Differences between revisions 31 and 32
⇤ ← Revision 31 as of 2007-04-22 22:39:16 →
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Editor: ?PeteBoyd
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← Revision 32 as of 2007-06-04 10:22:16 → ⇥
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Editor: DavidAndel
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Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
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   * If you're looking to manage programs starting up at boot time, download ''sysv-rc-conf'' and run it as root. It is a graphical program with an easy to understand UI that makes changing boot priorities easy.    * If you're looking to manage programs starting up at boot time, download one of ''sysv-rc-conf'', ''sysvconfig'', and ''rcconf''. All are graphical programs to be run as root making changing boot priorities easy.
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 * Renice esd/artsd to -15. If these don't get CPU '''right away''' when they need it, your sound will break up  * [http://and.sourceforge.net/ AND (the Auto Nice Daemon)] should be used to renice or kill programs that get too much or too few priority, as well as those often going bersek (like gnome-spell used to). It should completely remove the manual mess recommended below if you configure it right.
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 * Jack the nice value of X from 0 to -10. The nice value doesn't make it much "faster", but it does significantly improve latency. There is a debconf question for that, if you need to do it at all. Check first if it's not running nice -10 out of the box (my woody box did). Deprecated with kernel 2.6 and ["XFree86"] 4.3  * Renice alsa/artsd to -15. If these don't get CPU '''right away''' when they need it, your sound will break up.

 * Jack the nice value of X from 0 to -10. The nice value doesn't make it much "faster", but it does significantly improve latency. There is a debconf question for that, if you need to do it at all. Check first if it's not running nice -10 out of the box. Deprecated with kernel 2.6 and ["XFree86"] 4.3
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 * Software that's always sucking down a little CPU in the background but still should be interactive (like lopster or gtk-gnutella) should be niced to 5 or so  * Software that's always sucking down a little CPU in the background but still should be interactive (like lopster or gtk-gnutella) should be niced to 5 or so.
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 * If you run any servers on your workstation, they should run around nice 10. They need to get back to the user, but they shouldn't make your UI get unpleasant when they get hit  * If you run any servers on your workstation, they should run around nice 10. They need to get back to the user, but they shouldn't make your UI get unpleasant when they get hit.
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 * Make all your cron jobs run at nice 20 (crontab -e, edit command line to contain nice -n20). They have no reason to demand interactive latency, and you '''do''' need said latency for your UI

 * [http://and.sourceforge.net/ AND (the Auto Nice Daemon)] should be used to renice or kill programs that get too much or too few priority, as well as those often going bersek (like gnome-spell used to). It should completely remove the manual mess recommended hereup if you configure it right		  * Make all your cron jobs run at nice 20 (crontab -e, edit command line to contain nice -n20). They have no reason to demand interactive latency, and you '''do''' need said latency for your UI.
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   * You can do "hdparm -c3 -d1 /dev/yourharddrivenamehere" with almost no risk    * You can do "hdparm -c3 -d1 /dev/yourharddrivenamehere" with almost no risk.
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   * With caution (backup your data first) you can play with the -u and -m options (preferentially with your device mounted ro)    * With caution (backup your data first) you can play with the -u and -m options (preferentially with your device mounted ro).
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   * Sarge's hdparm seems to get all this almost optimal    * Sarge's hdparm seems to get all this almost optimal.
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 * IceWeasel - I don't know if its enabled by default but you can tweak the redraw speed by adding the line {{{user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 100);}}} into {{{user.js}}}. If you don't find any such file in your system, just create one with the said line in it in the directory under ~/.mozilla where your {{{prefs.js}}} resides  * IceWeasel - I don't know if its enabled by default but you can tweak the redraw speed by adding the line {{{user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 100);}}} into {{{user.js}}}. If you don't find any such file in your system, just create one with the said line in it in the directory under ~/.mozilla where your {{{prefs.js}}} resides.
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 * Use gnuserv mode in emacs/emacs  * Use gnuserv mode in emacs/xemacs.
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Use a kernel optimized for your CPU's architecture (see InstallingOptimizedKernelPackage) Use a kernel optimized for your CPU's architecture (see InstallingOptimizedKernelPackage).
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BuildYourOwnKernel images with the following points bearing in mind. This can make a BIG difference in speed! (Tempered by difficulty to implement) BuildYourOwnKernel images with the following points bearing in mind. This can make a BIG difference in speed! (Tempered by difficulty to implement):
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WARNING

Much of this content appears dated, as of April 2007. Be careful!

Disabling

  • To reduce CPU usage:

    • If you are running KDE (see ["DebianKDE"]), do not use the newsticker - at least not with many sources. This can consume over 90% of your CPU resources. If you have a poor performance and you see "kdeinit: kicker" on the first ranks in top then it's probably the newsticker. In particular, consult [http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=Performance%20Tips the KDE Performance Tips]

  • To reduce memory usage:

    • If you're looking to manage programs starting up at boot time, download one of sysv-rc-conf, sysvconfig, and rcconf. All are graphical programs to be run as root making changing boot priorities easy.

    • Uninstall or at least stop any unneeded service (["Apache"], ["PostgreSQL"], XFS (the X Font Server), Samba, ["MySQL"], ...) with update-rc.d -f apache remove for example (not quite the right way to do it, because on next upgrade of the service, it will put the links back)

    • Use mingetty, or better, fgetty, instead of ["getty"]. Even better, reduce the number of *gettys used if you know you'll never switch to console

Niceing (from highest to lowest priority)

  • [http://and.sourceforge.net/ AND (the Auto Nice Daemon)] should be used to renice or kill programs that get too much or too few priority, as well as those often going bersek (like gnome-spell used to). It should completely remove the manual mess recommended below if you configure it right.

  • Renice alsa/artsd to -15. If these don't get CPU right away when they need it, your sound will break up.

  • Jack the nice value of X from 0 to -10. The nice value doesn't make it much "faster", but it does significantly improve latency. There is a debconf question for that, if you need to do it at all. Check first if it's not running nice -10 out of the box. Deprecated with kernel 2.6 and ["XFree86"] 4.3

  • gpm (see ["GPMMouseConfig"]) should be niced to match X when acting as a repeater. (Should it be even higher priority? & Why use gpm?)

  • Software that's always sucking down a little CPU in the background but still should be interactive (like lopster or gtk-gnutella) should be niced to 5 or so.
  • If you run any servers on your workstation, they should run around nice 10. They need to get back to the user, but they shouldn't make your UI get unpleasant when they get hit.

  • Make all your cron jobs run at nice 20 (crontab -e, edit command line to contain nice -n20). They have no reason to demand interactive latency, and you do need said latency for your UI.

Low-level Tuning

  • Turn on DMA and unmasked interrupts (insert usual warnings about potential problems with really old computers having these on). Significantly reduces "jerkiness" in X when doing disk access, including paging. See the two following points. Try the options first, then run hdparm at boot time. The easiest way is to install hwtools and edit /etc/init.d/hwtools

    • You can do "hdparm -c3 -d1 /dev/yourharddrivenamehere" with almost no risk.
    • With caution (backup your data first) you can play with the -u and -m options (preferentially with your device mounted ro).
    • Sarge's hdparm seems to get all this almost optimal.

Updating

  • ?IceWeasel - I don't know if its enabled by default but you can tweak the redraw speed by adding the line user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 100); into user.js. If you don't find any such file in your system, just create one with the said line in it in the directory under ~/.mozilla where your prefs.js resides.

  • Use gnuserv mode in emacs/xemacs.

  • Develop directly from Sid to get new packages that can make the system feel nicer. Consider ?CopingWithUnstable though ;-)

Kernel

(see ["KernelALaDebian"])

Use a kernel optimized for your CPU's architecture (see ?InstallingOptimizedKernelPackage).

?BuildYourOwnKernel images with the following points bearing in mind. This can make a BIG difference in speed! (Tempered by difficulty to implement):

  • Enable only the stuff that you really need.

  • Include things like the low-latency patch and the preemption patch which make the system feel faster. At least the preemption patch is included in the 2.6.x series and only requires turning on before compiling. The low-latency patch is a special case where a prebuild kernel can be used for both desktop and server, by switching low-latency with echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/low-latency.

Refer to the [http://members.optusnet.com.au/ckolivas/kernel/ Kernel patch homepage of Con Kolivas] for a fairly complete list.

Reduce the installation footprint

["ReduceDebian"] Smaller footprint packages use less resources, and generally run quicker.

Other

Further Reading

Based on suggestions made on Slashdot on the [http://slashdot.org/articles/02/09/30/1118206.shtml?tid=110 Redhat 8.0 Reviewed] topic.

Contributors: JeromeWarnier, Mark Bucciarelli, David Andel, Leonithas Arvanitis, Carlos Vieira