Speed!

July 22, 2006 at 9:15 am | Posted in tips and tricks, xubuntu | 4 Comments

Xubuntu’s very fast…but you can make it even faster!

1) HOWTO: run Ubuntu on low RAM computers:

I set this up for all of my installations. Obviously, the best tweaks are using IceWM/Fluxbox, and using lighter programs (my suggestions: web browser – Opera, email client – Sylpheed-claws, terminal shell – Dash, virtual terminal – Mingetty, terminal – xterm, mp3/cd player – xmms, file manager – xfe).

Disabling virtual terminals will help a little, but if you use Mingetty you probably won’t notice. Mingetty also has a guide on permanently removing extra virtual terminals, but I still use Ctrl-Alt-F4 in case of a crash.

If you play games, freeing up video RAM will make a noticable difference. Be careful removing ‘glx’ though! Some games need it!

2) That guide suggests removing services, but I would go one step further: Speeding up ubuntu boot process – the way you can feel it. I can get my boot-up under a minute with these tweaks…however, make sure you understand what you are doing!

3) You can follow some of the guides here: Improve performance in Ubuntu. My favourites are speeding up Firefox, enabling DMA to speed up your hard drive (You can also do this with Automatix), and choosing a better kernel (The speed can be noticable depending on your hardware). The rest don’t have very noticable speed increases.

4) If you have enough time to waste, compiling your own kernel also helps.

Happy Xubuntuing!

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