How To Ubuntu » Utility

Make your system run more efficiently

Eli — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:03:39 +0000

I hate it when apps hog too much memory, or cpu cycles. In many cases, if you have an application that’s doing this, there’s an alternative out there that is way leaner. There’s an easy way to determine where to trim the fat.

In this example I’m going to be comparing the memory usage of Totem Movie Player, and VLC. These applications play media files, both video and audio. OK, for this test I used a Survivor Man DVD. I played the DVD, and then checked the memory usage of each app once the video began playing. I did each test separately, and repeated a few times to confirm the results, which were very consistent. Oh, I also tested these applications with more than one DVD.

Getting the memory usage numbers

While the program is running, or doing whatever it is you want to test the memory usage of:

Open up the Gnome System Monitor. System > Administration > System Monitor.
Scroll down until you find the entry for the program you’re testing. In this case, its Totem, & VLC.
Look to the far right, under the Memory heading, and you’ll see the amount of memory that your program is using.

Totem

This isn’t my favorite application, in fact, I pretty much dislike it. However, if it uses a considerable amount less memory than other media players, I might just fall in love with it. Sadly, it failed miserably. Totem averaged 49 MB of memory usage while playing a DVD, whether it was Survivor Man or Transformers. That might not seem so bad, but lets see what VLC can do.

VLC

Aside from being my favorite media player, VLC is a memory usage champ as well. It only used 13 MB, or less, during all of the tests, regardless of the DVD that it was playing.

Conclusion

Well, this is a pretty easy one, as you can see from the pics above, VLC uses less than a third the memory that Totem does. Not only is VLC my favorite, its the leanest as well. Now, you may be wondering why this even matters. I mean, we’re talking a difference of 35 – 37 MB at the most. Well, those little bits of memory can add up. If you were to use the biggest memory hog applications on your system, you’d notice sluggish performance at times. This is especially true if you’re a serious multi-tasker. I know that I routinely have a browser (with 10-20 tabs open), music or a video playing, Compiz effects, Conky, Rainlendar calendar and appointment application, and OpenOffice, or Gnumeric running at the same time. With all of that, especially if you have pages running flash in your browser, cutting the fat from your system’s resources can make a big difference in the overall usability of your Ubuntu machine.

This process can be used for any application. Say you want to see who’s got the leanest spreadsheet OpenOffice, or Gnumeric. It’s Gnumeric by the way. You can use this method. The one thing to keep in mind is that you should keep in mind that applications using less memory may provide less features. Take that into account when choosing your software.

VLC is available in the repositories, meaning you can get it in Add/Remove. You must first enable the community repos, check here for how to do that..

How to monitor basic system functions with a panel applet

Eli — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:15:42 +0000

Ubuntu has a built in application, Gnome System Monitor, to help you keep tabs on what’s going on with your machine. You can find it in System > Administration > System Monitor. Once you have it open it has a few tabs, displaying various system information. The Resources tab will show you the cpu usage in a percentage, the memory being used, and what’s going on with your internet/network connection. You can customize this to a certain degree. But, do you really want to have to open this thing up every time you want to find out how much memory you’re using. You can add the system monitor to a panel. This will give you information at a glance, without having to open a new program, or stop what you’re currently doing.

Here’s what it looks like, and how to do it.

Right click on a panel, & select Add to Panel…
Select System Monitor from the list, and click Add
Now you should see 3 graphs on your panel
Right click on them & select Preferences
Now you can configure the display to your liking, including how frequently it updates & the colors of its graphs

This is a nice way to get a feel for what’s going on with your machine at a glance. Also, if you want to open the Gnome System Monitor application, you can just left click on the graphs on your panel and the system monitor will open.

Hovering the mouse over these graphs displays more detailed info

How to free up hard drive space by removing old linux kernel files

Eli — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:05:58 +0000

The linux kernel is, among other things, something that gets updated periodically when you update your system. When this happens, the kernel that’s being replaced is not deleted, it’s left on your system, but just not used anymore. For example, as I write this, I’m using the 2.6.24-24 kernel. My system may still contain older versions, like 2.6.24-23, or 2.6.24-19, etc. I no longer need these older versions, and they are taking up space on my hard drive. Removing these older versions will free up some hard drive space. The first thing you need to do is find out which kernel you’re currently using, so that you don’t delete it.

Find out which kernel you’re using

System tab

You need to open the System Monitor, in the Administration menu. Here’s how…

System > Administration > System Monitor
Click on the System tab
Write down the kernel version(see red rectangle in pic) that you find under the Ubuntu heading

Remove old kernels

Just a note before you get started. Be sure to only delete the older kernels, and not the most recent version, which is the one you’re currently using. The one you’re currently using is the one you wrote down from the System Monitor. Now you just have to delete the older ones.

System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager (enter your password)
Scroll down to “linux-headers-2.x.x-xx“
The green boxes on the left indicate software that is currently installed
Click on the green boxes next to the older versions of the linux-header & choose Mark for Complete Removal
Repeat this for the following packages…
- linux-image
- linux-restricted modules
- linux-ubuntu-modules

If you’d like to see how much space these things take up you can have Synaptic show you.

Open Preferences from the Settings menu
Go to the Columns and Fonts tab
Check the box next to Installed Size
Click the Move Up button until the Installed Size option is at the top (This will insure that the size shows up)

Word of caution

Please don’t do this immediately after an update. There have been times when a kernel update has caused a problem that was subsequently fixed. The safe thing is to wait for a while after the kernel has been updated to remove the old ones.

How to back up your installed applications with APTonCD

Eli — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:14:14 +0000

APTonCD is a very cool application that will backup the packages (software) on your system to a CD or DVD. This will not backup any personal, user created files. This is very handy for example, if you’re re-installing Ubuntu for whatever reason, but you don’t want to have to re-install every single peice of software that you’ve accumulated over time. All you do is back them up with APTonCD, and then re-install them onto your new system. This could also be useful with setting up new machines, they can benefit from all the cool software that you’ve scoured the web to find. To install APTonCD you can…go to the Add/Remove menu, or you can go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager, or you can install from the command line by opening a terminal and entering…

sudo apt-get install aptoncd

Now that you have it installed you can find it in System > Administration > APTonCD.

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Upon opening it up you’re greeted with 2 options. To make a backup of your programs, click Create.

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Now you simply check everything you want to make a backup of (everything is checked by default). A right-click gives check all, and uncheck all options. Click Burn to begin the backup process.

APTonCD has created an *.iso image of your packages ready to be burnt onto a CD or DVD. You can then choose your burning application. I just use the default nautilus cd burner.

Now choose whether you want a CD, or DVD, and the name of your image. The box marked Create a meta-package is a useful tool. It will create a little package on the disc that you can then use upon installation to install every package at once without having to select each and every one of them.

Choose your drive, and write speed. A lower speed will allow a greater chance for disc integrity, I always use 4x. That’s it, your backup disc will be done shortly. Later, we’ll cover how to install or restore from this disc.

Xubuntu screensaver fix

Eli — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:38:23 +0000

There are 2 ways of doing this. One uses the already installed gnome-screensaver, and the other uses xscreensaver, which you’ll have to install.

First option — gnome-screensaver

Go to Applications > Settings > Settings Manager > Autostarted apps

Click on Add, and enter whatever name & description you like, but enter gnome-screensaver in the command box. This fixes the problem of the screensaver not starting when it should. This makes the screensaver app start when the computer boots up so that it will function correctly.

Second option – xscreensaver

Open a terminal and enter

sudo apt-get install xscreensaver

This will install a screensaver application. Now you must repeat the steps in the first option to make this thing start when the computer boots up.

Go to Applications > Settings > Settings Manager > Autostarted apps

Click on Add, and enter whatever name & description you like, but enter xscreensaver in the command box.

This was a very frustrating problem that shouldn’t exist, but does. Xubuntu has so many benefits that I think I can deal with this one little, easily fixed, bug just fine.

How to monitor CPU temperature

Eli — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:00:33 +0000

Install a gnome applet to monitor cpu temp.

Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

Click Search, and type in sensors-applet, click in the box next to it, and check the appropriate boxes, then make another search for lm-sensors, and check it for installation. Then click Apply

Once this is done, right-click on the panel > Add to panel > add the Hardware Sensors Monitor