JohnnyC35
March 7th, 2010, 12:08 AM
I've been playing around with my new computer a bit and I figured it may help others using an Atom processor or that someone might find this somewhat interesting :P
I am using Netbook Remix 32bit on a 8Gb USB stick, I have an Zotac Atom A-U with 2Gb RAM, and 3 1Tb Internal storage as well as 1Tb/2 500Gb external storage. My tmpfs might be 'excessive' but I was trying to minimze how much was on the USB drive. Eventually I would like to be able to run the whole thing in RAM (when I have 4Gb and know what I am doing) and only need a hard drive for when I reboot. Oh and my CPU is without a fan, I was able to put a 120mm fan between the motherboard and the from of the case (Apex MI-008. And since I don't need a power supply if I can get my hands on some quiet 40mm fans I will put them in the power supply window. Underload my GPU usually runs about 75C.
Here are the sections:
What was immediately installed
What was immediately removed
Getting Vuze to install/update properly and setting up Google Docs
DPI change and Nvidia
Grub editing
Compiz
Start button
Concurrency
Internet settings
Drapes
Fstab
cleaning apt
What was immediately installed
Installed VDPAU Nvidia 195 drivers, Swiftfox (Prescott,for Atom), XMBC media player, Amsn, Claws email, Drapes wallpaper changer, localepurge, deborphan, apt-mark-sync to sync apt, aptitude, deborphan info, Ubuntu's resticted extras, XScreensaver with Extras package for Caurosel, Adobe Flash, DNS masq to make the computer look at a saved DNS cache,Preload, QEMU for the use of Quicktax via WinXP.iso, soundconverter to change over my mp3's to ogg, also install VLC.
NVIDIA Info:
http://sglnx.com/2009/12/nvidia-195-22-beta-linux-display-driver-available-in-nvidia-vdpau-team-ppa-ubuntu/?utm_source=Arkayne.com&utm_medium=Plugin&utm_campaign=1405
add to /etc/apt/sources.list-> deb http://getswiftfox.com/builds/debian unstable non-free
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nvidia-vdpau/ppa
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-195-modaliases nvidia-glx-195 swiftfox-prescott xbmc amsn claws-mail-html2-viewer drapes localepurge deborphan apt-mark-sync ubuntu-restricted-extras xscreensaver-gl-extras flashplugin-nonfree dnsmasq preload qemu-launcher soundconverter vlc
If there is an error with NVIDIA, you can activate the drivers from System > Administration > Hardware Drivers.
Also if you have no sound, what I found helped was to goto the terminal and type in 'alsamixer'. From there make sure that Master is full and that IEC958, any and all of them, are not muted by pressing 'M'
What was immediately removed.
Removed some unneeded programs: Bluetooth, Evolution, Netbook Launcher, Compiz, ACPI Power Managerment stuff, OpenOffice, Transmission, Empathy, tomboy, example-content(do w even need that?) Assistive tech, memtest, cheese, rhythmbox, totem, other screensaver stuff, artwork, documents:
sudo apt-get purge bluez evolution maximus netbook-launcher webfav compiz-core acpid pm-utils empathy transmission-common evolution-common openoffice.org-core tomboy example-content espeak-data software-center python-ubuntuone-client memtest86+ ubuntu-docs ubuntu-artwork ubuntu-wallpapers gnome-games-common firefox-3.5 cheese rhythmbox gnome-pilot at-spi yelp screensaver-deflt-images xscreensaver-gl totem bogofilter britty
Some other documents can be removed, don't have the names on hand, I just went to Synaptic -> Documentation, selected and removed all except rarian-compat .
Getting Vuze to install/update properly and setting up Google Docs
followed instructions from: http://www.detector-pro.com/2009/12/how-to-install-vuze-43-and-newer-on.html to install vuze
* First you need to install JRE (Java Runtime Environment). Open terminal and paste this line:
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts
* After JRE installation, download Vuze from Official Site or click here.
* Unpack it to the desktop.
* Go to your home folder and create new folder “.azureus” with dot in front.
* From nautilus View menu, choose “show hidden files”.
* Copy All files from Vuze folder on your desktop into newly created “.azureus” folder.
* You are almost ready. Now you need to add a program launcher to Applications menu. Go to System/Preferences/Main Menu. Then Choose Internet and click “New Item”. On the Create Launcher window choose Browse. Then on new Choose an Application.. window right click to choose Show Hidden Files.
* Next, Go to your Home folder/.azureus and click on “vuze”. To add the vuze Icon just drag and drop vuze.png as on the next picture. Click Ok and that's it :)
added a menu item that directed to Google Documents via Swiftfox:
swiftfox https://docs.google.com/
DPI change and Nvidia
I have a 1080 res TV connected to my computer so I needed to change the DPI before I reboot the computer with the res change or it will look really really small :P
Appearance -> Fonts -> Details -> 150 DPI ; then 'sudo nvidia-settings'
change resolution 1920x1080, apply and save (will reboot later)
Grub editing
I edited GRUB so that the splash screen won't be displayed, or at least not displayed as long, and told it that I don't use hibernate or a swap file to save time.
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
changed
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nosplash noresume noswap"
then
sudo update-grub2
Compiz
I don't use Compiz, lots of flash but kills CPU cycles but you can do some basic stuff. the folowing will give shaowing and change your alt-tab look a little:
gconftool-2 -s '/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager' --type bool true
Start button
Make the keyboard Start button (or Super button) open the gnome menu: type in terminal
"gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/panel_main_menu --type string "Super_L"
Concurrency
I added concurrency booting so Ubuntu can take advantage of dual-core processors, as well as processors that hyperthread or multithread.
'sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rc'
CONCURRENCY=none changed to CONCURRENCY=shell
Internet settings
Changed some settings for my internet:
Adjust settings for broadband internet...
* scroll to the bottom and just add these lines to it.
'sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf'
net.core.rmem_default = 524288
net.core.rmem_max = 524288
net.core.wmem_default = 524288
net.core.wmem_max = 524288
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 87380 524288
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 524288
net.ipv4.tcp_mem = 524288 524288 524288
net.ipv4.tcp_rfc1337 = 1
net.ipv4.ip_no_pmtu_disc = 0
net.ipv4.tcp_sack = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_fack = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_ecn = 0
net.ipv4.route.flush = 1
'reset sysctl: sudo sysctl -p'
Disable IPv6: sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/bad_list
add 'alias net-pf-10 off' and then save/exit
how to set the dnsmasq (cache dns info)
sudo gedit /etc/dnsmasq.conf
Replace
#resolv-file= if exists with
resolv-file=/etc/resolv.dnsmasq.confthen
sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.dnsmasq.conf
sudo gedit /etc/resolv.conf
and then add
nameserver 127.0.0.1to the top of the list
Drapes
There is an issue with Drapes not loading on boot. its solved here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/drapes/+bug/292051
Roland Schigas wrote on 2009-12-23:
I just built a new laptop with Ubuntu 9.10 (64-bit), Gnome 2.28.1 & Drapes 0.5.2. I was getting the same (not running) behaviour and syslog warnings as previous posters. I can confirm that editing the drapes.desktop file to insert "Type=Application" fixed the problem; it now runs automatically when I log in.
Fstab
And then finally edit my fstab for tmpfs and adding info for my 3 Internal drives and 3 external drives:
I also changed fstab:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sdd5 during installation
UUID=2c929bc6-a715-4dc4-a4ee-aa05b6af0b3c / ext2 noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sdd1 during installation
UUID=523a4fea-32d2-4924-9c4f-ec6772557fb9 /home ext2 defaults,sync,noatime,nodiratime 0 1
#UUID=60ce04eb-8dc4-430d-aaf7-0864ca65f1fe /media/Media1 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
#UUID=a2b357b5-700f-4409-b8ed-b4df99f1656e /media/Media2 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
#UUID=26c94f5c-0708-4031-be12-ece4f0815c90 /media/Media3 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
#UUID=4df339f3-1ef9-4516-9762-aad2f2d9160b /media/Media4 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
#UUID=14e63b39-c51b-466d-bb92-bcb956cd518e /media/Media5 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
#UUID=81ebbbd2-d799-4dd1-a59c-e3bfc090967c /media/Media6 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/log/apt tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/run tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/lock tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/cache tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/cache/apt/archives/ tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.thumbnails tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.adobe tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.cache tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.macromedia tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.claws-mail/gtkhtml2_viewer tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.azureus/tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.mozilla/firefox/t8t8ozn0.default/Cache tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
I use to have Media1-6 set up here but they are commented out because as of right now they show up duplicated in Places and Nautilus if they are included. ??
update rc.local:
mkdir -p /var/log/apt
mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives
mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/partial
mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives/partial
sysctl -w vm.swappiness=1 # Strongly discourage the swapping of application data to disk
sysctl -w vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50 # Don't shrink the inode cache so aggressively
oops also run this afterwards:
Cleaning apt
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get remove $(deborphan) *Maybe run this one a few times
reboot: on boot press esc and edit your boot menu item, add 'profile' to reprofile the booting process, possibily making it faster for you
and if I have to reinstall everything I think I will try this:
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/03/2-ways-of-reinstalling-all-of-your.html
I hope this was easy enough to read. I have posted things before but this is my first walkthru. Sorry I didn't post more links as to where I got my info. Googling and trolling various forums mainly.
I am using Netbook Remix 32bit on a 8Gb USB stick, I have an Zotac Atom A-U with 2Gb RAM, and 3 1Tb Internal storage as well as 1Tb/2 500Gb external storage. My tmpfs might be 'excessive' but I was trying to minimze how much was on the USB drive. Eventually I would like to be able to run the whole thing in RAM (when I have 4Gb and know what I am doing) and only need a hard drive for when I reboot. Oh and my CPU is without a fan, I was able to put a 120mm fan between the motherboard and the from of the case (Apex MI-008. And since I don't need a power supply if I can get my hands on some quiet 40mm fans I will put them in the power supply window. Underload my GPU usually runs about 75C.
Here are the sections:
What was immediately installed
What was immediately removed
Getting Vuze to install/update properly and setting up Google Docs
DPI change and Nvidia
Grub editing
Compiz
Start button
Concurrency
Internet settings
Drapes
Fstab
cleaning apt
What was immediately installed
Installed VDPAU Nvidia 195 drivers, Swiftfox (Prescott,for Atom), XMBC media player, Amsn, Claws email, Drapes wallpaper changer, localepurge, deborphan, apt-mark-sync to sync apt, aptitude, deborphan info, Ubuntu's resticted extras, XScreensaver with Extras package for Caurosel, Adobe Flash, DNS masq to make the computer look at a saved DNS cache,Preload, QEMU for the use of Quicktax via WinXP.iso, soundconverter to change over my mp3's to ogg, also install VLC.
NVIDIA Info:
http://sglnx.com/2009/12/nvidia-195-22-beta-linux-display-driver-available-in-nvidia-vdpau-team-ppa-ubuntu/?utm_source=Arkayne.com&utm_medium=Plugin&utm_campaign=1405
add to /etc/apt/sources.list-> deb http://getswiftfox.com/builds/debian unstable non-free
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nvidia-vdpau/ppa
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-195-modaliases nvidia-glx-195 swiftfox-prescott xbmc amsn claws-mail-html2-viewer drapes localepurge deborphan apt-mark-sync ubuntu-restricted-extras xscreensaver-gl-extras flashplugin-nonfree dnsmasq preload qemu-launcher soundconverter vlc
If there is an error with NVIDIA, you can activate the drivers from System > Administration > Hardware Drivers.
Also if you have no sound, what I found helped was to goto the terminal and type in 'alsamixer'. From there make sure that Master is full and that IEC958, any and all of them, are not muted by pressing 'M'
What was immediately removed.
Removed some unneeded programs: Bluetooth, Evolution, Netbook Launcher, Compiz, ACPI Power Managerment stuff, OpenOffice, Transmission, Empathy, tomboy, example-content(do w even need that?) Assistive tech, memtest, cheese, rhythmbox, totem, other screensaver stuff, artwork, documents:
sudo apt-get purge bluez evolution maximus netbook-launcher webfav compiz-core acpid pm-utils empathy transmission-common evolution-common openoffice.org-core tomboy example-content espeak-data software-center python-ubuntuone-client memtest86+ ubuntu-docs ubuntu-artwork ubuntu-wallpapers gnome-games-common firefox-3.5 cheese rhythmbox gnome-pilot at-spi yelp screensaver-deflt-images xscreensaver-gl totem bogofilter britty
Some other documents can be removed, don't have the names on hand, I just went to Synaptic -> Documentation, selected and removed all except rarian-compat .
Getting Vuze to install/update properly and setting up Google Docs
followed instructions from: http://www.detector-pro.com/2009/12/how-to-install-vuze-43-and-newer-on.html to install vuze
* First you need to install JRE (Java Runtime Environment). Open terminal and paste this line:
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts
* After JRE installation, download Vuze from Official Site or click here.
* Unpack it to the desktop.
* Go to your home folder and create new folder “.azureus” with dot in front.
* From nautilus View menu, choose “show hidden files”.
* Copy All files from Vuze folder on your desktop into newly created “.azureus” folder.
* You are almost ready. Now you need to add a program launcher to Applications menu. Go to System/Preferences/Main Menu. Then Choose Internet and click “New Item”. On the Create Launcher window choose Browse. Then on new Choose an Application.. window right click to choose Show Hidden Files.
* Next, Go to your Home folder/.azureus and click on “vuze”. To add the vuze Icon just drag and drop vuze.png as on the next picture. Click Ok and that's it :)
added a menu item that directed to Google Documents via Swiftfox:
swiftfox https://docs.google.com/
DPI change and Nvidia
I have a 1080 res TV connected to my computer so I needed to change the DPI before I reboot the computer with the res change or it will look really really small :P
Appearance -> Fonts -> Details -> 150 DPI ; then 'sudo nvidia-settings'
change resolution 1920x1080, apply and save (will reboot later)
Grub editing
I edited GRUB so that the splash screen won't be displayed, or at least not displayed as long, and told it that I don't use hibernate or a swap file to save time.
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
changed
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nosplash noresume noswap"
then
sudo update-grub2
Compiz
I don't use Compiz, lots of flash but kills CPU cycles but you can do some basic stuff. the folowing will give shaowing and change your alt-tab look a little:
gconftool-2 -s '/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager' --type bool true
Start button
Make the keyboard Start button (or Super button) open the gnome menu: type in terminal
"gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/panel_main_menu --type string "Super_L"
Concurrency
I added concurrency booting so Ubuntu can take advantage of dual-core processors, as well as processors that hyperthread or multithread.
'sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rc'
CONCURRENCY=none changed to CONCURRENCY=shell
Internet settings
Changed some settings for my internet:
Adjust settings for broadband internet...
* scroll to the bottom and just add these lines to it.
'sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf'
net.core.rmem_default = 524288
net.core.rmem_max = 524288
net.core.wmem_default = 524288
net.core.wmem_max = 524288
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 87380 524288
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 524288
net.ipv4.tcp_mem = 524288 524288 524288
net.ipv4.tcp_rfc1337 = 1
net.ipv4.ip_no_pmtu_disc = 0
net.ipv4.tcp_sack = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_fack = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_ecn = 0
net.ipv4.route.flush = 1
'reset sysctl: sudo sysctl -p'
Disable IPv6: sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/bad_list
add 'alias net-pf-10 off' and then save/exit
how to set the dnsmasq (cache dns info)
sudo gedit /etc/dnsmasq.conf
Replace
#resolv-file= if exists with
resolv-file=/etc/resolv.dnsmasq.confthen
sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.dnsmasq.conf
sudo gedit /etc/resolv.conf
and then add
nameserver 127.0.0.1to the top of the list
Drapes
There is an issue with Drapes not loading on boot. its solved here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/drapes/+bug/292051
Roland Schigas wrote on 2009-12-23:
I just built a new laptop with Ubuntu 9.10 (64-bit), Gnome 2.28.1 & Drapes 0.5.2. I was getting the same (not running) behaviour and syslog warnings as previous posters. I can confirm that editing the drapes.desktop file to insert "Type=Application" fixed the problem; it now runs automatically when I log in.
Fstab
And then finally edit my fstab for tmpfs and adding info for my 3 Internal drives and 3 external drives:
I also changed fstab:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sdd5 during installation
UUID=2c929bc6-a715-4dc4-a4ee-aa05b6af0b3c / ext2 noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sdd1 during installation
UUID=523a4fea-32d2-4924-9c4f-ec6772557fb9 /home ext2 defaults,sync,noatime,nodiratime 0 1
#UUID=60ce04eb-8dc4-430d-aaf7-0864ca65f1fe /media/Media1 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
#UUID=a2b357b5-700f-4409-b8ed-b4df99f1656e /media/Media2 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
#UUID=26c94f5c-0708-4031-be12-ece4f0815c90 /media/Media3 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
#UUID=4df339f3-1ef9-4516-9762-aad2f2d9160b /media/Media4 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
#UUID=14e63b39-c51b-466d-bb92-bcb956cd518e /media/Media5 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
#UUID=81ebbbd2-d799-4dd1-a59c-e3bfc090967c /media/Media6 xfs users,auto,sync,noatime,nodiratime,allocsize=384m 0 1
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/log/apt tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/run tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/lock tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/cache tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /var/cache/apt/archives/ tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.thumbnails tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.adobe tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.cache tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.macromedia tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.claws-mail/gtkhtml2_viewer tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.azureus/tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
tmpfs /home/john/.mozilla/firefox/t8t8ozn0.default/Cache tmpfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
I use to have Media1-6 set up here but they are commented out because as of right now they show up duplicated in Places and Nautilus if they are included. ??
update rc.local:
mkdir -p /var/log/apt
mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives
mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/partial
mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives/partial
sysctl -w vm.swappiness=1 # Strongly discourage the swapping of application data to disk
sysctl -w vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50 # Don't shrink the inode cache so aggressively
oops also run this afterwards:
Cleaning apt
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get remove $(deborphan) *Maybe run this one a few times
reboot: on boot press esc and edit your boot menu item, add 'profile' to reprofile the booting process, possibily making it faster for you
and if I have to reinstall everything I think I will try this:
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/03/2-ways-of-reinstalling-all-of-your.html
I hope this was easy enough to read. I have posted things before but this is my first walkthru. Sorry I didn't post more links as to where I got my info. Googling and trolling various forums mainly.