How to tune your Ubuntu PC for faster performance.

Below we give some procedures to be followed for boosting the performance of your Ubuntu PC.

Swap memory from hard disk to RAM

One bottleneck of Linux the use of swap file on the hard disk instead of RAM. Since the hard disk is 100 times slower than internal memory, this can slow things down considerably.

Swap file is controlled by a variable called “swappiness” and higher the number, greater the tendency to go to the disk.

• Find out the system swappiness by using the command below. Go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal to execute the command.
  

         $  sudo cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

       
         

• Lower that to 10 by typing this in the terminal window.

  $ sudo sysctl -w vm.swappiness=10

        

• To make sure the system always uses a swappiness of 10 on every boot, we’ll need to edit the sysctl.conf file in the etc directory. Type this in the terminal
  

  $ sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

         

• In the popup window, search for text "vm.swappiness" and edit 60 to 10. Save and close the file.
  

          

Freeing up more memory

Free up RAM by disabling some virtual consoles that use up memory which are never used.

• Edit the inittab file in the etc directory using the following command. Enter the password.
  

        sudo gedit /etc/inittab

       

• Text editor "inittab" is loaded. Scroll down until you find the six lines that begin with: 1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1, Comment out (just add the hash or “#” symbol in front of) the last four lines as shown below. Save and close the file.

        

Concurrent Booting

Concurrent booting takes advantage of dual-core processors and CPUs that feature hyperthreading which are helping hand for fast booting.

• Go to Applications > Add/Remove Applications
  

       

• Enter text 'mousepad' in search text box. Select the checkbox Mousepad and click on OK.

            

• Once the Mousepad is installed successfully, edit the “rc” using the below command.

        $ sudo mousepad /etc/init.d/rc

        

• Opens an rc edit file. Find for CONCURRENCY=none and change it to CONCURRENCY=shell. Save and close the file.

        

Note: Always exercise caution when editing configuration files.

       

        

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