General all around speed setup for PCLinuxOS

[akirafactor]

Install:

preload (caching)
prelink (and run "prelink -avmR" as root as instructed in synaptic)
nscd or unscd (dns caching)

With all these settings PCLinuxOS went from default setup that I was going to reformat and install Mandriva 64 over to lightning fast and the primary system on all my machines. Everything feels instant.

The other tips I posted have detailed setup info.

compcache(setup in boot.local or rc.local)
elevator=deadline
vm.swappiness=24(if running compcache otherwise vm.swappiness=1)
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
animations off
no blur
ipv6 disabled
vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs=1500
noatime
INTEL_BATCH=1(Intel GPU)
hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda(drive has to have power management)
kde4-rasterblaster
libaio1(speeds up vmware I/O)
Copy and Import Win7 and OSX fonts(accurate font rendering)
CFS(Begone cursed cursed BFS. BFS is slow running VMware)
xrender(if GL driver is slow)

[menotu]

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,79725.0.html

[oldschool]

akirafactor,

Nice helpful tips for speedup.  However, on my particular system, XRENDER slows everything to a snail's pace. It's an older system, utilizing nForce2, GeForce4 series video (MX 440 SE w/128 MB RAM and 8X AGP) and an AMD 2400+ CPU.  I was wondering if this was peculiar to my setup, or possibly most nVidea based video cards? I'd love to get your opinion.  Once again, nice tips.

oldschool

[JohanSJA]

readahead (add "profile" to grub to reprofile on next boot)

I would like to have a little more details to this instruction. I am not to sure where to add this.

compcache
elevator=deadline
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
xrender
animations off
no blur
ipv6 disabled
noatime
INTEL_BATCH=1
kde4-rasterblaster
CFS(Begone cursed cursed BFS)

Where should this part goes into then?

[oldschool]

akirafactor,

I am indeed running an AMD 2400+ at 2GHz. Better equipment will have to wait for better finances. I was already running KDE4 rasterblaster and it does help my system. I also had smooth scaling turned off and disabled nearly all of the eye candy, but with xrender it still crawled at a snail's pace, but moved along nicely under GL (even with eye candy turned on). Your comments indicate that xrender makes heavy use of the CPU. Would it be a reasonable guess that GL doesn't rely on the CPU as much? If that is the case, it would explain things quite nicely.


oldschool

[gseaman]

I know that you don't care for bfs, but maybe it'll be time to take another look. Con has fixed a slowdown that affects certain cpus that might explain why you've had problems and I haven't.

http://ck-hack.blogspot.com/2010/12/bfs-version-0360.html

Galen

[melodie]

Hello,

PCLinuxOS Openbox Bonsai and also the latest PCLinuxOS Openbox have compcache configured and enabled with rzscontrol (this can be checked with the command "cat /proc/swaps). Appearantly, a machine with 2 Ghz would be considered here as a real race horse. - "bête de course", en français - .  The machine I use each day has a Celeron 1.46 Mhz, with 1 Go ram, which works perfect.

Galen has tested the first one on an older machine too.

There is no other trick in them to speed them, exept the choice for the services started at boot, which are reduced to the minimum usual requirements. (And botth have the latest kernel with bfs... sure).

Mélodie

PS: in my machine, prelink made the hard drive scratch with lots of noise during several minutes each day. I tried it once, during 2 or 3 days and I didn't like it doing that, so I didn't keep it.

[oldschool]

akirafactor,

Thanks for confirming my suspicion about Open GL not using the CPU as extensively as xrender. It feels good to guess correctly now and then.

oldschool

[marian]

I also use some of these tricks.
Also use barrier=0 which was not mentioned here. I use it for a few months now on my / and no problems yet.   

[marian]

I also use some of these tricks.
Also use barrier=0 which was not mentioned here. I use it for a few months now on my / and no problems yet.   

Isn't that default?

barrier
    The default value is barrier=1 (activated). Deactivating write barriers in the jbd code will improve the performance. If you don't have a battery-backed storage environment, you should not deactivate this mount option.
http://blog.loxal.net/2009/04/tuning-ext4-for-performance-with.html

[marian]

Yeah, I had already previously pre-linked everything, adding preload slowed the whole system down a bit, and adding readahead was a complete waste of a half-hour of my life, it slowed the boot-up time by a few seconds, and increased shut-down time drastically, over 4 times what it had been previously.

The original post does not need to be in "tips and tricks" IMO, if anything it needs to be in maybe the advanced-users section, where the viewers will know better, and noobs won't be tempted to try such hit-or-miss experimentation that's been branded as a "tip".

Yeah, it's just a list of possible speed improvements. There are just tips but no tricks. 

[akirafactor]

I don't handle fixing broken packages for PCLinuxOS. I only fix them on my remastered DVD I give to friends.