Howto: Set up Gutsy for speed, v1.2

This is version 1.2 of “Howto: Set up Gutsy for speed.”

This guide is a collection of tips and tweaks for Ubuntu Linux 7.10, gleaned from the Ubuntu Forums and countless other sites, collated and narrated with links to external resources and supplemental information. The howto includes tips for setting up a system, ideas for reducing system load and tweaks for conserving disk space and system resources on sub-1Ghz machines.

This howto is released under the GNU Free Documentation License, v1.2. Please read the included license page for details.

The howto is available in two forms:

1. As a Zim notebook — a series of folders and plain text files coded in wiki-style markup, and intended to be used with the Zim desktop application.
2. As a self-contained relative-linked HTML document, suitable for both graphical and text-only browsers.

These formats were chosen for several reasons. First and foremost, the size of the guide does not lend itself to a blog post. Coding for external links and appearance would be difficult and prone to errors.

Second, using Zim makes the document easier to manage, and handles the conversion to HTML in a single step. Furthermore, as a Zim package, the pages are precoded for possible insertion to an existing online or desktop wiki.

Finally, an HTML version allows for offline use of the guide, on machines which lack a direct Internet connection or which suffer a slow or unreliable connection. Furthermore, HTML is platform-independent, which makes the guide accessible on other operating systems, even if it primarily applies to Linux. Finally, in HTML format, the guide can be easily inserted into other sites or hosts, with a minimum of effort.

The guide was built and tested in Zim version 0.23. Zim is Copyrighted © 2005 by Jaap G Karssenberg.

Both packages are compressed as .tar.bz2 files, and both are under 40Kb in size. Because of WordPress.com’s file renaming requirements, they’re hosted elsewhere on the Internet. The current versions can be downloaded by clicking on the links below.

Howto: Set up Gutsy for speed, v1.2, Zim
Howto: Set up Gutsy for speed, v1.2, HTML

For a command-line accessible link, please follow a link above to a download page.

To install the guide for use with Zim, decompress it into a folder, and add the folder as a notebook in Zim.

To install the guide for use as an HTML document, decompress it, then open the index.html page in your browser.

For questions, corrections, ideas or suggestions for the howto, please feel free to leave a comment here. Translations and additional hosts are always welcome; I’d be more than happy to link to wikis, translations or revisions of the howto.

Enjoy!
K.Mandla

Version history:
v1.2, 27 December 2007
• Consolidated the “Remove useless initscripts” and “Shutdown unwanted services” pages, since the two were essentially identical
• Added a tip on shutting down without a login manager
• Added Sakura to GTK2 software list, and noted packages that are found outside the repositories
• Corrected reference to a gtk2-theme-switch package, which doesn’t exist
• Added page for clearing filesystem memory cache
• Included link to detailed readahead setup
• Added lynx and links2 to the terminal browser list
• Added NetSurf to the list of browser alternatives
• Added link to bash customization tips

v1.1, 6 November 2007
• Minor additions to the graphical software page
• Minor typo fixes throughout
• Corrected a broken link to http://www.killdisk.com
• Added a note about nobh flag
• Renamed the vm.swappiness page to sysctl.conf
• Added the vm.vfs_cache_pressure and kernel.threads-max settings
• Added a warning about the HAL bug with the alias-hostname tweak
• Added small synopsis of Midori
• Added Joe’s Window Manager to the list of lightweight window managers

v1.0, 18 October 2007
• Initial release