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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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If I'm trying to have a software program to help optimize my computers overall health and performance what should I be looking into? (self.linux)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by borzthewolf to c/[email protected]

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So I am currently running stacer, tbh idk if its working good or not lol. Sometimes my computer still flares up randomly with high CPU usage and the fan going, but I try to use htop to pinpoint, but that tool is probably way more in depth than I know. I'd rather have like maybe a daemon? Or always on app that automatically notices strange things and helps balance out performance, I.e. CPU usage, ram usage, maybe heat?Battery life, overall just to help maintain optimum performance and proper running (I do not game at all BTW, so not a factor)

The three I know of are tlp, auto-cpufreq, and stacer. I've read that its not good to run the first two together. Plus I've tried tlp numerous times and I feel it made my perfoance worse... I tried the simple default settings and even thoroughly went through and customized the settings, still never seemed to work right. I experimented a little with autocpufreq but had no idea if it was working correctly lol. I mean I followed the basic instructions to set it up, but who knows. Same with stacer; dont know if its really working or if I even configured it right...

In your experiences, what would be the best tool or tools to help me with this. Not really looking for monitors as I have no idea what to do with all that info lol but tools that automatically monitor and make performance tweaks accordingly? Idk if there is an all in one solution or if you need specific apps together, but also need to be aware of possible confliction... Not to mention I set up netdata lol omg I had no clue what I was looking at or how to use it. Super overwhelming because the tool could actually help with network performance but it was so completely confusing. Definitely not for a beginner. Would love your guys suggestions please. Thank you

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can sort of imagine like a little program that tries to be smart and says "hey this thing is running and using a lot of CPU, and Chromium also wants a lot of CPU right now, so let me go ahead and renice this other process to lower its priority so Chromium can go faster". Or "gee the system is unusable because it is swapping, let me randomly kill stuff until it works again".

But I'm not sure there are a lot of options for that sort of userland tool, because being smart enough to do the right thing in those cases while not also doing a bunch of unexpected and possibly counterproductive stuff is hard. But maybe you can bolt a large language model to a root shell and see if it helps?

Really the kernel is supposed to just do the right thing all the time anyway. You might be able to find something that like changes your CPU governor when you go on and off battery? But mostly there are settings to tune like which CPU governor you want to be using or whether to compress stuff in RAM or how much the kernel should tend to swap stuff to disk, or what the fan speed ought to be at different temperatures, and if you want to make the system go faster you fiddle with those.

[–] borzthewolf 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks a lot! The issue is that linux is very complex with many aspects and I am not pro lol. Like niceness, I've heard of it and seen it in htop, but idk if the settings are correct. There's so many programs, daemons, software, and actual hardware, idk where to start exploring and tuning the system myself. Its very overwhelming, so I figured maybe some of the tools I listed may help. For instance, I'll spend hours And hours trying to understand logs or reading tutorials to help check for and fix errors or problems or broken things or misconfigured things but I just get lost and none of it makes sense. Like I'll read an error line in a log, but I have no clue what it means. I'll google it and sometimes try solutions, but even then, a lot of that is confusing and leads me down other rabbit holes too lol. Its vicious really... So needless to say, I have no idea where or how to start properly fixing or tuning things myself yet alone pinpoint actual issues. Its tricky but I've gotten better over the years, usually trial and error

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Usually tools that people make to help people get stuff working properly when they are new is all about constraining the system to be set up right in the first place, rather than tuning or fixing it later. Rather than starting with a distro that needs a lot of fiddling and getting a tool to fiddle with it for you, you want to look for a distro that is designed to set itself up in a sensible configuration when you install it.

[–] borzthewolf 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

See thats one thing I've been weary about as well. I mean every computer is different so I figure just a fresh, default install won't necessarily mean the system is configured and running properly simply due to the nature of all the different hardware and bits and bobs for each setup. How am I supposed to know if things are configured and working properly even after a fresh install? Linux really is a beast with so many aspects

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Usually the parts that would need some optimization, like, say, using the CPU features properly, are things that are shared with a bunch of other people, and so good support for them makes it into the mainline kernel and from there to everybody.

If you think you have an unusual or super new system, you can look for a way to run newer or specially-optimized-for-your-hardware kernel builds. Or you can always get into compiling the kernel or other system components with the right optimizations or go-faster stripes for exactly your machine: Gentoo people like to do that.