Ubuntu performance tweak

This is what you can do to increase your Ubuntu access speed and performance

1. Set swappiness to the allowed lowest value, usually the default value is 60

rumy@cbug-nest:~$ cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
60

2. Edit /proc/sys/vm/swappiness and change 60 to 10 (assuming RAM > 1 GB)

sudo pico /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
{change 60 to 10, save with [Ctrl] [O] [Enter], exit with [Ctrl] [X]}
cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
10

3. Edit /etc/sysctl.conf, and add vm.swappiness=10, vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50 to the end of file

sudo pico /etc/sysctl.conf
{move cursor to the end of file and then add this}
vm.swappiness=10
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

{Save with [Ctrl] [O] [Enter], exit with [Ctrl] [X]}

4. Reboot

Acer Intel Notebook brightness control (D270 series and maybe other)

If you have problem controlling your Acer Netbook brightness when using Backtrack or Kali or Ubuntu or other Debian derivative distro, you can try this :

1. Open your Shell or Terminal

2. Type this on Terminal :

setpci -s 00:02.0 f4.b=10

3. Or you can add that to your rc.local

Ubuntu 12.04 sudoers – shutdown and rebooting with normal user

Here’s if you want to boot your Ubuntu 12.04 machine without typing a password :

1. Put your command on /etc/sudoers.d/shutdown

sudo visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/shutdown

 

2. Type this :

# Cmnd alias specification
 Cmnd_Alias SHUTDOWN_CMDS = /sbin/shutdown, /sbin/halt, /sbin/reboot
# User privilege specification
 rumy ALL = (ALL) NOPASSWD: SHUTDOWN_CMDS

3. Save it

4. Execute it like this :

rumy@cbug-lair:~$ sudo /sbin/reboot

Ubuntu Network Manager on Backtrack5R2 GNOME 64bit

Want to use Ubuntu Network Manager instead of wicd Network Manager on Backtrack5R2?

Try this :

1. Install Network Manager

sudo apt-get install network-manager

2. Edit /etc/network/interfaces

sudo pico /etc/network/interfaces

So it’s just contain this:

rumy@cbug-lair:~$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

3. Edit /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf

pico /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf

So it’s contain:

rumy@cbug-lair:~$ cat /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf
# This file is installed into /etc/NetworkManager, and is loaded by
# NetworkManager by default. To override, specify: ‘–config file’
# during NM startup. This can be done by appending to DAEMON_OPTS in
# the file:
#
# /etc/default/NetworkManager
#

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=true

4. Reboot

No sound on Backtrack5R2 GNOME 64bit: How to fix it

I’ve been searching the net to find the solution for my problem :
I’ve installed Backtrack5R2 on my HP ProBook 5220m, and my HP ProBook didn’t have a sound ever since (it has a sound when I have Ubuntu 12.04 on it)
And all the blog I found seems to copy each other article that suggest me to put /usr/bin/pulseaudio on my startup application launcher, but no … it didn’t work for me.

This morning I wake up with this thought: not so long a go if my Slackware machine didn’t have a sound, I simply fireup alsamixer on the console and enable it from there, rise the volume and it will work like charm … so why not try that?

So couple of minutes ago, when I have time to access my HP ProBook 5220m with Backtrack5R2, I open terminal console:

sudo su

and type:

alsamixer

and to my surprise: THE SPEAKER BAR IS MUTE!  (it has MM (mute) below it), so I simply press M on Speaker bar and then: I GOT MY SOUND BACK ;)

After that all I did is save the alsamixer config with:

alsactl store

Hope this helps other who was tired reading /usr/bin/pulseaudio out there but still doesn’t have their sound back ;)