LINUX HELPERS.md

LINUX HELPERS for HP T630 Terminal

In my case Linux Mint Xfce

Don't create SWAP drive. Create SWAP file instead and save your SSD.

# Check current swap file/partition
swapon -s

# create an big empty 10GB file (or whatever size you like)
dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=10240
# set proper permissions
chmod 0600 /swapfile
# format the file as swap
mkswap /swapfile
# turn it on.
swapon /swapfile

# Disable other swap file
sudo swapoff /OLD_swapfile

Modify your power settings

1. /etc/systemd/logind.conf or /etc/systemd/logind.conf.d/*.conf
2. Advanced Power Management (APM) APM (Advanced Power Management) control is present in all Debian kernels, but disabled by default. To activate it, you add the apm=on option to the kernel parameters passed at boot time. With LILO, you would add the append="apm=on" directive to the block indicating which image to boot (in the /etc/lilo.conf file), and relaunch lilo. With GRUB2, you simply add apm=on to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX= variable in /etc/default/grub, and run update-grub to regenerate the contents of the boot menu.
3. /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf
4. /etc/tlp.conf

Ensure TRIM enabled for SSD

https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2013/12/enable-trim-ssd-better-performance/

Configure SSH access

sudo apt install openssh-server
sudo systemctl enable ssh

# Start ssh server
sudo systemctl start ssh

# Check if all good
sudo systemctl is-enabled ssh
sudo systemctl status ssh

# Optionally allow SSH in the Firewall
sudo ufw allow ssh && sudo ufw reload

Setup VNC Server to access machine remotely (no monitor needed)

### WIP. ### 
# Install TightVNC
sudo apt install tightvncserver

# Create normal user for the VNC access
sudo adduser vncclient
sudo passwd vncclient

# Let vncclient use sudo
usermod -aG sudo vncclient

# Set user and password
su - vncclient
vncpasswd 

# set passwords for the VNC
tightvncserver

# Password will be visible under a file
ls -l /home/vncpasswd/.vnc

# Configure VNC
nano ~/.vnc/config

# SET:
session=gnome
geometry=1920x1200
localhost
alwaysshared


nano ~/.vnc/xstartup

Remove garbage software

# List packages
apt list --installed

sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove thunderbird 
sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove libreoffice-*

# who uses modem nowdays?
sudo apt-get purge modemmanager

# Print server
sudo apt-get remove cups-*

# No audio on my machine
sudo apt remove pulseaudio

# No X for me
sudo apt-get remove xserver-*
sudo apt purge xfce4
sudo apt purge xfce4-*
sudo apt purge x11-*
sudo apt purge plymouth-*
sudo apt purge thunar-*
sudo apt purge xubuntu-*
sudo apt purge lightdm
sudo apt purge gdm
sudo apt remove gufw # GUI for the firewall

# Remove docker if not used
docker rmi $(docker images -a -q)
sudo apt-get purge -y docker-*
sudo groupdel docker
sudo apt purge containerd.io

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker /etc/docker

Mount drives to /Data (path compatible with CasaOS)

# check all drives
lsblk

# mount drives to /DATA
mkdir /DATA/PARTITION_200GB
sudo mount /dev/sdb2 /DATA/PARTITION_200GB/

# If that doesn't work after restart:
sudo crontab -e
# ADD:
@reboot mount /dev/sdb2 /DATA/PARTITION_200GB/
@reboot mount /dev/sda1 /DATA/WD_2TB/

Update samba settings to speedup file read/write

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
# add:
   read raw = yes
   write raw = yes
   use sendfile = true
   socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY
   load printers = no
   getwd cache = true
   smb encrypt = disabled
   
# optionally try   
   aio read size = 16384
   aio write size = 16384
   aio write behind = true
   
   
# Restart samba
sudo service smbd restart
sudo service nmbd restart

Disable "Giga Lite" mode limiting samba to 60MB/s (500Mbps)

First check if EEE is enabled:

ethtool --show-eee <TAB>
# Disable EEE using ethtool won't stay after a reboot
ethtool --set-eee <TAB> eee off

# Make it work after restart:
sudo crontab -e
# ADD (WIP):
@reboot ethtool --set-eee <WHATEVER> eee off | at now + 1 minute

# Try other settings
sudo ethtool -s enp1s0 autoneg on speed 1000 duplex full

Other way would be to set it in GRUB:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub
# SET
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash igb.EEE=0"
GRUB_TERMINAL=console # not

# RUN
sudo update-grub

Other handy tools

# monitor network usage
sudo apt install iftop 

# monitor CPU/Memory
sudo apt install htop 

# list all sysctl variables
sudo sysctl -a > /DATA/sysctl-all.txt