Mageia forum

Hello!
On low ram/ low end hardware, firefox 64 bits fills the ram quite quick...
But still using a 64 bit Mageia rather that the 32 bits version of Mageia makes often sense (skype, zoom, dropbox, all only available in 64 bit only versions...).

Therefore i wonder: can I (and how) install the (lighter on RAM) 32 bit version of Firefox on the 64 bit edition of Mageia?

Greetings And Thanks!

Yes, you can but that won't help that much as you're still running a 64bit OS/kernel so the memory footprint will be slightly bigger compared to 32bit only.

Apart from that, you could add some actual details what low RAM means in particular, and how you check if firefox fills that.
You may also consider a different browser, as there are quite a few other browsers that have a lighter memory footprint.

For the question how to:
Enable the 32-bit repositories, see https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Software_management
Then uninstall Firefox, then install 32 bit firefox.
But as doktor said, it will not help much.

A better way is to use a lightweight browser - try Midori

And yes Firefox is a monster in regards of memory usage. Tried the other day using Live stick on a 1GB laptop. It more or less froze the machine, had to cut power... ( Am about to retry with swap added on that stick... just to see if it works)

Thank you for your answers!

To reply to doktor5000 my Ram is 2GB on a intel BayTrail processor...
I usually use this tablet-laptop to scroll satellite maps (yandex's maps that usually dont work in other browsers i tried such as midori or gnome web - you can test here this page : https://yandex.com/maps/?l=sat%2Cskl&ll ... 182076&z=4

One question: If i enable the 32bit repositories, so i'll have to choose later "app by app" to download the 32 bit or 64 bit version for each new dowloaded piece of software?

2 GB is tight. I presume you are not running KDE? You need a lighter desktop if that is all the RAM you have.

When you update, the system will update a 32 bit app with a 32 bit app, and a 64 bit app with a 64 bit app. It won't change things on you.

Well i guess you'll stronlgy disapprove but i am using Gnome cause that is the DE that i like. I understand that its not the recommended choice.
If i can manage to move the swap on zram i guess it'll hep a bit too...

Great to know that 32 bit apps update on their own and 64 bit apps on their own! That's handy!