13.2 System slow when I try to optimize the SSD.

English Hardware
#1

Hello,
I was wondering if someone could shed some light on the SSD optimization thing.
My T440P (i5-4300M) came with an Intel SSD (model: INTEL_SSDSC2BF180A4L).

I’ve been using this as my optimization guide:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd-in-opensuse

I have been systematically performing the optimizations suggested by this guide and seem to see a real slow-down when I add noatime to fstab. (I have also noticed that the first time I open an application after booting, the app is fairly slow to open and then it seems much more responsive the 2nd time. Is this due to the TRIM process?)

I guess that it confuses me that all the distros advise the use of noatime. I am I doing something wrong?

I also know that there seems to be a bit of a divide, between optimizing an SSD or not and I’m kind of tempted to just leave it at the, TRIM at boot, over-provisioning, swap limiting and I/O Scheduler set to deadline as long as it works.

Does anyone have an opinion or suggestion?

Thanks!

#2

noatime option stops the system from writing to the disk the time a file is used ie every time one is opened. That is a lot of small writes and that does reduce the life of SSDs.

So show us your /etc/fstab file.

#3

I have left it stock.

UUID=d5f32b15-1a83-4d26-ab2d-48c438706669 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
UUID=b82ed002-aca2-4c82-9b17-22b4e1eba09e /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1
UUID=d80f685a-53f9-4499-903b-600c0d0eacac /home                ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 2

But if I were to add noatime, it would look like this:

UUID=d5f32b15-1a83-4d26-ab2d-48c438706669 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
UUID=b82ed002-aca2-4c82-9b17-22b4e1eba09e /                    ext4       noatime,acl,user_xattr        1 1
UUID=d80f685a-53f9-4499-903b-600c0d0eacac /home                ext4       noatime,acl,user_xattr        1 2
#4

Yes Note that the life of a ssd is pretty large these days but lots of little writes produces many more erase cycles and that is what kills a SSD. So with out noatime you aer cutting years off the life of the drive. Of course in 3 or 4 years even better/bigger/fancier drives will be available so maybe you don’t care if you can get a couple more years out of some hardware. Up to you.

#5

Thanks gogalthorp. Yes, SSDs appear to be quite robust, but I do have to watch my budget and don’t have money to burn, so it is important that I take care of my hardware.

It is funny, but 13.1 works very well on this laptop, and with all the precautions from that guide implemented, it is very speedy.
Nothing really make my OCD Flare up. :slight_smile:

I will play around and see if i come up with anything and if so I will update the post.

Cheers!

Dave

#6

I have replaced a 80GB hard disk with a 128GB SSD on a laptop. Installing openSUSE 13.2 was straightforward on both the HD and SSD from the NET iso. I followed the instructions on

https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd-in-opensuse

which was referenced above.

My laptop now boots much faster and runs faster too. Thanks to this forum and DR Werner Fink who produced the above guide.