Ubuntu Tuning

Tested with Version 10.10

BootLoader

Remember last Boot option (Windows or Linux) edit /etc/default/grub and add/change

GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

and run sudo update-grub2

Deutsches DatumsFormat in Thunderbird etc

in /etc/environment

LC_CTYPE="de_DE.UTF-8" # Character classification and case conversion.
LC_COLLATE="de_DE.UTF-8" # Collation order.
LC_TIME="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8" # ENGLISH number format
LC_MONETARY="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="de_DE.UTF-8" # Paper size
LC_NAME="de_DE.UTF-8" # Name formats
LC_ADDRESS="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="de_DE.UTF-8" # Measurement units (Metric or Other)
LC_IDENTIFICATION="de_DE.UTF-8" # Metadata about the locale information

Internet

Disable IPv6

General

sudo nano /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="ipv6.disable=1"
sudo update-grub2

Firefox

about:config
network.dns.disableIPv6 = > true
network.http.pipelining = > true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests => 8
network.http.proxy.pipelining => true

Thunderbird:

Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Config Editor

KDE

# in /etc/environment
KDE_NO_IPV6=true

Privacy

See How_to_get_rid_of_Google_Analytics for some tuning of /etc/hosts

Less Swapping

Less usage of swap partition (if min 2GB of RAM)

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf
vm.swappiness=5

Programms

Firefox disable Pango rendering lib

sudo nano /etc/environment
MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO="1"

OpenOffice
If you don't need that extras that java JRE provides then simply disable it openoffice.

SolidStateDisk (SSD)

Better read/write speed via grub's noop parameter

sudo nano /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT = "quiet splash elevator=noop"
GRUB_TIMEOUT = "3"
sudo update-grub

Put temporary files in RAM to minimize writes to the SSD :

sudo nano /etc/fstab
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs noexec,defaults,noatime 0 0
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs noexec,defaults,noatime 0 0
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs /var/log/apt tmpfs defaults 0 0

Browsers cache to ram (decided not to do)
put cache to /tmp after mounting /tmp as ramdisk (tmpfs)
I decided to put in on my mechanical 2nd hard disk

ext3/ext4 tunes

# Disable Auto-FileSystem Check every X mounts
sudo tune2fs /dev/sda1 -c -1 

# automatische Indizierung von Ordnerinhalten aktivieren -> schnelleres lesen, langsameres schreiben
sudo tune2fs -O dir_index /dev/sda3 
# reservierter Speicherplatz verkleinern
sudo tune2fs -m 1 /dev/sda3 
# anwenden von letzten beiden 
sudo e2fsck -fD /dev/sda3   
# ACHTUNG: Niemals e2fsck auf eine eingebundene Partition anwenden!

Empty Ram

free
sudo sync && sudo echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
free

[2]

No sudo Password for apt-get

sudo visudo
torben	ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt-get
torben	ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/dpkg