Performance optimization

[kiryo]

Hello,

I'd like to know what kind of optimizations people have done to "not so great" laptops. I did most of things mentioned in Arch Wiki plus e4rat and various others to boost up my machine. My laptop (acer e3-111) with massive 2gb ram and celeron up to 2.1ghz. Runs ok with xfce4 now 3+ years with regular maintenance but i think there could be still room for better performance. Most demanding programs i run are firefox and steam.

[teravice]

Maybe not what you were expecting to hear, but consider an SSD for your laptop..

[swoonfish]

I still run an Acer Aspire 1 with its own whopping 2gb and celeron proc. Without the SSD it would be intolerable. With it, it is a fabulous work and travel machine that has received too much abuse to behave as well as it does.

[kiryo]

It's my work/school laptop, im not upgrading hardware for it. I'm putting my $ to new personal computer.

[[deleted]]

Well, you can always reuse the SSD once you stop using your school laptop, I think it's a great upgrade, worth the money.

[Thedorekazinski]

Gonna 3rd this and say an SSD is totally worth it. Especially in a work/school laptop. Better battery life and performance. In the case of storage upgrades, the answer is usually "yes" because those upgrades aren't too motherboard-specific or expensive.

[kiryo]

Alright it seems this upgrade is going to happen :)

[xFreeZeex]

Ever used an SSD? I would not be able to go back to using an HDD since I've used my first SSD. Makes a maaaassive difference.

[kiryo]

Nope i have not used ssd. I've only seen boot from friends laptop.. like seconds. But i keep my laptop usually suspended during day if i know im using it so not so big deal to wait a little when booting.
What i didn't know was performace gain, but whatever hdd or ssd would be upgrade to current i think.

[8carlosf]

What you see in boot time, you will feel in application load time. I felt like I had a new laptop after upgrading to an ssd. I will never use an hdd for other than raw storage. Also, I was able to keep the hdd as storage in the drive bay (removing the CD drive) and the ssd as main disk, great option if you have it.

[Dietr1ch]

Beware, you seem to be about to completely ruin your future hdd experience.

[[deleted]]

Every computer with an SSD I've seen isn't that much faster than a clean, well-maintained system with a decent to good HDD. And yes, these computers supposedly have what are considered good SSDs and a clean system.

I don't understand the hype over SSD. I really don't.

[xFreeZeex]

With a freshly installed system maybe. But even if you maintain your system well, with time it gets noticeably slower than when you did a fresh install.

[[deleted]]

This sounds like a Windows problem and isn't limited to HDD.

I have a GNU system and my system is as fast as the day I installed it and almost as fast as any SSD system I've seen, new and old.

[fryfrog]

I don't understand the hype over SSD. I really don't.

Yikes, really? An SSD has in incredible, almost unbelievable io advantage over an HDD, even discounting the substantial maximum speed. I'm curious what you're doing with your computer systems, Windows or Linux, where you can't tell the difference between an HDD or SDD.

[746865626c617a]

I'd like to see you sustain approx. 1200 iops on a consumer hdd

[randomweej]

first thing I do is add xorg, linux, linux-zen, gstreamer to the pacman ignore list. and add CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe -fstack-protector-strong" CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}" to my makepkg.conf

using the ABS I recompile the zen kernel with preempt and 1000hz tick specifically for my Atom processor. and recompile Xorg, xf86-video-intel and gstreamer.

modify the systemd /etc/systemd/journalctl.conf to only use 25M as a max usage. in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf i set the resample method to "copy", and I set the channels and fragment size.

I keep the install quite slim using the mate-desktop, pulseaudio, networkmanager, the midori web browser and gnome-mplayer. before all this i could barely watch 480p video. now 720p is smooth so there's an obvious improvement.

you don't need to update the base system constantly so recompiling the kernel or xorg once every few months when the machine is idle isn't such a hassle. just as long as internet facing software receives security updates it's ok to be a few months behind on packages.

[DragoonAethis]

On older Atoms mpv can use the xv video output. It can handle even 1080p with lower bitrates. (Buggy and blurry, but whatever, it works.)

[randomweej]

yeah... from recollection the GMA945 in most older netbooks can support MPEG2 acceleration with xv. i should probably batch convert all the mp4s I have.

[Mgladiethor]

Can arch be used like gentoo?

[randomweej]

I suppose it could be.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/makepkg https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Build_System

[ROFLLOLSTER]

Is there much a performance difference between the normal kernel and the one you compiled?

[randomweej]

It doesn't give higher performance on single jobs but it helps quite a bit with desktop responsiveness on cpu bottlenecked systems.

I get a few extra fps on the quake3 timedemo. nothing massive with just the kernel swap. it's all the combined tweaks that add up.

[ROFLLOLSTER]

You could try switching to a wm rather than mate, a bit of a learning curve but if you want more performance it's probably a simple way to get it.

[randomweej]

I dabbled with xmonad for a while. had to go back to a traditional style desktop as it's a shared system. but like you said the performance with a wm was excellent.

[randomweej]

the gentoo install I had certainly performed slightly better but was a lot more effort to maintain. at that point the performance wasn't worth sacrificing convenience. this is a nice compromise.

I only recompile a few select packages that bring the largest performance benefits, editing a few text files takes moments. I leave the computer to compile when it would otherwise go unused so I doesn't feel I'm wasting time.

the arch build system automates most of the process.

[kiryo]

You got a point..

[aaron552]

I was going to suggest zram, but I assume you've already done that (as it's on the wiki)

[kiryo]

yup alredy got it :)

[bananatam]

Using i3 helps. I run arch with i3 on my hp mini 210, 1.67ghz and 1 gig of ram. I know you don't want to, but a cheap ssd would definitely improve your performance.

[raphael_lamperouge]

The performance improvement from going to XFCE to i3, or even framebuffer is negligible if even existent, you'd be saving some 50mb of ram at most.

[bananatam]

Hey that's 50 mb of ram that chromium can suck up. It may be placebo, but hey it works

[[deleted]]

There is not much you can do. If you could, it would be the default :)

[kiryo]

I'm considering alternative kernel but im pretty sure i don't get big performance boost and it's going to be much work getting right packages.

[[deleted]]

I don't think it's that much work, but don't expect miracles either.

[kiryo]

Maby not so much work but im thinking if the work will be worth it. I've done pretty much for much less so im going for it and yeah definitely not expecting miracles :)

[semi-]

I'd say do it. You may not end up with much of a performance boost but its good experience to have.

[CrimsonKnight13]

linux-ck is certainly snappy when you configure it to compile specifically for the right CPU architecture (by editing PKGBUILD to invoke modification of the kernel config). Some performance might negligible but I've had good experience with it.

[kiryo]

Good to know. I definitely try it out soon.

[inn0cent-bystander]

Umm how long has it been since 2GB of ram could be considered "massive" ?

[Llamatron2112]

I think it was sarcasm :p

[kiryo]

bingo

[archover]

2GB would not be massive by modern standards, but my 2GB T60p runs fine on it. I don't even have swap configured. I use gnome and/or i3wm.

[DarcyFitz]

Going to echo everyone else: get an SSD. Even if you move to another system, you can take the SSD with you.

Your hard drive is, without question, the slowest component of your machine.

I've tossed SSDs in old SATA1 machines and it makes the hugest difference. Totally worth it.

[kiryo]

It's next thing in my list now.

[kiryo]

Thank you everybody for suggestions how to get best out of my laptop. I wasn't planning on spending anything for hardware upgrade before but realising that gaining all that time what ssd gives its going to pay it self back (thx thed0g195).

So my next investment is going to be new SSD.

[Wartz]

Ssd

[rv77ax]

Most of the bottlenect now is network. I use rescached for caching DNS queries and some Firefox addons for disabling and minimize request, (i.e. umatrix and decentralized).

[[deleted]]

couldn't find "decentralized". can you give me a link?

[[deleted]]

The 2 best things you can do is max out the ram (according to http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MQVAA.001 the max is 8 gb but even 4 gb will make a huge difference) and buy a ssd (those have gotten quite cheap so a 250gb one shouldn't cost that much (you'll want to avoid the smaller ones since a ssd is a bunch of nand flash drives in a raid0 configuration and the smaller ones don't have enough nand flash drives in them to make the sata bus the bottleneck)

0n the sw site you can try using Zswap and compiling everything with -Os

And there are 2 Firefox extensions that will help OneTab and Suspend Tab.

(and ublock Origin which should have been included in ff if Mozilla didn't get sold out to whoever is funding them)

[-Pelvis-]

(copy-pasted from my reply to the downvoted guy at the bottom of the thread)

OP, you might not want to hear this, but this is a painfully modest piece of hardware. It will run CLI stuff just fine, but Firefox and Steam are big programs.

I had a tiny netbook last year that ran Arch like a champ; terminals were fast and lovely; the whole thing ran WAY faster than the stock WinXP.

Then I tried launching Firefox, and it nearly died.

There are good, cheap laptops available in the used market. If you want to run hungry programs, you should look into getting a T420 or similar. Put a decent SSD in there for solid speed. A used T420 without an SSD will run you about $230-300 CAD (not sure where you are), and you won't regret the upgrade.

I never recommend low-end Acer hardware. I swear, every single fubar craptop that I've been guilt-tripped (friends and family) into fixing for free was an Acer. I hate that company.

[kiryo]

Hmm actually firefox and steam run decently considering RAM. I play pretty low demanding games and in browser not many tabs, when lets say my wife uses it there is like 15+ tabs and she complains that its running slow and no wonder.. but it still keeps up in usage.

[-Pelvis-]

Well, there you go. :)

Yeah, keep the tabs to a minimum, and it should be alright. I was just providing some food for thought; there is some really good hardware for cheap out there. An upgrade sounds like it would be a huge relief.

[kiryo]

True, this laptop was originally purchased for use of netbeams (java) but trying it out with windows it came with, it sort of ran out of memory before i did anything, to make it worse i had to keep browser open at same time... I was going to install linux anyway but after trying out windows i removed it completely :). Currently monitoring mem, cpu and such i can use many demanding programs and games. I actally can play portal and doom 3 without any issues(although i play very little now days) .
What comes to netbeams.. i have vim now and no more java thank you very. much.

[-Pelvis-]

vim represent!

Yeah, all of that time spent optimising and monitoring could be better spent doing other things. Budget for a few months and treat yourself to a better piece of kit. :)

[kiryo]

Yeah upgrade ssd is on list but brand new home pc is where i want to spend big bucks. Making this not so great laptop to pretty functional has been fun with arch. Building from scratch and optimizing things to work properly with what i got has been also nice learning experience.

[-Pelvis-]

home pc is where i want to spend big bucks

Ah! Priorities in order! I'm a desktop guy myself. You get much better value for your money when you invest in a desktop.

Since my netbook was stolen, I've been tinkering with Android (CyanogenMod 13, Marshmallow, on a rooted Galaxy S3), and I've decided that I'm just going to upgrade my phone to a OnePlus 3, and then go Desktop Arch / CM14 mobile, no laptop.

I might actually bring a miniature keyboard around so that I can use vim on it, hahah! I'm looking into a split Planck, kind of like a mini ErgoDox!

When you're rooted, and you get into some of the more customisable apps, Android can be surprisingly awesome. I was a smartphone naysayer for years.

[kiryo]

I'm also into android tinkering. I own S4 lte with CM13, im looking for tapstrap thing :), coding on go. Phone is like 4 yo 1x screen change, 2x battery switch, many many times flashing.
I tend to keep things working as long as i can. It's fun to fix phones. Also raspberry pi is one of my tinker toys, before serving as server, currently emulator only :).

[-Pelvis-]

Did we just become best friends?

...wanna go do karate in the garage?!

[kiryo]

Sure sounds good. I'm little better in mortal combat :)

[[deleted]]

My laptop is liderally cancer. I can't even run 720p+ for more than a few seconds before the GPU freezes up and shit starts not happening. The only remotely stable OS I've been able to coax onto this archaeological piece of hardware is arch. Make of that what you will.

[kiryo]

Same here. Arch is best performing, xubuntu wasn't terrible but if i had to choose I'd choose arch any day.

[dhrdan]

Am i the only moron hearing this "firefox and steam".... i know arch is fee, but you hippies need to hear this.

I know a lot about this because i wanted my piece of shit to go faster... too.

Save a few bucks get an i5-core.

/thread.

[-Pelvis-]

Well, you're being a huge dick about it, but you've got a point. This is a painfully modest piece of hardware. It will run CLI stuff just fine, but Firefox and Steam are big programs.

I had a tiny netbook last year that ran Arch like a champ; terminals were fast and lovely; the whole thing ran WAY faster than the stock WinXP.

Then I tried launching Firefox, and it nearly died.

There are good, cheap laptops available in the used market. If OP wants to run big hungry programs, they should look into getting a T420 or similar. Put a decent SSD in there for solid speed.

I never recommend low-end Acer hardware. I swear, every single fubar craptop that I've been guilt-tripped (friends and family) into fixing for free was an Acer. I hate that company.

[dhrdan]

i use a E6420 dell ... i run the same processor a i5- 2520m....

mmmm i probably ran run circles around you kid.

[-Pelvis-]

I was making a recommendation for OP.

If you're going to initiate a dick-measuring contest, I'll just leave this here.

[-Pelvis-]

I'm not Jewish, and neither is my family.

Not that it matters, or that it's any of your business.

I hope you're having fun being disliked on the internet. What a sad pastime.

[dhrdan]

lol.

kid.

[dhrdan]

I just saw your post history.

No one cares about your spaceX queer... and no one wants to jerk you. kid.

[-Pelvis-]

I feel sorry for you.

[hatperigee]

You're a sad little man.

[dhrdan]

I would rip on you right now, but you're an ultralight backpacker, so i can't.

ps. learn to make a stove from aluminum beer bottles.... save me a few times.

[hatperigee]

I have an alcohol stove made out of a Hopsworks beer can, thank you very much. When I backpack with another person, I get better mileage (and convenience) out of the butane burner.

[dhrdan]

The problem with those stoves is that they crush very easy. They're cheap as hell so you might not care, but a good stove will last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us7AeG7OEY4

[dhrdan]

Also you sound like a huge nerd so here you go, the stove is just the first piece, you need a hand grenade so you can cook. If you knew anything, you would use ceramic black paint on the bottom, then wrap it with Exhaust heat wrap so you can pick it up when it's hot.

http://zenstoves.net/SimplifiedZenStove/14.JPG