Optimizing Mandrake
 

I've been using Mandrake for a while and just recently found out about enabling features in /etc/sysconfig/harddisks. which was very nice indeed. Quiet a performance improvement for my computer.

So I was wondering if anyone has any more simple tips on how to improve the over all performance of a desktop workstation?

Well, if you don't care about looks, you can boot into low research GUI's, like IceWM, for example. It loads really fast into the GUI but isn't pretty compared to KDE or Gnome. Also, you can go to the Mandrake Control Center and go to the boot services and uncheck services you don't need.

Hope this helps!

i agree agree with Micro....

I'm running a lighter desktop and lose unncessary services as i feel i don't use them anymore.

depending on which architecture that you use.....kernel adaptation might not be a bad idea.....you'd be braver than i.

Actually the biggest boost after the harddisks file edit is the pre-emptive kernel patch.

However this is not supported (yet) by Mandrake.

Thanks for replying.
I am aware of the light weight GUIs out there and I've tried a few of them. I kind of like KDE better though :-) I don't have an old computer (Athlon 3000+, 512Mb, nforce2 - all nvidia drivers installed) so this isn't a real problem for me. I'm simply looking for "quick fixes". I was impressed by the results of a few line edits and just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

What is this about optimizing /etc/sysconfig/harddisks. I am lost now with that one. Is it on the note of extra parameters? My settings are already at optimum for the ones already availible in the file itself?

You merely need to uncomment the lines in /etc/sysconfig/harddisks as indicated.

Using hdparm seperately is not advised as this creates problems with certain types of drives (notably WD's), and the settings are not applied early on during the boot.

Everything was uncommented or set for optimum on my file by default so when I read this thread I figured it was extra parameters rokka was reffering to. Things to add at the bottom of the file for even more is all. Thanks opjose for clearing that up

Can you do the "hdparm" and the "etc/sysconfig/harddisks" or are they the same thing?

In effect, they are the same thing.

However the parameters given in /etc/sysconfig/harddisk sets things up to avoid problems with certain drives that otherwise would create what appears to be hard disk errors.

These are not actual errors but problems in communication...

So it's best to use the provided lines...