Slow 12.04 on a Netbook with LVMs

[Amichai Rotman]

Interesting discussion, but it left me even more confused...

I'll just ask again:

I have an Asus EeePC 1005PG with the following specs:

Intel Atom 450 CPU
10.1" LCD panel,
Front Web Cam (I think it's 1.3MP)
2Gb RAM DDRII 667MHz
160Gb SATAII Hard Drive

This netbook serves me as my work-on-the-road machine. I love it - it never
gave me any grief and even has an internal 3G modem  that was a cinch to
setup and saved me a few times.

I want to encrypt may data, because it is my business stuff and I don't
want praying eyes to get to it if it gets stolen or lost...

I understood that it is a good idea to encrypt the system partition too,
because it can contain data in caches or swap.

It isn't that slow, but it takes it a long time to open applications (i.e:
 about 30 seconds to start Google Chrome.

I'd like to know what would be the best way to re-install Ubuntu 12.04.2 on
that netbook - or in other words: What would you've done?

Thanks,

Amichai.


On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 1:37 PM, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 26 April 2013 11:22, Avi Greenbury <lists at avi.co> wrote:
> > Liam Proven wrote:
> >> > I'd like to create the swap space as a file, not a partition.
> >>
> >> Possible but saps performance (marginally, in theory; allegedly Linux
> >> >=2.6 ameliorates this).
> >
> > As of an early 2.6 they're identical, assuming that the swap file
> > isn't sparse. The easiest way to do that is to dd /dev/zero into the
> > file then mkswap it; modern swapons wont let you use a sparse swap
> > file.
>
> Thanks for the additional info.
>
> (& how's the head this morning? ;¬) )
>
> >> If you have 1-2GB of RAM, try zRam and no swap at all. Works well for
> me.
> >
> > Does that still permit suspend/resume? That's the only reason I have
> > swap configured anywhere.
>
> Suspend yes. Hibernate, no. I have been evaluating zRam both with and
> without swap, but only on desktop boxes or ones where I have manually
> disabled suspend/resume. Suspend/hibernate is a feature I only use on
> notebooks/laptops. Desktops I either leave running or shut down
> completely.
>
> >> primary, 8GB, for /
> >> Extended for all the rest
> >> Inside that, (all the available space - (RAM × 2) as /home, encrypted
> >> if you feel you need to), and at the end, (2×RAM as swap). That gives
> >> you plenty of space for hibernation support.
> >
> > You only need swap that is as big as (1 x used RAM + (2 x used swap) )
> for
> > suspend to work.
>
> True, but how does one know in advance how much swap one's going to be
> using when one wants to hibernate? With great difficulty, I submit.
> The old 2×RAM thing is easy to calculate, should be more than enough
> for anyone, and disk space is cheap and plentiful these days.
>
> > Personally, here I'd have a single / partition, use the loopback
> > method for encrypting /home and have a swap file. All the convenience
> > of LVM (directories can grow as they please) without actually having
> > to do anything. If you do suddenly need some extra space for a bit,
> > you can just delete the swap file and reinstate it when you're done.
>
> Interesting. I defer to your superior knowledge.
>
> Questions:
>
> * what is " the loopback method for encrypting /home"?
> * can one hibernate with a swap _file_ as opposed to a swap _partition_?
>
> And a comment:
>
> I recommend a separate /home filesystem (i.e. partition) because it
> vastly facilitates upgrades - one can parallel-run 2 different
> versions of the distro, or 2 different distros, sharing a single /home
> partition, using different usernames if one is paranoid. Having it
> inside a file on / -- encrypted or otherwise -- would make this
> difficult or impossible, no?
>
>
>
> --
> Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
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>
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