I have a Slackware 9.1 system with 2.6.1 kernel. I open this tread for making a small tutorial about how to optimize a system such as mine.
What I did to make it work faster and with less memory:
- a new kernel: I recompiled the 2.6.1 kernel from zero for my system and now it works great.
- Configuring services: edited /etc/rc.d/rc.M and /etc/rc.d/rc.inet2 but disabled only PCMCIA, ssh, sendmail, mysql and httpd(I will start those just when I need), Samba.
Unfortunately I don't know what to do mare than that so opened this thread hoping our posts will help ma and others to configure Slackware to run faster as a workstation(in my case).

Thanks!

edit /etc/inetd.conf also

nice problemsolver, this will be great for people like me, wanting to optimize the system.
Good work guys!

after installing slack, upgraded kernel 2.6.4, and assuming everything works fine.. I installed dropline and upgraded almost everything. installed swaret.

chmod 666 /etc/profile.d/bsd* #disables the stupid annoying fortune everytime you logon.
added clear to /etc/rc.d/rc.local

ohh yeah.. also installed core-utils, and got rid of unkowns in uname command.

im gonna think of what else I did and maybe post it later...

good thread, I wonder why nobody is answering to this?
slack users contribute what you know!

Hello,

well, KDE 3.1.x is a snail; KDE 3.2.1 is much faster and has less bugs. I disabled ksplash in "startkde" and finally built "qt-3.3.1" from scratch: now KDE is a rocket!

cu

hp_tux

Is editing the content of files in /etc/rc.d in order to prevent boot-time startup of certain daemons really the best way? Perhaps I'm missing something, but why not just chmod -x the unwanted rc-file? Like, chmod -x rc.sshd. That way is faster and also makes re-enabling the daemon at boot (should you want that) easier.

As for some general configuration tips, one can turn to for instance Simply Linux or Slackware Tips & Tricks, and of course The Unofficial Revised Slackware Book. And I hear this one is a killer!

Slackware uses BSD-style init scripts. I think that explains why you don't chmod individual files.

The fortune pops up if you install the classic games thing. I never play those, so I didn't install it.

Get checkinstall to make slackware packages after compiling from source - VERY useful.

I also added an hdparm for my hard disks to make em run faster. I added this in rc.S before it checks for errors:

echo "Running hdparm on hda: -X69 -d1 -u1 -m16 -c3"
hdparm -X69 -d1 -u1 -m16 -c3 /dev/hda

Do a man hdparm for what those do, I have relatively modern hard drives. Don't use those settings without making sure your hard drive supports them!

Some things are separate scripts, though. It's just that they're called from other scripts instead of with the symlink/directory rigamarole. And it's mostly a few clean core scripts. But you can turn some stuff off with a chmod of the script. inet2 looks for /etc/rc.d/rc.sshd and you can kill fortune by chmod'ing /etc/profile.d/bsd-games-login-fortune.sh. Or cut the lines that invoke them out of the main scripts - whichever.

Optimization tips - do not install KDE or Gnome. And (exactly, Atmchicago) do compile from source with checkinstall.

But I don't worry much with optimizing. Slack's pretty fast regardless.

lol@ nvn... you got me there! hahahaha "killer"

If you like RH-style for rc.* output :
http://vnphp.sourceforge.net/wikini/...wiki=BootSlack

i usually like to delete some users and some groups from /etc/passwd and /etc/group ... i will never use them and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to not have lots of extra stuff hanging around that can be used for logins ... remember to chown any files that those deleted users and groups used to own.

i also always put in /etc/hosts.deny
ALL: ALL PARANOID
this blocks all access to everyone from my inetd services then i add in the users i need to be able to connect to me to /etc/hosts.allow

i also change /etc/hosts.conf to
hosts bind,hosts
multi on
nospoof on

make a firewall ... i use dhcp but a lot of programs depend on the /etc/hosts file. so i make a script to update my ip address to that file.

I change /usr/X11/bin/startx so that
defaultclientargs="-nolisten tcp"
defaultserverargs="-nolisten tcp"
is in there becuase i dont want my X connected to by remote clients even if i allow access to it in my firewall.

i typically make a backup of all of /sbin /usr/sbin and backup some of /bin and /usr/bin ... make a script to check the md5s of these files regularly to check for changes ... just remember that if you upgrade a package in there to get a new md5sum of the files and reback them up. this gives a basic tripwire and if you accidentaly delete something you can easily and quickly restore it.

i always edit /etc/issue and /etc/issue.net because i feel they give out to much information.

I dont like /etc/cron.daily /etc/cron.hourly directories sitting around having anything and everything being run from them with basically not discretion so i always move the files out somewhere and add the individual jobs to crontab.

i really dislike getting stupid error msgs from syslog about not being able to load char-major-10-134 and such as that so i add these type services to /etc/modules.conf or find where they are coming from and disable them.

i edit securetty to deny root access.

take a look at login.defs for some more stuff.

add a line to syslog so you can log everything to a tty ... this makes watching for log stuff easier then try to cat log files ... but sucks if you need to go back and look for something.

Life without a login fortune message would just plain suck but i dont really want those bsd games so i always get the fortune package and install it without all the other bsd games. I feel this is a must for any linux user and should not be skipped for any reason. Fortune is the greatest program ever and forever!!!

I dunno about the rest but I second this!
Adam

My husband, who can barely figure out how to send an email or type a url address, calls me at work to read me his fortunes when he logs in... We love the fortunes! Off-topic, sorry.

I cannot tell if giving the machine a proper name and DNS number with aliases etc. improves performance. Benchmarking after every little change can drive you crazy. All I know is that it works very well now.

Also I have recompiled the kernel many times and find that compiling the most important or most used code into the kernel speeds things up. The number of modules that comes with the standard kernel is ridiculous. It uses a lot of processor power loading those modules, and my old 333 has none to spare! The kernel is a little larger but the amount of time seeking to find the modules is reduced. Your mileage may vary though.