Can I optimize my CentOS install?

nyheat · 03-08-2008, 12:58 PM

I'm running an old Dell Dimension 4300. It's got an Intel 1.4Ghz processor with 512mb of RAM and a really shitty video card.

The distro I'm running is CentOS 5 with Gnome.
Is there anything I can do to speed things up? It's very sluggish.

pwc101 · 03-08-2008, 02:25 PM

Use XFCE/fluxbox/IceWM/TWM/etc. instead of Gnome and disable any unneeded services.

I've just installed something called preload (http://sourceforge.net/projects/preload) which monitors which applications you use, and allocates memory in advance of you loading them.

Poetics · 03-12-2008, 05:26 AM

"Disabling services" also refers to those various background processes your computer may run at boot time. You might want to take a look in /etc/init.d (if memory serves for CentOS) and run 'chkconfig' (again, I believe that is the command) for each one. If you have one you do not need to run at all (for instance, apache or sendmail or ProFTP) you may use the command 'chkconfig [service] off' and it will shut it off for all runlevels.

Hope that helps.

billymayday · 03-12-2008, 05:41 AM

Run chkconfig --list to see what starts at boot (there is also a tool in Gnome that tells you what services load at startup. Can't recall its name).

There are quite a few you won't need