First time ssd instalation :)

[james147]

I just bought my first ssd It is an intel 330 and I've been searching for ways to get the most out of it (performance and long levity). I have come to a few things on which I'd like your opinions and advice.

You don't need to worry about extending the life of a modern ssd, most will outlast the computer you are going to put them in so you may as well make good use of it.

1) Partition allignment. The most detailed guide I've read is that of the following link. Is there a better/easier way than the one described?

http://lifehacker.com/5837769/make-s...ve-performance

I recommend using GPT rather then MBR as the partition table. gdisk (GPT) automatically aligns partitions unlike fdisk (MBR).

2) I've read that it would be good to put the swap partition on a hdd, which in my case will be my current hdd. Thing is, that I would also like the hdd to spin down when not in use. Is this possible when having the swap on the hdd? Some wrote that there is no need for a swap partition when you are not interested in hibernation, which really is of no interest to me.

It is always best to have some swap space as it will stop programs crashing if you do run out of ram. But if you have about 4G+ ram it won't be used much but is still a good fallback to have.

3) Partitioning: 20GB root, 80GB home (both ext4 filesystem), rest unsused in case I decide to try dual boot with some other distro or something. Should I be using the entire device or is it ok as it was with hdds?

You can use as much of the disk as you want... but you can always shrink a filesystem and partition if you need as well.

6) Remove the journalling from the ext4 filesystem to prolong the disk's life.

Do not do this, if you do you risk losing data in case of a sundered power off or crash and can easily corrupt your file system. You do not have to worry about writes to a modern ssd so the risk is not worth the benefit in this case.

7) Disabling the nepomuk desktop search thing as in my current system.

Again, you do not need to worry about writes to the disk so disabling features to attempt to increase the life of the ssd is pointless if you can otherwise make use of the feature. Nepomuk is allot better in kde 4.10 and should not suffer from the bad performance it did in the past so it is worth trying to use it.

[zahtar]

Hello all!

I'd like to thank everyone for their help. I updated my initial post with the settings I made, and marked the thread as solved.

Further comments and suggestions are always welcome

[james147]

4) Not enabled, will do it manually when I feel like it. Once every week or so, maybe less. Read somewhere that automatic trim makes deleting files slower.

Why manually? set it up on a weekly cron job

[zahtar]

Hmm, sounds nice! How can I do that?

[dmeyer]

Hmm, sounds nice! How can I do that?

If you like GUIs you can install the Task Scheduler KCM for easy cron management. Else we can teach you about doing it from the command line.

This video is great:
http://youtu.be/HdKxH4uH9YE?t=36m47s

[zahtar]

dmeyer, thanks for the video it is quite informative, even though I only saw part of it (15-20 mins after your timemark).

I downloaded a package kde-config-corn and that showed me the Task Scheduler icon in system settings-> system administration. (I guess this is the KCM you mentioned which I could not find in muon)

I added two personal crons, specified time & day, and I wanted to verify that the commands are correct:

sudo fstrim /
sudo fstrim /home

Have them currently disabled, just wanted to ask if that's the right thing to enter. I have two partitions in the ssd I want to trim (root + home). I noticed that the ssd is labeled sdb for some reason. Do I need to specify that the job should be done to sdb? Are they run as root or can I remove the sudo?

Thanks in advance!

[oshunluvr]

fstrim works on the filesystem while it's mounted so it will fail if you try and run it on a device. While it's possible that fstrim will work without sudo on your personal home directory, I think sudo is required for any mount point your user doesn't have full access to. In short: leave sudo in.

The only thing you might consider is adding some output to the command and sending it to a file so you can verify something was done.

I think something like this would work:

sudo fstrim -v / > /home/<USERNAME>/trim_report

Another totally different option would be to run fstrim during boot up or at shutdown instead of as a cron job. The cron job is better if you tend to leave you system on all the time, but the bootup/shutdwon option might be better if you shutdown often.

[dibl]

sudo fstrim -v / > /home/<USERNAME>/trim_report

Great idea, except I'm afraid it's going to write the report into his home folder with root privileges, correct? Maybe better to do

sudo fstrim -v / > /var/log/trim_report.txt

and then view it with kate or kwrite.

[oshunluvr]

Good point, dibl. Neater and more sensible in that location too.

[zahtar]

oshunluvr, good idea about the shut down, I do turn the pc off when not in use. Is it possible to configure it in certain shutdowns, for example the fisrt shutdown on Thursdays?

dibl, this is a command that can be a cron job too, right? Will the trim reports replace the previous or create new files?

thanks again

[oshunluvr]

Re: the cron job command and the log file. The re-direct out to a file is ">" - this wipes out any existing file and replaces it with a new one. If you use ">>" this will add any new output to the end of the target file.

Re trim at shutdown: There are a couple of ways to do this. My preference would be to create a script file here:

/etc/rc0.d/K10fstrim.sh

and put the trim commands in it without sudo. Make the script executable. Doing it this way differentiates shutdown from reboot. If you wanted it to occur on a reboot also, then copy the same script to /etc/rc6.d/.

As far as only on Thursdays? I'm sure there's a way to do this using the "date" command. I'll have to think on it a bit.

[zahtar]

Is it necessary to run the script often? I don't write (copy-move) large files that much. That's why running trim once a week sounded nice. I thought of Thursdays because there is a certain time that the pc will be probably on. But if not I can run the command manually anyway.

Is it necessary to trim often regardless of the type of use I make? If so, the script sounds the proper idea. If not, then I think I can make do with the cron too.

[james147]

Don't use sudo in a cron job, if it is running as root then you don't need it, if it is not running as root then it will need authentication which it is not going to get without a tty.

You should instead set up a system cron job as they run as root and so do not need sudo.

[zahtar]

The task scheduler in system settings does not allow me to add tasks in system crons. So if I can't use sudo in personal crons, should I do it via command line?

does the

sudo fstrim -v / > /var/log/trim_report.txt

trim the entire ssd as a device or a specific partition? I have two partitions, / and /home.

If I try to run the exact same command from the command line, it stops with "perimssion denied". Does not even ask for password (I guess that's what you meant about the tty thing)

[james147]

Try:

kdesudo systemsettings

Then see if you can edit the systems cron tab


otherwise the commandline way is:

sudo crontab -e