Re: [gentoo-user] Optimizations for SSD netbook

[Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com>]

>> My girlfriend is at her wit's end with her SSD netbook and is now
>> hogging my laptop.  Her netbook has 1GB RAM that could be upgraded to
>> 1.5GB, but I've read that it's a pain.  It already runs xfce4, and
>> I've just made these optimizations based on past discussions:
>>
>> 1. CFLAGS="-march=prescott -0s -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -ssse3"
>> 2. added elevator=noop as a boot parameter
>
> I remember that I've given this second advice. Since then I've read in
> the German computer journal c't [1] that CFQ has a detection for SSDs
> since 2.6.28 and now is the best choice for these devices.

OK, do I need a boot parameter if I've set CFQ as the default IO
scheduler in the kernel config?

>> 3. disabled DRI to save 32MB RAM
>> 4. removed the swap partition from /etc/fstab
>>
>> Am I missing anything significant?  I've read that it's good to set up
>> /tmp in RAM.  How can I do that? In /etc/fstab I have:
>>
>> shm /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec
>>
>> Is that related?
>>
>
> Yup, the entry should read:
> tmp /tmp tmpfs default 0 0

Do you think mounting /tmp in RAM is worthwhile?  Mike doesn't seem to
think too highly of it.

> The first entry is just a name. You can name it in every way you want it.
>
> For further tweaks: Do you use Firefox? I've read that it uses fsync()
> when writing to its sqlite backend. This is a really good thing because
> it reduces the risk of loosing data but you might (and can) disable this
> to increase performance and reduce wear. I don't have a link at hand but
> it shouldn't be to hard to find.

There is some interesting info on disabling fsync here:

http://www.flamingspork.com/projects/libeatmydata/

Sounds kinda dangerous. :)

- Grant