HOW TO: Firefox cache in ramdisk (tmpfs)

[civilmonkey]

I was trying to find a way to set up a ramdisk and have firefox store the cache there. After a bit of reading this is what I found and did.

Reference Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMPFS

Step 1: Make a place to mount the ramdisk. In the terminal type:

sudo mkdir /media/ramdisk

Where /media/ramdisk is where you will mount the ramdisk.

Step 2: Mount the ramdisk

sudo mount -t tmpfs -o size=64M,nr_inodes=10k,mode=0777 tmpfs /media/ramdisk

I set the permisions to 777 which allows anybody and everybody to access it. Set these as you wish

Step 3 In firefox: Set the cache location to you new ramdisk
Reference link: http://www.infohole.com/blog/computing/firefox-cache-location/
Basically type
about:config in the URL address bar. Search for
browser.cache.disk.parent_directory or add a new string by right clicking and choosing new. Then set the location to your ramdisk. In my case I set it to
/media/ramdisk/

Optional:
Step 4: If you wish to automount the ramdisk you need to edit your FSTAB file
Reference Link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=283131

gksudo gedit /etc/fstab
Add the line

tmpfs /media/ramdisk tmpfs size=64M,nr_inodes=10k,mode=777 0 0

Everything should be all set. You can check the ramdisk to see if a folder 'Cache' is created when you load firefox. Don't forget to close firefox or restart firefox before you set this up.

PS. I don't know much about inodes but the above seems to work for me.

[Cowchip7]

Now if I were to do this, how would I be able to restore the default settings if need be? :P

[binbash]

Thanks, works fine here

[daverave999]

I have mine set to /dev/shm instead.

Though I think you could always just set browser.cache.disk.enable to false and it would use the RAM instead anyway.

[aktiwers]

Do you get any performance boost by doing this?

[daverave999]

Clicking 'back' is pretty much instant now, and the momentary sluggishness when loading image-heavy pages seems to have gone. It certainly hasn't caused any problems.

[Astinsan]

Now if I were to do this, how would I be able to restore the default settings if need be? :P

Take out the key you added to firefox and take out the tempfs in the fstab will kill it.


It is a speedup for sure.

[dcstar]

I have mine set to /dev/shm instead.

Though I think you could always just set browser.cache.disk.enable to false and it would use the RAM instead anyway.

Why not just add this integer key and set it to the size you want?:

browser.cache.memory.capacity

http://howto.helpero.com/howto/Speed-Up-Firefox_31.html

[graysky]

You can do it following this wiki (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Speed-up_Firefox_using_tmpfs) page.

[pluckypigeon]

You can do it following this wiki (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Speed-up_Firefox_using_tmpfs) page.

When am I supposed to run this script??


#!/bin/bash
# Change this to match your correct profile
PROFILE="y.default"

cd "${HOME}/.mozilla/firefox"

if test -z "$(mount | grep -F "${HOME}/.mozilla/firefox/${PROFILE}" )"
then
mount "${HOME}/.mozilla/firefox/${PROFILE}"
fi

if test -f "${PROFILE}/.unpacked"
then
rsync -av --delete --exclude .unpacked ./"$PROFILE"/ ./profile/
else
rsync -av ./profile/ ./"$PROFILE"/
touch "${PROFILE}/.unpacked"
fi

exit

I have tried running it after I close firefox, before I open it, after I've rebooted and I have tried not running it.... I can't seem to work out when I need to run it. Could someone help shed some light on this??

When I close the tmpfs mounted Firefox is it supposed to save back in to the main folder or does it not save at all?

What am I supposed to do to save changes?

I have tried following the wiki over and over.

Thanks for any responses.

[pluckypigeon]

I have tried running it after I close firefox, before I open it, after I've rebooted and I have tried not running it.... I can't seem to work out when I need to run it. Could someone help shed some light on this??

When I close the tmpfs mounted Firefox is it supposed to save back in to the main folder or does it not save at all?

What am I supposed to do to save changes?

I have tried following the wiki over and over.

Thanks for any responses.

anyone?:(

[supasoaker]

take a rest pluckypigeon, forget everything and re-read the archlinux article - it should tell you!

one question - how do I check that the tmpfs is running, I can't see anything in the mnt folder................

edit: I think I found out how - in the terminal type:


dan@dan-desktop:~$ df and a list should appear along the lines of:


Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 949725292 218316212 683165780 25% /
none 2025640 300 2025340 1% /dev
none 2030148 196 2029952 1% /dev/shm
none 2030148 84 2030064 1% /var/run
none 2030148 0 2030148 0% /var/lock
none 2030148 0 2030148 0% /lib/init/rw
tmpfs 2097152 48388 2048764 3% /media/firefox_ramdisk
/dev/sr0 194658 194658 0 100% /media/RescueRemix1010


as you can see my tmpfs looks to be running nicely :)

[pluckypigeon]

take a rest pluckypigeon

That post was a year and a half ago, I've found plenty of time to rest.