bitzdots

1# Performance Optimization
2 
3bitzdots is designed for low-end hardware. This guide explains the optimizations and shows how to push further.
4 
5## Current Baseline
6 
7| Metric | Value |
8|--------|-------|
9| **Idle RAM (full stack)** | ~250-300MB |
10| **Waybar CPU** | ~3.5% idle |
11| **Hyprland RAM** | ~170MB |
12| **swaync RAM** | ~85MB |
13| **waybar RAM** | ~60MB |
14 
15## Per-Component Optimization
16 
17### Waybar Polling Intervals
18 
19All intervals are tuned to balance responsiveness and CPU usage:
20 
21| Module | Current Interval | CPU Impact |
22|--------|-----------------|------------|
23| Workspaces | 3s | Low (uses `hyprctl workspaces -j`, not clients) |
24| Recording | 10s | Negligible |
25| Network | 10s | Low |
26| Clock | 30s | Negligible |
27| CPU | 5s | Low (reads /proc/stat) |
28| Memory | 10s | Negligible |
29| Power Profiles | 30s | Negligible (D-Bus, no hanging) |
30| Brightness | 5s | Low (timeout 2s on brightnessctl) |
31| Notification | 10s | Negligible |
32| Media | on-event | Only updates on player change |
33 
34**To reduce CPU further**, increase intervals in `waybar/config.jsonc`:
35```jsonc
36"custom/workspaces": { "interval": 5 },  // was 3
37"custom/brightness": { "interval": 10 }, // was 5
38```
39 
40### Media Player (playerctl)
41 
42The media script kills stale `playerctl metadata --follow` processes on startup to prevent the well-known CPU leak where multiple instances accumulate.
43 
44**If you don't use media controls**, remove `custom/media` from `modules-left` in waybar config.
45 
46### Power Profiles
47 
48Uses `busctl` directly on the UPower D-Bus interface instead of `powerprofilesctl`. The latter is known to randomly hang at 100% CPU when querying profiles. The D-Bus approach is instant and has zero CPU overhead.
49 
50### Blur & Visual Effects
51 
52Configurable in `hypr/appearance.lua`:
53 
54```lua
55blur = {
56    enabled = true,   -- set false to save ~20-40MB GPU memory
57    size = 5,         -- lower = less memory
58    passes = 1,       -- lower = less GPU work
59}
60```
61 
62**For maximum performance:**
63```lua
64blur = { enabled = false }
65shadow = { enabled = false }
66```
67 
68### SwayNC
69 
70Notification center RAM usage is ~85MB, largely from album art caching in the MPRIS widget.
71 
72Optimization available in `swaync/config.json`:
73 
74```jsonc
75"mpris": {
76    "show-album-art": "notification",  // "always" shows art in control center
77    "image-size": 48                    // lower = less memory (default 64)
78}
79```
80 
81### Runcat (Python)
82 
83The `custom/runcat` module uses a Python script with pyjson5 dependency (~23MB RSS for the Python process).
84 
85**To disable:** Remove `custom/runcat` from `modules-left` in waybar config.
86 
87## Aggressive Low-End Profile
88 
89For systems with <2GB RAM or single-core CPUs:
90 
911. **Disable blur** in `hypr/appearance.lua`:
92   ```lua
93   blur = { enabled = false }
94   ```
95 
962. **Remove runcat** from waybar modules
97 
983. **Increase all polling intervals** in waybar config by 2-3x
99 
1004. **Remove album art** from swaync:
101   ```jsonc
102   "show-album-art": "never"
103   ```
104 
1055. **Disable shadows** in Hyprland:
106   ```lua
107   shadow = { enabled = false }
108   ```
109 
1106. **Use a lighter terminal** than kitty (e.g., foot or wezterm) — kitty uses ~200MB per window
111 
1127. **Disable animations** in `hypr/animations.lua`:
113   ```lua
114   hl.config({ animations = { enabled = false } })
115   ```
116 
117## CPU Optimization
118 
119### Process Management
120 
121- **Wallpaper cache daemon** runs at Nice=19 (lowest priority), IO scheduling class=idle
122- **All waybar scripts** are shell-based (no heavy interpreters except runcat's Python)
123- **`playerctl metadata --follow`** leak prevention via pkill on media.sh startup
124- **`workspaces.sh`** uses `hyprctl workspaces -j` instead of the heavier `hyprctl clients -j`
125 
126### Active CPU Reduction Tips
127 
128```bash
129# Check current CPU usage by component
130ps aux --sort=-%cpu | head -10
131 
132# Find and kill stale playerctl processes
133ps aux | grep playerctl
134 
135# Check if powerprofilesctl is hanging
136pgrep -a powerprofilesctl
137```
138 
139## Memory Optimization
140 
141### Active Memory Reduction Tips
142 
143```bash
144# Check current RAM usage
145free -h
146 
147# Per-process memory
148ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -15
149 
150# SwayNC memory breakdown
151pmap $(pgrep -x swaync) | tail -5
152```
153 
154### Swap Recommendations
155 
156On low-RAM systems (<2GB):
157 
158```bash
159# Increase swap for safety
160sudo fallocate -l 4G /swapfile
161sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
162sudo mkswap /swapfile
163sudo swapon /swapfile
164 
165# Make permanent
166echo '/swapfile none swap defaults 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
167```
168 
169## Benchmarking
170 
171```bash
172# Measure full stack idle memory
173free -h
174 
175# Measure per-component memory
176for p in Hyprland swaync waybar kitty; do
177  ps -o rss,comm -C "$p" | tail -1
178done
179 
180# Measure CPU over 30 seconds
181top -b -n 30 -d 1 | grep -E 'Hyprland|waybar|swaync'
182```
183