openSUSE 11 Speed Tweaks

1. Disable Swap.
Swap is provide to anticipate lack of memory when using heavy application like graphical application. But sometime i using it.
To disable swap, in terminal konsole as root type /sbin/swapoff -a, anyway it can enable anytime with /sbin/swapon -a.

add on : Oct 17, 2008
Just found the effect when i swap off 256 MB RAM on my friend PC. It’s resulting Hang. I’m not recommend to disable swap if RAM size <=256MB

2. Inactivate Unnecessary Service
Open Yast | System | System Service (Runlevel) and click Expert Mode radio button. Disable service below by pressing STOP button then following with SET button to disable.
1. aaventd
2. boot.aapmor
3. atd
4. auditd
5. autofs
6. autoyast
7. fbset
8. gpm
9. joystick
10. mdadmd
11. portmap
12. nfs
13. nscd
14. ntp
15. openct
16. pcscd
17. postfix
18. powerd
19. powersaved
20. raw
21. rpasswdd
22. smbfs
23. spamd
24. xfs
25. xinetd
26. ypbind

3. Edit Innitab
At terminal konsole type vi /etc/inittab then push insert button on keyboard and give comment with # at following line :
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty –noclear tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
#3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
#4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
#5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
#6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6

This will inactivate ty3~tty6

4. Modify sysconfig
open Yast | System | /etc/sysconfig Editor, click plus on SYSTEM then KERNEL tree and change
SCHED_MINTIMESLICE to 1000
SCHED_MAXTIMESLICE to 40000
next click File systems then mdadm, change MDADM_DELAY to 0.

5. Edit Service Manager
open K menu | Personal Settings | advance tab | Service Manager
Let below service running :
KDED Favicon Module
Konqueror preloader (if using Konqueror)
Kwallet Daemon Module

And disable others than above.

6. Inactivate Beagle
open Yast | Software | Software Management
search for beagle and tick to remove this application then click Accept Button.

openSUSE Tweak : Increase openSUSE Speed & Performance

openSUSE Tweak : Increase
openSUSE Speed & Performance

Image
credit to : masternewmedia.

Before you read this, please keep in mind that there were no
tweak
or tips which suitable for all condition and completely work for all
users. Tweak and tips will only be suitable depending your purposes,
requirement and environment. As an example, I may disable a service but
the same service must be keep enable on your side because I do not use
the service but you do.

This post is based on true
story :-). It’s my experience
and I’ve applied it. I get a faster and nicer openSUSE after applying
these tips. The success story may vary depending above reason and I’ll
be very pleasant for your advice or suggestion. Please share your experience by dropping a comment
if you decided to apply these tweak, partially or fully implementation.

1. Disable Swap
   
   If you have more than 512 MB of RAM (1 GB an example), it’s
   may better to disable your swap space. Swap will only be used if
   computer has not enough memory
   for managing system task, but in certain condition, swap will be used
   even on enough memory condition. Disabling swap will push the system to
   fully managing memory allocation with RAM.
   
   
   
   Disabling swap :
   
   
   

   
   

   view
   sourceprint?

   
   

   
   

   
   

   1./sbin/swapoff
-a

   
   

   
   
   
   

   Enabling swap :
   

   
   
   
   

   
   

   view
   sourceprint?

   
   

   
   

   
   

   1./sbin/swapon
-a

   
   

   
   
   
   

   BEWARE : Please don’t try this if
   you have less than 512 MB of RAM.
   Even though Linux have a good memory management to manage memory
   allocation, I do not suggest this tips because the computer may
   suddenly hang if Linux has not enough memory.

   
   

   There were also some suggestion on
   installation tutorial to
   prepare about 2.5X of RAM as good swap partition. IMHO, it may suitable
   for an ancient history where 128 MB of RAM
   is quite big. Now, RAM bigger than 4 or 8 GB is a common environment.
   2.5X of 8 GB is 20 GB. Do you need 20 GB of swap for buffering daily
   task ?
   

   
   


2. Disable Unnecessary Services
   
   It’s an important tips. Disable unnecessary service to increase
   available memory. Go to YAST | SYSTEM | SYSTEM
   SERVICES - RUNLEVEL to disable or enable any service.
   You may also used chkconfig servicename off/on to
   disable or enable services but I recommended YAST as primary choice
   because YAST has complete information about what is service provided
   for.
   

   Choose Expert Mode to see
   complete
   information.What’s service should be disable ? As describe on prologue
   above, it may vary depending your purposes but I try to keep it simple.
   Below is a list of some service. Please adjust the service state with
   your purposes and condition. If I skip the service, it means that I
   leave it on default condition.
   

   
   
   
   

   
   

   view
   sourceprint?

   
   

   
   

   
   

   01.SuSEFirewall2_init
and setup : disable, unless you used firewall.

   
   

   02.aaeventd
: If you have never used AppArmor, disable it. Disabling this service will also disable boot.apparmor

   
   

   03.

   
   

   04.acpid
: leave it

   
   

   05.alsasound
: leave it

   
   

   06.atd
: disable

   
   

   07.auditd
: disable

   
   

   08.autofs
: disable

   
   

   09.autoyast
: disable

   
   

   10.avahi-daemon
: disable (will also disable avahi-dnsconfd)

   
   

   11.bluetooth
: disable, unless used bluetooth

   
   

   12.bluetooth-coldplug
: disable, unless used bluetooth

   
   

   13.

   
   

   14.cron
: leave it, unless you have no scheduled cron job. I leave it enable on
my work PC but disable this
on my home PC

   
   

   15.

   
   

   16.cups
: leave it if
you has attached printer or need
CUPS to print to another printer, if not
so, disable it.

   
   

   17.dbus
: leave it

   
   

   18.

   
   

   19.earlykbd
: leave it, unless you do
not need keyboard

   
   

   20.earlyxdm
: leave it

   
   

   21.earlysyslog
: leave it, for
logging

   
   

   22.fbset
: disable

   
   

   23.gpm
: disable

   
   

   24.haldaemon
: leave it

   
   

   25.idmapd
: disable

   
   

   26.joystick
: disable, unless used it for
games

   
   

   27.kbd
: leave it, for
keyboard

   
   

   28.lirc
: disable

   
   

   29.mdadmd
: disable

   
   

   30.named
: leave it, for
DNS Server daemon (I leave it
disable on my home PC but automatically change to enable if I
decided to install DNS Server)

   
   

   31.mircocodectl
(Disable for
AMD CPU, leave it for Intel
processor)

   
   

   32.

   
   

   33.network
: leave it, unless you have stand alone workstation and do not
need to share files or used networking service

   
   

   34.

   
   

   35.nfs
: disable

   
   

   36.nfsboot
: disable, depending

   
   

   37.nfsserver
: disable

   
   

   38.nmb
: disable, unless used it for
Samba sharing file

   
   

   39.nscd
: disable

   
   

   40.ntp
: disable

   
   

   41.openct
: disable

   
   

   42.pscsd
: disable

   
   

   43.portmap
: disable

   
   

   44.postfix
: disable, unless used it for
mail transport or mail server

   
   

   45.powerd
: disable

   
   

   46.powersaved
: disable, unless used suspend feature

   
   

   47.random
: leave it

   
   

   48.raw
: disable

   
   

   49.rpasswdd
: disable

   
   

   50.saslauthd
: disable

   
   

   51.smb
: disable, unless used it for
Samba sharing file

   
   

   52.smbfs
: disable, according to smb state

   
   

   53.smpppd
: disable, unless used it for
dial up

   
   

   54.spamd
: disable

   
   

   55.splash
: leave it

   
   

   56.splash_early
: leave it

   
   

   57.sshd
: disable, unless used it for
ssh access. sshd = ssh service
daemon.

   
   

   58.syslog
: leave it

   
   

   59.xdm
: leave it

   
   

   60.xfs
: disable

   
   

   61.xinetd
: leave it

   
   

   
   
   
   


3. Edit Inittab
   
   Edit /etc/inittab and disable (add # mark) tty3-tty6. It should like
   this :
   
   
   

   
   

   view
   sourceprint?

   
   

   
   

   
   

   01.#
getty-programs for the normal runlevels

   
   

   02.#
<id>:<runlevels>:<action>:<process>

   
   

   03.#
The “id” field MUST be the same as the last

   
   

   04.#
characters of the device (after “tty”).

   
   

   05.1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty
–noclear tty1

   
   

   06.2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty
tty2

   
   

   07.#3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty
tty3

   
   

   08.#4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty
tty4

   
   

   09.#5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty
tty5

   
   

   10.#6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty
tty6

   
   

   
   
   
   


4. Change sysconfig setting
   
   Change concurrent setting onYAST |
   SYSTEM | /etc/sysconfig editor Choose positive sign (+)
   on SYSTEM, KERNELChange
   
   
   

   
   

   view
   sourceprint?

   
   

   
   

   
   

   1.SCHED_MINTIMESLICE
1000

   
   

   2.SCHED_MAXTIMESLICE
40000

   
   

   
   
   
   

   Make another change on SYSTEM, File System -> mdadm

   
   

   Disable MDADM_SCAN and set “0″ for MDADM_DELAY
   

   
   


5. Increase Partition Performance.
   
   Modify /etc/fstab and add these setting :
   
   
   

   
   

   view
   sourceprint?

   
   

   
   

   
   

   1.for
Ext3 : natime, nodiratime, barrier
= 1

   
   

   2.for
XFS : noatime, nodiratime

   
   

   3.for
ReiserFS : notail, noatime,
nodiratime, barrier = flush

   
   

   
   
   
   

   Please keep in mind that change the setting or partition
   type will
   make a deal with recovery capability of appropriate partition. It’s a
   good idea to read this
   and there
   tutorial for a reference.
   

   
   


6. Disable Beagle
   
   Beagle used for desktop search.
   It has such improvement on openSUSE 11.0 and 11.1 but if you didn’t
   used it for daily usage, removing beagle will saved a memory that being
   used for indexing. Remove it with YAST | Software | Software Management
   or used our lovely zypper :
   
   
   
   

   
   

   view
   sourceprint?

   
   

   
   

   
   

   1.zypper
rm beagle

   
   

   
   
   
   


7. Disable Nepomuk Desktop Search (on KDE 4)
   
   
   
   If you use KDE 4, you may get a bonus by disabling
   Nepomuk Desktop Search and Strigi desktop
   Indexer . Navigate to Kick
   off Menu | Configure Desktop | Advanced | Desktop Search.
   Disable (uncheck) Nepomuk Desktop Search and Strigi desktop
   Indexer.

After applying these tips, launched Konqueror and navigate to
System Information (type sysinfo:/
on URL address and press enter. I used KDE 4.2 beta 2 with standard
menu while writing this post. You
may also get same result by go to kick off
menu | Computer | System Information).
See how much free memory available on your computer. After that, reboot
your computer, re-check the system information before and after
tweaking.

Reference :

1. Tips
   Meningkatkan Kecepatan openSUSE (Indonesian)


2. Ben
   Kevan : Speed up your Linux Boot and Normal Use (openSUSE)

Super Grub Disk - Fix Linux or Windows Bootloader with Super Grub Disk

I just wanted to post this here since it has saved my a** plenty of times. Well, not that I couldn't fix boot issues manually, it's just that SuperGrub Boot Disk Makes it so much easier to fix your Windows and/or Linux Bootloader.

This is a must have if you dual boot!

Here's more info and the link to download it free:

Super Grub Disk is a bootable floppy, cdrom or usb that help you to deal with boot problems. You can automatically restore Grub on your MBR.

Here is the download page:

Super Grub Disk

Daily xine RPMS (Linux DVD player)

update notice: this server has been updated recently (rh7.3 to fc4) but i still haven\'t been able to adjust the build scripts with the new configuration. the last cvs rpms will remain the same in the meantime.

This is an "unofficial" xine release. "Unofficial" just because the xine project does not officially distribute any binary or compiled packages. xine is free software and the source code is always available and licensed under GPL. "Linux DVD Player" is here so you can google for it ;-)

The provided RPMS are built automatically everyday from xine's Sourceforge CVS. This is all you need to play DVDs in linux (with full menu support) and the other media formats xine can handle. For more information please check the xine homepage.

The xine developers do not support CSS descrambling. The use of this software for watching your legally purchased DVDs may be illegal in your country.

You need to install libdvdcss rpm besides xine-lib and xine-ui. Without libdvdcss you won't be able to watch encrypted DVDs, that is, most of them.

If the files below are some days old that means cvs changes have broken my daily building. Also note that sourceforge public CVS access is getting worse everyday, and if the scripts cannot get the latest version, packages won't be updated.

These rpms are build in a RedHat Linux 7.3 server. Some care is taken to keep them portable across different distros, so they should also work on RH 7.x, 8.0, 9.0, Fedora, Mandrake, Suse, Conectiva...

Important notes:

1. Dependencies for libxine rpm are manually set to a minimum. The package will not require libraries used by specific plugins, such as ALSA, to be available in order to be installed.
2. Ogg/Vorbis version 1.0 is statically linked.

3. To watch asf/avi files encoded with win32 dlls just install w32codec rpm. This rpm includes the old Video for Windows (vfw) codecs, Windows Media Video 8 (WMV8), WMV9 and Quicktime 6 codecs. these codecs will be used by xine as needed (that is, when native ones aren't available).

4. If you install the RealPlayer8/9 rpm you will be able to watch Real Networks streams (.rm). xine plays Real streams with less cpu utilization than RealPlayer itself and works on sound cards without 44.1Khz support. Do not use RealPlayer10, xine will not be able to use their libraries since they changed the binary interfaces. fortunately, Real10 streams can be decoded perfectly using the Real9 libraries.
5. libdvdcss 1.2.8 provided here is patched with network support. this makes possible to watch dvds from a remote dvdrom drive. check xine-lib/doc/README.network_dvd (ignore the steps to build 'cdda_server' as the same utility is included here as 'dvdcss_server').
6. xine-ui is statically linked to libcurl. press (control+d) while running xine-ui to download new skins.
7. libpng is now statically linked to keep dependencies low.
8. Travis England kindly sent me x86_64 rpms for suse-9.1. These files are available here. Note: don't ask me about these rpms, I have not tested them. Check the readme file for more information.

---

Step by step guide to run xine

1. You need to download the xine engine (libxine). Get the libxine rpm which more closely matches yourCPU:

     libxine1-(version)-xxxxxx.i586.rpm for Pentium/Pentium MMX
   libxine1-(version)-xxxxxx.i686.rpm for Pentium II/III/IV
   libxine1-(version)-xxxxxx.k6.rpm for AMD K6
   libxine1-(version)-xxxxxx.k7.rpm for AMD Athlon/Duron
   

   If you don't know your CPU just get the i586 package.

2. Download xine-ui:

   xine-ui-(version)-xxxxxx.i586.rpm for any CPU.
   

3. Install the packages (you need to be root):

   # rpm -U libxine1* xine-ui*
   

4. If you want full DVD support download and install libdvdcss:

   libdvdcss-1.2.8-1.network.i386.rpm
   

   By default, xine expects to find your DVD-ROM at /dev/dvd. Creating a symbolic link to your device is recommended (for example, /dev/hdc or /dev/scd0). The command below should work for most users:

     # ln -s /dev/cdrom /dev/dvd
   

   Make sure the DMA is enabled for your DVD-ROM, otherwise playback will be 'jumpy'.

     # hdparm -d1 /dev/cdrom
   

5. If you want full Windows Media Video and Quicktime support download and install:

   w32codec-0.52-1.i386.rpm
   

6. If you want full Real Media support download and install:

   RealPlayer9-9.0.7.151-4.i386.rpm newest version
   (alternative rpm for fedora core: RealPlayer9-9.0.7.151-6.fdr.0.i386.rpm), or
   RealPlayer8-8.0.3.412-5.i386.rpm older version (if you have problems instaling RealPlayer9)
   obs: Depending on your distro, you might need /usr/sbin/update-alternatives or libXm.so.2

7. Type 'xine' at your console window and enjoy...

   Hint: consider reading the xine FAQ.

8. To try an experimental Netscape/Mozilla plugin using xine to play embedded videos, download and install:

   xine-mozilla-plugin-(version)-xxxxxx.i586.rpm xine plugin for Netscape/Mozilla.
   

   This plugin was not officialy released, it might hang/crash/freeze/burn. in case of trouble just uninstall.

You can find the Daily Xine RPMs Here:

Daily Xine RPMs