Solid State Drive tweaks

20110923 SSD, Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal 64 bit

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MagicFab/SSDchecklist

Prepare

• check for ssd firmware updates

• Enable SATA AHCI mode in the BIOS (if available)

Note: in a dual boot configuration with Windows 7, Windows will not boot anymore. You will need to make some changes in Windows before proceeding.

Format SSD

• format sdb, ext4, journaling disabled

	
sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb | grep sectors

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7297 cylinders

	
(BE CAREFULL) sudo fdisk -H 255 -S 63 /dev/sdb
 "d" delete partition
 "n" new partition, primary, 1
 "w" to write partition table and exit
(BE CAREFULL) sudo mke2fs -t ext4 -O ^has_journal /dev/sdb1

TRIM and access time

The TRIM function prepares (wipes) free space for faster writing. Enable the TRIM command support using the "discard" mounting option.

The "relatime" option writes the time-of-access to disk and causes unnecessary additional writes to disk. Mount volumes using the "noatime" option in stead of the "relatime" option

	
sudo cp /etc/fstab ~/fstab-backup
sudo gedit /etc/fstab
 UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx /               ext4    noatime,discard,data=writeback,errors=remount-ro 0       1

reboot

To test if TRIM is working:

• http://askubuntu.com/questions/18903/how-to-enable-trim

Swap

• lower the likelyness of swap

	
sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

 # add/edit these lines

 # minimum swappiness
 vm.swappiness=0

 # weak inode cache schrinking
 vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

I/O scheduler

• change I/O scheduler strategy to "noop" (or "deadline")

Note: there are alternatives to add this option to grub or to install a "sysutils" package

cat /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler

noop anticipatory deadline [cfq]

	
sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

# add thise lines before exit 0 for drive "sda" echo noop > /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler # reboot

Temporary files

Use RAM disk for temporary files to reduce the number of writes to the SSD.

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

#add after the last line (exact text) tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec,mode=1777 0 0 # after reboot, using df you should see a line like df tmpfs xxxxxx yyyyy zzzzzz n% /tmp

Move firefox cache to the earlier created /tmp

1. in firefox go to "about:config"
2. filter for "browser.cache.disk.parent_directory" Set the value to "/tmp"

• (optional) also move log files to /tmp

Other

Did this from other Ubuntu and then it booted

• http://blog.smartlogicsolutions.com/2009/06/04/mount-options-to-improve-ext4-file-system-performance/

tune2fs -o journal_data_writeback /dev/sdb1

• moved aMule and Vuze folders to Data drive, NB: aMule will reset the folder when it is not found