations for Buying a New Computer

Courtesy of Wade W. Hampton: 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. 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?

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.

Make sure that any new computer purchase includes APM-compliant
hardware and low-radiation. Use TCO, DPMS or Energy Star compliant
monitors.

19. Appendix E - Recommendations for a New Environmentally Friendly
Hardware Design

Courtesy of Wade W. 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
<http://developer.intel.com/design/strong/>, 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.

An "Environmental Rating" could be created for new Linux-based
hardware and even some Linux-based software such as bottlerocket
(X10). Devices such as the Netwinder or the uCsimm would receive high
ratings for their size, power consumption, capabilities, etc.
At Telepolis
<http://www.telepolis.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/1367/1.html> you might
find an article about wasted resources during computer manufacturing.

Generally speaking PPC CPUs consume less power than x86 CPUs.

20. Appendix F - Computer Related Eco Labels

Currently I have only this small list: TCO, DPMS or Energy Star
"Blauer Engel" (Germany).