Running Gemini from a terminal on an old computer
An old computer running Puppy Linux struggles with the browser because it uses about 90% of the available resources. The needed setup is a lightweight way to use Gemini-like chat from the terminal. already works, but it is more than needed for simple chatbot use and it burns through quickly on a free account.
w3m can open the site, but the question input box does not appear, so it is not usable. The goal is a terminal-based way to chat with an LLM without spending tokens heavily or using most of the machine’s RAM.
Key points
- The machine is an old computer running Puppy Linux.
- Opening the s about 90% of available resources.
- works, but it uses quickly on a free account.
- w3m does not work well with the site because the prompt field is missing.
- The desired solution is terminal chat with low token use and low RAM use.