and saving resources. The first thing you should do,
if possible, is to add RAM to your pc, it works wonders.
I did a minimal installation and installed my favorite window manager:
IceWM.
Other window managers (fluxbox, openbox, blackbox, windowmaker) are
excellent and will acomplish the job, XFCE4 is great too. Window managers
weigh one hundreth of what a desktop environment like Gnome or KDE weighs,
by doing a minimal installation you only install what you need, and avoid
the avalanche of apps that you never use. The less crud you got installed,
the less bugs, and the less complications will arise, thus, the KISS protocol:
Keep It Simple, Stupid.
BOOTING
The first thing i did was to edit the grub menu.lst:
$ sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst
once there, i edited the line that deals with the color of the booting menu.
***********************************************************************
# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue
***********************************************************************
You can comment the second line (i deleted both lines), this will change
the color to the default white, if you dual boot, this will save resources.
If like me you only use Linux, and have no other OS, change the timeout line
to zero, this will save you 5 seconds of the booting time.
Example:
***********************************************************************
## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the
default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 0
***********************************************************************
I installed the package 'sysvconfig' and launched from the terminal as root:
$ sudo sysvconfig <Enter>
I chose Enable/Disable and pressed OK.
WARNING: here we are going to disable boot processes, the less processes,
the faster it boots. This is a very SUBJECTIVE matter, every user has
different needs. Myself, i don't belong to a LAN, nor do i need complex
configuration, i just navigate the internet, e-mail, write articles, etc.
So do accordingly, i wrote down which processes i disabled, in case of any
problems, i could launch sysvconfig again and enabled them.
I disabled:
ifupdown
networking
openbsd-inetd
rc.local
and left all the other default options as they were, obviously, i stayed
away from the ones that said: "Don't mess with this"
When i was finished, i pressed Enter and from the main menu, chose Quit, it
took me back to terminal.
XORG
Next, i edited the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and added these lines in the
Monitor section:
***********************************************************************
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
Option "StandbyTime" "3" # Turn off screen in 3 minutes (DPMS)
Option "SuspendTime" "8" # Full hibernation in 8 minutes (DPMS)
Option "OffTime" "15" # Turn off DPMS monitor (DPMS)
EndSection
***********************************************************************
save/exit, this will save you resources with the monitor.
Next, i edited the file /etc/inittab and commented the TTYS except two, this
will save around 3 MB of RAM.
***********************************************************************
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
#2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
#3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
#4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
#5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6
***********************************************************************
Next, i edited /etc/fstab and left it looking like this:
***********************************************************************
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,noatime,errors=remount-ro 1 1
/dev/hda9 /home ext3 defaults,noatime,nodev,nosuid 1 2
/dev/hda8 /tmp ext3 defaults,noatime,nosuid 1 2
/dev/hda5 /usr ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/hda6 /var ext3 defaults,noatime 1 2
/dev/hda7 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdb /media/cdrom0 iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
***********************************************************************
This article: (http://tinyurl.com/wurfw), explains the differences between
noatime, nodev, and nosuid and in what partitions you use them.
ENTERING THE X SYSTEM
$ nano .xinitrc
and i added the following lines:
***********************************************************************
#!/bin/sh
numlockx &
unclutter &
icewm
***********************************************************************
save/exit, you're back to the prompt, type 'startx'
$ startx <Enter>
And last, but not least, install NO wallpapers, icons, or put flying birds
in the desktop, it looks great but it sucks RAM, and slows you down.
I rebooted the box and clocked it:
Time elapsed on my machine (Sempron 2600/512 MB RAM):
POST -> startx: 23 seconds
startx -> icewm: 5 seconds
icewm -> opera: 2 seconds
If you know other tips to make Debian faster, please post them
Luis Lima aka Lou/macondo
19 April 2007
This was written with the editor jpico.
smxi || inxi || JWM
I hate telecom.
