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Linux Configuration Notes

Legal (copyleft): Permission to copy and derive is granted freely. No guarantees. Use at your own risk. Document created in 2002.

How to improve disk performance and prevent disk stalls on Linux 2.6:

I noticed that the Deadline I/O scheduler on Linux 2.6.39 works far better than the default CFQ (Completely-Fair Queue). The CFQ (which may be broken) allowed long disk stalls to occur during heavy writes.

To enable the Deadline I/O scheduler, add this kernel arg to the kernel bootloader:

    elevator=deadline

To disable terminal bell:

  Most effective:
    /etc/profile:
    setterm -blength 0  # Linux

  X windows:
    xset b off
    GNOME / System / Preferences / Sound

  bash shell:
    ~/.inputrc:
    set bell-style visible

  Mac OS X:
     Terminal / Window Settings / Emulation / Audible Bell|Visual Bell
     Then "Use Settings as Default" or Terminal will forget.

To synchronize tick-driven clock according to the more accurate battery-powered clock:

/sbin/hwclock --hctosys

To synchronize clock with an official time server:

ntpdate time.nist.gov

To synchronize the date/time according to a remote machine:
rdate hostname

To change the time-zone (eg to US Eastern Time):

Edit TZ in /etc/profile

export TZ="America/New_York"

Link /etc/localtime to /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York

/etc/inittab
In addition to /etc/rc.d/init.d, /etc/inittab specifies programs to be started during boot. Eg, Mandrake uses inittab to launch KDE via kdm.

If backspace does not work, try: stty erase ^h

To restore the keyboard rate (in a console):
kbdrate

To restore keyboard auto-repeat (in X Windows):
xset r

To restore keyboard auto-repeat (in X Windows):
xset r

To prevent the screen being cleared by login after boot, add --noclear to the line with mingetty in /etc/inittab.

Console video modes:

vga=normal
vga=extended  # 50 lines
vga=788       # graphical (used in Mandrake 8.0)

Configuring a standard PC joystick with an Ensoniq AudioPCI (ES1317) sound card:

modprobe joydev
modprobe es1371 joystick=0x200
modprobe analog

Loading PLIP (the parallel port network driver) kernel modules:

modprobe parport
modprobe parport_pc
modprobe plip

Installing Nvidia's proprietary video driver on Ubuntu [2008/06]:

Upgrading Nvidia driver is dangerous since the Ubuntu developers made hacks for proprietary drivers that interferes with Nvidia's own installer.

Before running Nvidia's installer, archive usr/ etc/
Then remove linux-restricted-modules and nvidia Unbuntu packages.
Reboot, choose the recovery kernel.
Run Nvidia's installer.
Then probably X will be broken.
The solution is to delete these files (backup first):
/etc/modprobe.d/lrm-video
/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-kernel-nkc
Restore /etc/X11/xorg.conf from backup.

Installing Nvidia's proprietary video driver on Debian 3.

It won't install unless a new kernel is compiled with CONF_MODVERSIONS. I chose the build-from-source option using Nvidia's curses-based installer. Then edited 2 or 3 lines in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 per Nvidia's README. That was all. You'll know it's working if you see Nvidia's splash screen while X starts.

Adding your favorite window manager to gdm menu.

Eg, to add icewm, create your own /etc/X11/gdm/Session/Icewm script. gdm will automatically find it and add it to its menu. Also, you can add your own X configuration setting to the script. For example:

#!/bin/sh

# Faster mouse.
xset m 4 4

# Start window manager.
/usr/X11R6/bin/icewm

Compiling XEmacs on Ubuntu [2007/05]:

Compiling XEmacs 21.4 (stable) on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn: export CFLAGS=-O2 apt-get install libncurses5 libncurses5-dev texinfo texi2html ./configure --with-widgets=lucid --with-ncurses --prefix=/opt make && make install cd /opt/lib/xemacs tar xfjv xemacs-sumo*.tar.bz2 Debian isn't based on termcap which xemacs uses by default. Insead, choose ncurses in xemacs configure.

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