Solid State Drive tweaks

20110923 SSD, Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal 64 bit

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

• check for ssd firmware updates

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

• 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

• enable the TRIM command support using the "discard" mounting option

 (the TRIM function prepares (wipes) free space for faster writing)

• mount volumes using the "noatime" option in stead of the "relatime" option

 (the "relatime" option writes the time-of-access to disk and causes unnecessary additional writes to disk)

	
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

• 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

• 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

• use RAM disk for temporary files

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) move log files to /tmp

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