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Posts Tagged ‘linux’

Random Tech: Speeding up Ubuntu 10.04 boot time

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Typically Ubuntu boots in around 15-45 seconds out of the box, but overtime this can change as you add more applications and the init scripts get bloated.  So here are a few quick tips to help you speed up Ubuntu’s boot time (I am using Ubuntu 10.04).

Start up

Ubuntu Start-up Applications

Remove unwanted items to speed up boot time

The easiest tweeks to make can be found in the “System > Preferences > Start-up Applications” menu.  On a desktop machine you are unlikely to need a few of the services, and on a server you are likely to need even fewer.

The applications which I have disabled are:

  • Blue-tooth Manager: If you don’t use blue-tooth then this service is a waste of resources!
  • Evolution Alarm Notifier: Personally I do not use evolution as a mail client, so there is no need for the notifier. Even if you do use evolution, you may not need the reminders!
  • GNOME Login Sound: As nice as that sound is, the monkey in the jungle gets annoying very quickly!
  • Visual Assistance: I don’t need the “accessibility” features.

You may find others that you don’t need, such as “Ubuntu One” which you might not make use of.

A good kick up the BUM

BUM or Boot Up Manager is a useful program that takes controlling start-up programs and services one step further.  You can use it to completly stop the CUPS (Printing) services and any other laptop only items if you are running a desktop or server.  It can be installed with the following apt-get command:

sudo apt-get install bum

I will leave you to decided which items to disable, as everyone’s Ubuntu installs can be different.

If you have any other speed-up tips please comment!!

Seriously back up your databases!

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Backups Backups and more Backups, always an important mantra. I was surprised to find that a fellow geek wasn’t backing up his MySQL database that runs his website. Yea he has backups for all the code files, but not for his content!

It frightened me when I found out how many people don’t backup their websites SQL databases. Every WordPress blog runs off of a SQL (normally MySQL) database, if you use a WP-Hosted blog then your safe as they back it up for you. If you host your own WP blog (or geeklog, drupal, etc, etc) then your backups are up to you!

It is for that reason that I have just finished knocking together a page detailing how my simple Linux script backups up my databases at regular intervals (some hourly, some every two, some once a day!) zips them and emails the smaller ones to me!

Check out the article on “Backing up MySQL databases automatically in Linux“.

Windows 7 quick one!

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Windows 7 comes with NFS support.

Thats support for *nix network shares, no more need for a samba server when I only have one windows machine on the network!  I just hope that its implemented securely!

That is all!

James