I was considering tinkering with Linux again, and was just wondering if anybody can recommend a good guide on optimizing Linux as you would Windows for optimal game performance, as I can't seem to find one on Google. Several things come to mind, like how to set up a swap file, or if one would even be necessary (I have 2GB of DDR400).

I'll probably be playing WoW, so if anybody has anything to offer specifically for that I'd very much appreciate it.

Off the top of my head:

Max your RAM. Then you shouldn't need a swap partition. (Distros won't let you install without one, so you comment it out in /etc/fstab ... note: 2GiB should be fine.)

Usual HW modifications.

Customize the kernel so that the modules you need are compiled in.

Game optimization tips from google...
http://search.techrepublic.com.com/s...imization.html
http://www.4p8.com/eric.brasseur/lin...imization.html

I don't see the point in disabling swap. If you have enough RAM that you can do without swap for a given task, then I think the kernel will not use the swap.

Not always true. I've installed Slackware, SLED10 and Ubuntu Feisty and none *required* a swap partition. They did remind me that I hadn't created one, but they still installed and I still haven't needed one.

With an Athlon 1.2GHz, 1GB SDRAM and a 64MB GeForce2 MX400, I've played Doom3 comfortably without swap. Actually, when I started Doom3 I only had 768MB. I didn't upgrade until I was into the expansion. It only slowed down noticably when swarmed with enemies.

Have you tried it?

Last time I did, admittedly a while ago, I found that I still used a small amount of swap regardless of available RAM.

However, I seem to recall that you can set the way the kernel uses swap someplace but I forget where.

In Simon Bridge's links(that I found quite helpful for optimization) it mentions to be using a swap in a different disk and that will help the efficiency of data read and write. This is a small tip that makes a difference when using many apps together. I use it on both my computers and seen a difference.

...yeah: when I had a slow system I set boot and swap on hda and kept hdb for root. The drive controller dosn't have to reposition the heads to write/read swap. Another trick is to use swap files instead of a whole partition.

However, this is not faster than not using swap at all.

But see the discussion:
http://kerneltrap.org/node/3202
http://kerneltrap.org/node/3000
... a properly tuned swap can improve performance even with high RAM.

The truth is: RAM is faster than HDD so physical memory is faster than VM. But, how that memory is managed is also important. What makes the choice is the purpose of the box.

A multi-role desktop should probably have some swap (tuned for your needs). In this case, the box is intended to play games. Tuning for low-latency is the key.

I've read about the low latency, I admit I didn't knew anything about it. I have to try it.

hmmm your bookmarks seem to cost gold around here Simon Bridge

I am now hypnotizing you while you read these lines..

..open firefox... organize bookmaaa~aarks... export.... attach-email to vangelis..

or you can just upgrade the LQ bookmarks section

My hand moves dreamily... "I can stop any time" I think to myself:

http://www.aboutdebian.com/network.htm
http://www.miniclip.com/games/en/
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~corwin/
http://www.softwareinreview.com/cms/content/view/60/
http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Feisty
http://wiki.linux.net.nz/
http://del.icio.us/rss/badvista/badvista+vistawatch
http://dvzine.org/zine/index.html

... I don't keep extensive bookmarks.

I'm just really good at finding stuff. I had a head start, having researched this before, so I knew more likely search terms. Still, googling for "linux game optimization" will net yau some good sites in the first ten.

Google is your friend... practice.