Optimizing Gentoo for older computers

yuk1to · n00b Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 34

Hi,

I've installed Gentoo on my second laptop for quite some time now, and it runs OK, but it still runs to slow, even for a 400Mhz. I'm running a 2.6.12 kernel and dropped support for almost everything I didn't need. Is there any other way I can optimize the speed of my system? I'm running X with a lightweight window manager. I'm using ext3, maybe changing to ext2 would improve performance? Any suggestions?
_________________
Desktops:
2000XP-640MB-GF2 MX-Gentoo-2.6.12
Athlon 1Ghz-256MB-GF2 MX-no OS
Laptops:
3000XP-512MB-ATI R9200 (DRI)-Gentoo-2.6.12
Celeron-400Mhz-64MB-Gentoo-2.6.12
Server:
1800XP-512MB-Mdk http://fenrir.servehttp.com/

bitwise · Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 1:43 pm Post subject:

maybe take a lookt at XDirectFB for an even lighter X solution? I've never tried it myself, but I know there are a few posts on here about it.

yuk1to · n00b Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 34

Yes, but doesn't XDirectFB put more stress on the GPU, thus requiring a decent GPU, and I have a 2MB vga card? I'll check it out though, thanks for the tip.

Edit: They do have a driver for my card (neomagic)
_________________
Desktops:
2000XP-640MB-GF2 MX-Gentoo-2.6.12
Athlon 1Ghz-256MB-GF2 MX-no OS
Laptops:
3000XP-512MB-ATI R9200 (DRI)-Gentoo-2.6.12
Celeron-400Mhz-64MB-Gentoo-2.6.12
Server:
1800XP-512MB-Mdk http://fenrir.servehttp.com/

nxsty · Veteran Joined: 23 Jun 2004 Posts: 1556 Location: .se

You could try using the -ck kernel (ck-sources).

What's your make.conf settings (emerge --info)?

billium · Apprentice Joined: 22 Mar 2003 Posts: 185

I would have thought that increasing the memory from 64MB to at least 128MB would be small (assuming not RamBus) cost for a great increase in performance.

Billy

nxsty · Veteran Joined: 23 Jun 2004 Posts: 1556 Location: .se

Since your laptop is so low on memory it will swap a lot so you could try applying these patches from -mm to your kernel, they should improve swapping performance.

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.13-rc1/2.6.13-rc1-mm1/broken-out/add-sem_is_read-write_locked.patch
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.13-rc1/2.6.13-rc1-mm1/broken-out/swaptoken-tuning.patch
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.13-rc1/2.6.13-rc1-mm1/broken-out/swaptoken-tuning-fix.patch

Zarhan · Veteran Joined: 27 Feb 2004 Posts: 1016

Not overall performance, but to speedup program startup times, use prelink.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/prelink-howto.xml

yuk1to · n00b Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 34

Thanks for the tons of replies

Upgrading the RAM is not an option though, since its not my main computer, and I don't feel like spending more money on it. I'll try all your suggestions and report back with success/problems. Turns out that DMA wasn't working correctly, so that slowed the computer down alot.

emerge --info gives me

nxsty · Veteran Joined: 23 Jun 2004 Posts: 1556 Location: .se

CFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium2 -pipe"

-O3 is a really bad choice for such an old celeron. -O3 makes larger binaries so it will cause more hard disk reads and the hard disk is always a bottleneck even on fast computers + it will interfere with swapping, more cache misses because the celeron is low on cache and more memory usage which you don't have much of. I would recomend the following flags for your CPU:

CFLAGS="-Os -march=pentium2 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -fno-ident"

yuk1to · n00b Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 34

Using the ck-sources and the patches, everything is running like a charm, its like a whole new world, thanks you guys!
_________________
Desktops:
2000XP-640MB-GF2 MX-Gentoo-2.6.12
Athlon 1Ghz-256MB-GF2 MX-no OS
Laptops:
3000XP-512MB-ATI R9200 (DRI)-Gentoo-2.6.12
Celeron-400Mhz-64MB-Gentoo-2.6.12
Server:
1800XP-512MB-Mdk http://fenrir.servehttp.com/