Introduction[edit]

RAM Adjusted Desktop Starter (rads) starts [no] desktop environment based on available RAM. It automatically boots into a graphical desktop environment when there is enough RAM, or into terminal-only when there is too little RAM. This is useful inside virtual machines and provides better usability.

rads Default Settings[edit]

RAM Adjusted Desktop Starter will not start the desktop environment. The terminal-based Whonix-Gateway ™ can be used instead.

When booting up, a prompt will appear offering to prevent Xfce from starting. Users can also manually press Ctrl + C for the same effect.

By default, Whonix-Gateway ™ is configured with 1280 MB virtual RAM. This can be reduced on systems with low available resources.

If total RAM is more than 512 MB, the default desktop environment (Xfce) is started.
If total RAM is less than 512 MB (for example, the minimum 256 MB RAM requirement), Xfce (lightdm) is not started.

Users with low RAM resources should find this convenient because Whonix-Gateway ™ RAM can be reduced to 256 MB and still function.

Further, if something needs configuring or checking, 512 MB RAM can be assigned to automatically boot into the graphical Xfce desktop. Additional settings are available in folder /etc/rads.d to configure this feature: additional RAM can be added (but still not choosing to boot into a desktop environment), different display managers can be used and so on. See file etc/rads.d/30_default.conf for configuration examples.

It is possible to prevent a desktop environment from automatically starting, regardless of how much RAM is independently assigned.

In the terminal complete the following steps.

1. Open file /etc/rads.d/50_user.conf in an editor with root rights.

(Qubes-Whonix ™: In TemplateVM)

This box uses sudoedit for better security ^[archive]. This is an example and other tools could also achieve the same goal. If this example does not work for you or if you are not using Whonix, please refer to this link.