Need help deciding steps for SSD install

[MintNewBee]

Hello,
Before anyone says "google is your friend", please let me explain that I have spent the last couple of days reading a lot of different pages about the steps/optimisations recommended for putting Linux on my new ssd and there are just too many conflicting opinions to get a clear concise generally agreed guide.

I want to install mint 17.1 64bit on my brand new ssd (Crucial MX100 256gb) to create a dual boot with my Win7.

Please can anyone on here tell me the necessary "must do's" such as enabling Trim if Mint 17.1 doesn't do it by default (my efi bios is already set to AHCI mode for sata), I vaguely understand that there are 2 types of Trim for linux, one is a weekly 'cron job' (or something like that) and another type is always vs. once a week.

Basically, what do I need to do to really look after my hardware? and will Mint 17.1 take care of that complicated partition alignment during installation to the correct mb that is needed for ssds apparently?

Also, should I reduce 'swappiness'?

Thank you for any help.

[Hoser Rob]

This isn't something I've dealt with but this is what I'd do first ...

I'm sure mint devs will hate me for this, but for underlying OS config stuff the first place I always look is the ubuntu support sites, ubuntuforums and askubuntu. I don't like their DE implementations as much as I do Mint's so I'm an ex ubuntu user at the moment but for tech support NO ONE else comes close.

Look for answers involving the ubuntu version your mint release is based on, in this case 14.04. You do have to have an idea what to look for but that'd be true for any distro with free support. Read stickies.

Just don't expect mint support there. At best your thread'll get moved to their other OS page where it'll languish.

For those new to linux one of the biggest issues I see is reading crap blogs. There are lots of them, and how is a noob supposed to tell the difference?

A good example of that is all those blogs telling you that reducing swappiness is a necessary and vitally important step to speed. That is crap, actually. It may help and it may not. It's easily undoable though, and certainly worth trying, but it will not make an old slow computer fast.

[vl1969]

Actually, trim is there already. Mint 17.1 supports it by default.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

[AlbertP]

A weekly TRIM is done automatically when a Samsung or Intel SSD is detected (there is a whitelist of SSD types, because Crucial SSDs - at least the M500 and M550 - may experience data corruption when you do TRIM on the whole disk at once). You can do it manually using:

Code: Select all

sudo fstrim /

In any case, you can enable TRIM "always" by adding the "discard" parameter in the /etc/fstab file.
You can edit /etc/fstab using:

Code: Select all

gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

An example of how to add "discard":

Code: Select all

# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=f5d8b519-80e5-4967-b489-1851e1373829 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro,discard 0       1

These are the lines about the root (/) partition from my own fstab. The UUID is specific to your disk, do not change it. The only change I have made is changing "errors=remount-ro" into "errors=remount-ro,discard".

A good example of that is all those blogs telling you that reducing swappiness is a necessary and vitally important step to speed. That is crap, actually. It may help and it may not. It's easily undoable though, and certainly worth trying, but it will not make an old slow computer fast.

In my own experience, swappiness makes a clearly noticeable difference in speed on machines with 512 MB RAM and an old slow harddisk (where Linux Mint can just about run without crashing, but not quickly). We're talking about different computers here: SSD's aren't that slow of course! On an SSD, you are doing it for a different reason: reducing wear. For reducing wear, it is a good step anyway which I would recommend all Linux SSD users who have a swap partition on the SSD.

[nomko]

Read this as well:
https://sites.google.com/site/easytipsf ... tes-drives

[SleeperService]

I have the exact same drive. Make sure you update to the MU02 firmware. I decided on swappiness of 10 and trimming on boot via rc.local. I'm not sure disabling browser caching is incredibly necessary on modern SSD's, I've decided to live with the dramatic speed boosts I get and take my chances down the line, especially since Chrome doesn't really support it directly.

I think a lot of SSD life span stuff is probably overdone, what's the point of having a fast drive if one limits the drive to not read/write files that by their nature are there to speed up system and user processes, like caches and swap? I suppose it's a matter of philosophy.

Here is a very balanced and sane writeup by a forum contributor here, Pjotr: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd

[nomko]

Here is a very balanced and sane writeup by a forum contributor here, Pjotr: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd

I've read that page and despite of his efforts.. some items on his found on the internet advise otherwise! Always check with other websites first before implementing his advises! Despite what he says or advises. Better to check on other sites first instead of following his advise eyes closed. I know many examples of users screwing up their system following his advise. Just be warned.

As example:
Pjotr advises not to use the discard options while many other sites advise to use it. So whats the truth in here?

[SleeperService]

Here is a very balanced and sane writeup by a forum contributor here, Pjotr: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd

I've read that page and despite of his efforts.. some items on his found on the internet advise otherwise! Always check with other websites first before implementing his advises! Despite what he says or advises. Better to check on other sites first instead of following his advise eyes closed. I know many examples of users screwing up their system following his advise. Just be warned.

As example:
Pjotr advises not to use the discard options while many other sites advise to use it. So whats the truth in here?

Well, that's what I've done. I used it as a starting point, although I'm not entirely sure which advice he gives specifically would cause system instability, unless there was some error in the implementation? In terms of the trim issue, based what what I've read for my system (frequently powered on and off) trimming by rc.local on reboot seems to the best option. The only downside for me is that it slightly increases boot time, which I don't consider a big deal. If you leave the system on, a daily cron job might be best. The discard option seems the worst because it causes extra SSD load during times the computer is actively being used, which could slow the system down... would it actually be noticable, not sure.

[Pjotr]

Here is a very balanced and sane writeup by a forum contributor here, Pjotr: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd

I know many examples of users screwing up their system following his advise. Just be warned.

Provide those examples please, or you're just spreading malicious FUD about my website. Now that wouldn't be the first time, hmmm?

[AlbertP]

The how-to looks mostly good to me, except for the fstrim cronjob, as fstrim can cause data corruption on Crucial M500 and M550 SSDs (discard does work fine there). It is for that reason, that it is not enabled on all SSDs by default.
Apart from that, I see no dangerous steps. I'm not yet convinced that your way of overprovisioning works, but I will not bother about that.