The Ultimate Ubuntu Speed Tips Thread!

[Mazza558]

Well, everyone here will probably know a tip or tweak that boosted their Ubuntu installation that little bit. Since these are all spread out around the forums, it would be nice to have somewhere where a new user could come and find some tips/tweaks all in one place.

There's only 2 rules here:

-No linking to massive, multiple page articles with hundreds of tweaks on - try and post directly into the thread, and if you have to link, only link to the most effective tweak/tip you found.

-Don't suggest REALLY risky tips/tweaks such as editing complicated .conf files unless it is easy to restore things if everything goes wrong.


Well, my tweaks are all related to Beryl use:

1.) Beryl often doesn't use the correct refresh rate for monitors with rates higher than 60hz, so it is advised to turn off the "detect refresh rate" option in "general options" - then you can set the correct refresh rate further down. This should solve any lagginess in terms of Beryl.

2.) Turn off "Sync to Vblank" in the "general settings" area

3.) Turn off all closing animations in Beryl if things seem to lag when closing things.

[fuscia]

use openbox.

[aysiu]

use openbox.
Or IceWM or Fluxbox.

Metacity's a drag.

[fuscia]

Or IceWM or Fluxbox.

Metacity's a drag.

flwm is pretty rockin', as well.

[Mazza558]

Anyone else?

[Ebuntor]

Well, my tweaks are all related to Beryl use:

1.) Beryl often doesn't use the correct refresh rate for monitors with rates higher than 60hz, so it is advised to turn off the "detect refresh rate" option in "general options" - then you can set the correct refresh rate further down. This should solve any lagginess in terms of Beryl.

2.) Turn off "Sync to Vblank" in the "general settings" area

3.) Turn off all closing animations in Beryl if things seem to lag when closing things.

Whoa, those tweaks made one heck of a difference! Not sure which tweak did it (maybe all of them) but I can actually use the cube option without lagging. Works perfectly.

Thank you :D

[shen-an-doah]

Using Rox filer with fluxbox (http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=26103&sid=7c0fbaf03f4205db4023e5c8a25c4163#26103)

[happy-and-lost]

May just be a random tweak related to my hardware or particular setup, but I found that switching to the low-latency kernel (it's in the repos) smoothed things out consierably, especially Compiz.

[urukrama]

Not using Beryl makes a big difference as well.

[munkyeetr]

Use Swiftfox instead of Firefox.

[edmondt]

1.) Beryl often doesn't use the correct refresh rate for monitors with rates higher than 60hz, so it is advised to turn off the "detect refresh rate" option in "general options" - then you can set the correct refresh rate further down. This should solve any lagginess in terms of Beryl.


That made everything smooth! :) VSYNC also works wonders, but I already know that one :D

[kerry_s]

1.Use Opera

2. Use a dns cache-> http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/08/02/local-dns-cache-for-faster-browsing/

3. Fix hosts file->
sudo gedit /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost hostname
127.0.1.1 hostname

4. Block ipv6->
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/bad_list

alias net-pf-10 off

5. Use OpenDNS->
sudo gedit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf

with dnsmasq>
prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1, 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220;

without dnsmasq>
prepend domain-name-servers 208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220;

6. Startup tweaks->
sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

sudo -u user find /home/user/.opera ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
sudo -u user find /usr/lib/firefox ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
sudo -u user find /usr/share/firefox ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
sudo -u user find /home/user/.mozilla/firefox ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
echo 1000 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq &
echo "base=0x98000000 size=0x8000000 type=write-combining" >| /proc/mtrr &

Replace all "user" with your account name.

7. Uninstall any applications/programs you don't use.

[happy-and-lost]

6. Startup tweaks->
sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

sudo -u user find /home/user/.opera ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
sudo -u user find /usr/lib/firefox ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
sudo -u user find /usr/share/firefox ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
sudo -u user find /home/user/.mozilla/firefox ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
echo 1000 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq &
echo "base=0x98000000 size=0x8000000 type=write-combining" >| /proc/mtrr &

Replace all "user" with your account name.


Would you mind elaborating on this, what it is and what it's actually doing?

[BLTicklemonster]

Not using Beryl makes a big difference as well.

lmao

I second the remarks about icewm and fluxbox. E17 is amazing, too. Lots of eye candy, but hardly uses any resources.

[ThinkBuntu]

I think these tips are hardly constructive if they instruct users to ditch their current desktop environment. GNOME comes installed, so there will be the most demand amongst desktop-related tips for quickening GNOME and GTK+ apps. Many of us like having menus and icons in fixed locations.

I worked with Fluxbox for a while, and while lightning-quick, it's a real pain to have to navigate through the same menus no matter what you're doing. I'll gladly ditch 50px of screen real-estate (a top and a bottom panel, or a thicker bottom KDE panel) and a bit of RAM/processor speed for the sake of usability and my work habits.

[Mazza558]

I think these tips are hardly constructive if they instruct users to ditch their current desktop environment. GNOME comes installed, so there will be the most demand amongst desktop-related tips for quickening GNOME and GTK+ apps. Many of us like having menus and icons in fixed locations.

I worked with Fluxbox for a while, and while lightning-quick, it's a real pain to have to navigate through the same menus no matter what you're doing. I'll gladly ditch 50px of screen real-estate (a top and a bottom panel, or a thicker bottom KDE panel) and a bit of RAM/processor speed for the sake of usability and my work habits.

Agreed. Now we've seen the desktop environment tweaks, it's time to focus more on the GNOME desktop environment.

[kerry_s]

Would you mind elaborating on this, what it is and what it's actually doing?


sudo -u user find /home/user/.opera ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
sudo -u user find /usr/lib/firefox ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
sudo -u user find /usr/share/firefox ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &
sudo -u user find /home/user/.mozilla/firefox ! -type d | xargs cat > /dev/null &

Cache's firefox and opera settings for faster first start.


echo 1000 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq &
echo "base=0x98000000 size=0x8000000 type=write-combining" >| /proc/mtrr &

Faster response settings.

[mjgrim]

I think these tips are hardly constructive if they instruct users to ditch their current desktop environment. GNOME comes installed, so there will be the most demand amongst desktop-related tips for quickening GNOME and GTK+ apps. Many of us like having menus and icons in fixed locations.

I worked with Fluxbox for a while, and while lightning-quick, it's a real pain to have to navigate through the same menus no matter what you're doing. I'll gladly ditch 50px of screen real-estate (a top and a bottom panel, or a thicker bottom KDE panel) and a bit of RAM/processor speed for the sake of usability and my work habits.

I think no one suggested to leave Gnome. they only suggested to replace metacity (which does sucks) - it's not the same thing. You can replace metacity, stay in Gnome, and enjoy all worlds.

[urukrama]

I think no one suggested to leave Gnome.

Actually, I would have. If you want something very fast, leave gnome behind and use one of the Window managers: Openbox, fluxbox or IceWM.

[regomodo]

Using Rox filer with fluxbox (http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=26103&sid=7c0fbaf03f4205db4023e5c8a25c4163#26103)

Just tried that. I couldn't get those sources to work properly

EDIT: sources were ok. The rest of the instructions seem to be too old. I.e apt-get install rox-filer not rox-desktop. Also, a lot of the instructions refer to things that don't exist or already exist but shouldn't

[shen-an-doah]

Just tried that. I couldn't get those sources to work properly

EDIT: sources were ok. The rest of the instructions seem to be too old. I.e apt-get install rox-filer not rox-desktop. Also, a lot of the instructions refer to things that don't exist or already exist but shouldn't

Ah, yeh. I forgot I had to fiddle with it a bit.

There's this (http://community.fluxbuntu.org/index.php?topic=78.0) instead. That's from a link in the Fluxbuntu wiki.

[anaconda]

If you dont have dual core CPU, change to i386 kernel!

[Lord Illidan]

If you dont have dual core CPU, change to i386 kernel!

what?? If you have more than 1 gig of RAM i386 won't even detect it!

[LightB]

If you dont have dual core CPU, change to i386 kernel!

Wrong.

[anaconda]

what?? If you have more than 1 gig of RAM i386 won't even detect it!

No no no.. that is not what I meant.

I was talking about changing the "linux-image-2.6.20-16-generic" to "linux-image-2.6.20-16-386", kernel (the Dapper line of kernels instead of the generic kernels..)

The generic kernel in my home machine wrongly thought that my 1 core 2600MHz intel processor had 2 cores, and when I changed the kernel to one that supports only 1 core the speed improvement was noticeable (386 kernel didn't try to split the processes between 2 processors anymore, when there is only one processor..)

And I got this suggestion from ubuntuforums.. :)

And the RAM limitation is with all 32-bit kernels (also the generic kernel) and I think it is 4GB not 1GB.

[Lord Illidan]

That's different. Use the 386 kernel if the generic is not working. I use the generic, and it works well.

On the forum I found that the 386 kernel (designed for older processors) does not detect 1 gb of RAM. You should use the 686 kernel.

[Mazza558]

Just followed a few of these tweaks, they're excellent:

http://tvease.net/wiki/index.php?title=Tweak_ubuntu_for_speed

Be cautious about the concurrency one, it broke the HAL for me until I reverted it.

[LanDan]

what?? If you have more than 1 gig of RAM i386 won't even detect it!

what are you talking about?

landan@ubuntu:~$ free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3364 3205 159 0 99 2743
-/+ buffers/cache: 362 3002
Swap: 1937 0 1937

randall@ubuntu:~$ uname -r
2.6.22-14-generic


generic is 386 right? or am i mistaking here

[Scruffynerf]

Tweaks that I've followed:

OpenOffice:
Disable Java. It loads in half the time (Tools -> Options -> Java (Deselect the checkbox.)

Ubuntu/Gnome:

Install read-ahead from the repo's
When boots, press Esc on grub, then 'e' to edit the grub. Select the row containing the boot info and press 'e' to edit the line. add in the word "profile" (sans quotes) to the last line. and then boot. The first time it will take ages, but after that there will be a noticable speed improvement.

Set concurrency to shell:

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rc
CONCURRENCY=shell

Adjusting Swap:

sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf
vm.swappiness=20

Additionally, I found this link on TheeMan's pages for Ubuntu Ultimate to be a huge help: http://ubuntusoftware.info/Howto_tweak_ubuntu_ultimate.html