Ubuntu

Can I get a system thatìs more responsive on keyboard, mouse and display by tuning /proc/sys/kernel ?

Asked by Uqbar

I know that there are some tunables in /proc/sys/kernel.
What I'd like to have is a system that's more responsive when I type, move the mouse and, of course, update the display.
During high loads with, say, the DB (reindexing, vaccuming etc) I'd like to be able to go on with my text editor.
My objective is to be able to use a responsive text editor even if it will require 10 more minutes on 3+ hours reindex.
Any hint / documentation ?

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Bernhard (b.a.koenig) said : 		#1

I recently stumbled over this one: http://www.pcformat.co.uk/node/924
But not sure if it's really such a big help. Faster performance always means less functionality. Some people claim that Xubuntu (XFCE instead of GNOME) is faster than Ubuntu but I wasn't really convinced, maybe the XFCE text editor pops up a bit faster than gedit but it's all marginal.

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Uqbar (uqbar) said : 		#2

I read the article but I don't see anything related to higher responsiveness.
Well, an overall faster system is always a good thing, though.
What I need is to avoid any CPU- or I/O-intensive task making unusable a simple thing like a text editor.

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Bernhard (b.a.koenig) said : 		#3

If your system is unstable it is certainly not because of gedit. You can check CPU and memory of a task using gnome-system-monitor. Not sure what your CPU-intensive tasks are.

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Uqbar (uqbar) said : 		#4

My system is not unstable.
The problem is that when I copy very large files, create large tar.bz2 archives, run maintenance commands on large databases, the CPU can go very close to 100% and I am not able to effectively use an editor (which is VI in my case).
This is the opposite concept of "multitasking".
If I have a responsive system I can still type into my editor by just stealing 0,001% of the CPU time from those CPU- or I/O-intensive task.
Those task will complete a little bit later (few minutes over a 3+ hour run) than expected, but I will still be able to write my source code.
I mean something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsiveness

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Bernhard (b.a.koenig) said : 		#5

Aha, you mentioned indexing, you can switch automatic indexing off if you want:

gnome-control-center --> "Search and Indexing"

Do Indexing manually only if you need it by
sudo updatedb

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Bernhard (b.a.koenig) said : 		#6

Aha, you mentioned indexing, you can switch automatic indexing off if you want:

gnome-control-center --> "Search and Indexing"

Do Indexing manually only if you need it by
sudo updatedb

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Bernhard (b.a.koenig) said : 		#7

I see what you are saying, guess I cannot help you with that. Stability is probably an issue ever since computers were invented. :)

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Uqbar (uqbar) said : 		#8

OK.
I fear I cannot be clear enough to get some help.
Thanks a lot for your attempts.