My Ubuntu Life: Tweak It!

I have started using Ubuntu as my default running OS and I'm veeeeeeeeeery satisfied with it! In further I did lots of "tweaks" on it in order to improve its performance. Because my laptop is old and has insufficient resources to use, these fine tunes are particular tricky to me. There is nothing new but information from advanced Ubuntu users online. Here we go:

1. [備忘] 清除無用的檔案，幫系統瘦身 From Nelson 開始國一生活

sudo apt-get install localepurge

Unzip this to /usr/bin and then
sudo desktop-purge
sudo mime-purge
sudo gconf-purge

Paste this to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/

sudo apt-get autoremove

sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get clean

Install GtkOrphan

This was the first thing I did after installation. It helped me to "purge" my system for releasing more HDD spaces. I only got 5GB for Ubuntu....

2. Drastically Speed up your Linux System with Preload

sudo apt-get install preload

3. [教學] 讓 Ubuntu 8.04 自動掛載其他磁碟槽 From Nelson 開始國一生活

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

NFTS: /dev/sda1 /media/C ntfs-3g silent,umask=0,locale=zh_TW.utf8
FAT32: /dev/sda1 /media/C vfat iocharset=utf8,umask=000 0 0

4. 【Grub】縮短開機選單讀秒時間 From 凍仁的 Ubuntu 筆記

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

16 ## timeout sec
17 # Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
18 # (normally the first entry defined).
19 timeout 10

I changed 10 to 1

5. Install "Ubuntu Tweak" and enable/disable functions with its GUI.

6. Ubuntu8.04系列二－－系统优化篇 From 嘉骏苑

sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

add vm.swappiness=5 to the last line, then reboot.
recommand 5 for 1GB, 3 for 2GB memory




That's the system part I have done to my Ubuntu. There is an alternative tweaking tool "Lazybuntu" developed by Yuren Ju and PCMan. Its an ultimately easy-to-use solution for tuning Ubuntu, especially suitable for Taiwanese.

However my Ubuntu crashed twice after using this tool....maybe there are something incompatible? Anyway, backup before use it might be a better idea at all.