Linux-Tips

Linux on Laptops

Battery Powered Linux Mini-HOWTO
Further improvement for battery life:
- hdparm -S 12 /dev/hda (to query current status: hdparm -C /dev/hda
- Use /sbin/mobile-update instead of /sbin/update.
  use Cntrl-Alt-Del and the menue to invoke sync:
```
/etc/inittab:ca::ctrlaltdel:/bin/sync
~/.fvwmrc:Popup "Utilities"
~/.fvwmrc:	Exec "Sync" sync
```
- Disable cron and other daemons
- Use mergemem to minimize memory consumption. Still alpha but works very nicely.
  E.g on startup in rc.local
```
ps|awk '/[/]sbin/{print "-p";print $1}'|xargs mergemem
```
  this saves me 40kB
  With two xdms running mergemem -n xdm; mergemem -n X saves about 300kB
  Other candidates: xterm, mingetty, ssh, sshd
- Minimize the kernel size. Do not compile things rarely used (e.g. D.O.S.-filesystem) into the kernel. Use modules instead.
- Preload files with cat $required-files > /dev/null
- Discharge the battery. If your battery runs only for about 20 minutes, you probably suffer from memory effects. Most (older) laptops (without "intelligent" lithium batteries) do not discharge the battery properly. With old computer fans they can be further discharged to remove memory effects. (Try this at your own risk! Make sure the voltage of the fans is compatible to your battery. It works for me for NiCd.) See also Nickel Metal Hydride (thanks to Pascal Hirsch).
- Some daemons you never need if your machine is not used as a server are: inetd, rpc.mountd, rpc.nfsd (only if you provide services to others; not needed if you only use other's services).
- ? (untested) mount directories that are effecticely read only (/usr etc) as read only partitions to avoid access time updates.

Linux on servers

Short of memory? Your motherboard has a 512MB or 768MB limit? Consider trying mergemem.

Linux auf der TU, WU und Uni

LLL, Walter Selos vom EDVZ, Die österreichische Linuxgruppe!.

Linux-Spiegelungen in Wien anhand des German-HOWTO: Uni, WU.

Die ommnipräsente ISO-8859-1-FAQ.

Linux sonstwo

Linux Documentation Project, Notebook Chipset Survey, Linux on the OSF Mach3 microkernel, The Linux Laptop Home Page

The back button

xS+S, Linux on Laptops Mirrored at: Redhat, Linuxberg, linux-howto, Armada 5, Armada 7, Linux (Another Option),

Ulrich Neumerkel