SSD optimization [Arch Linux]

Optimize your system for ultimate performance.

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CrocoDuck
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SSD optimization [Arch Linux]

Post by CrocoDuck »

Hey there! I just wanted to share my SSD drive configuration on my new Arch Audio Box. I think it could be useful for someone, also because probably these tweaks can be extended to other distros pretty easily. Also, as you can see, I used information from a lot of different Arch Wiki pages. So I though it would be nice to have them all collected here. I will also give some bit of further explanation when I think that the Arch Wiki is not too clear for a newbie.

Partitions: Just a single root partition.

Filesystem: I wanted to try Btrfs but to avoid potential problems known with linux-rt in the past I went for an old fashioned ext4, which supports both kinds of TRIMs (the wiki does not mention anymore the linux-rt problem, so probably it is solved).

Mount option: noatime, added as always in /etc/fstab.

Swap: Having 8 Gb of ram, a swap partition is not of much use. To allow suspend-to-disk to work I just created a Swap file just bigger than the ram itself. After that, Swappiness has been set to 1.

TRIM: periodic via fstrim. If util-linux is installed:

Code: Select all

systemctl enable fstrim.timer
Kernel IO schedulers: noop. Having a single device, I prefer to achieve it through a kernel parameter set at boot. To do it, edit /etc/default/grub by adding elevator=noop to the list at the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=. For example:

Code: Select all

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="threadirqs quiet elevator=noop"
All these tweaks are not in conflict with pro audio tweaks. Actually, most of them enhance audio performances and are suggested in multiple Pro Audio Documentation pages.
Last edited by CrocoDuck on Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:35 pm, edited 11 times in total.
gimmeapill
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Re: SSD optimization [Arch Linux]

Post by gimmeapill »

Nice. That's pretty much in line with what I've done, save for the swap (none) and the scheduler (cfq).
I have a dual setup with / on SSD and /home on HDD and still have to try that mixed Noop/CFQ via udev...
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