[Wek]

I'm trying to do a partition alignment on my main SSD to improve SSD performance and then install Ubuntu on the SSD. I can do the alignment with no problem with the live CD but when I install ubuntu the alignment is erased. Is there a way to install ubuntu without getting rid of the alignment?

Thanks

[reflex]

Yes. You create the partitions aligned, then choose "Manual" partitioning in the installer. Use the pre-existing partitions, and create filesystems in them with the installer (or beforehand).

I used "sudo fdisk -H 32 -S 32 /dev/whatever" to create my aligned partitions. That means 32 "heads" and 32 "sectors per track" for geometry, which gives an alignment of 512KiB (= 32 x 32 x 512 bytes per sector). And make sure to start first partition at offset 2, not 1 (doesn't work for historic reasons).

Since I have a small SSD, I just use a single system partition. I don't use a swap partition, 'cause I don't care about hibernation, and I have sufficient RAM not to need it. On a Mini 9 with a large SSD, I'd probably use 2 partitions, one for the system, and one for user data.

[Wek]

Thank you very much. I did try to use the manual installation but did not know what I was doing. Also thanks for the other times that I forgot to thank you.

[reflex]

Originally Posted by Wek

Thank you very much. I did try to use the manual installation but did not know what I was doing. Also thanks for the other times that I forgot to thank you.

You're welcome.

Were you able to accomplish what you wanted?

[Wek]

Originally Posted by reflex

You're welcome.

Were you able to accomplish what you wanted?

Yes, all thanks to you.

Btw, what do you think of Kubuntu? Better or same and ubuntu? And one last question, can you play HD 720/1080 videos?

[reflex]

I don't have much experience with KDE, the desktop environment used by Kubuntu. Most of my experience is with Gnome, the default in Debian and Ubuntu.

I have been considering switching away from Gnome, but the GUI desktop environment matters less to me than to some other people, since I use a simple text terminal for many tasks.


And finally, I have tried 720p h.264 videos on my Mini 9. There were many dropped frames in fast moving sections, but slow sections were watchable. I tried a 1080i MPEG2, and it played better than I expected on the Mini 9 (with drop "deinterlacing", so it was essentially a 1920x540 30fps video).

Just so you know, there's a huge difference in performance between codecs. MPEG2 is old and inefficient, but easy to decode. AVC/h.264 (commonly seen in HD .mkv files) is newer and more efficient, but much harder to decode. XviD and DivX (commonly seen in .avi files) are inbetween.

And different players may perform differently. I use Mplayer.

[PDR60]

I tried Kubuntu on my 9 and was mildly successful. I've always run KDE since the 90's, but on the Mini, regular Ubuntu or Debian testing with gnome is pretty darn sweet. I think it has to do with just simple desktop real estate. Since these mini's have such limited area, Ubuntu seems to fit better. I'm running 9.1 without a single issue. Give it a shot and spend some time configuring things like the tmpfs in ram and setting the browser to use it will make a huge difference. Works well with Kubuntu also. I guess it comes down to personal preference and not too much more. Just be sure to get in there and tune the os for our needs. You won't be disappointed.

[Wek]

Thanks to all for the help. Ubuntu is working pretty well on the Mini 9.

[sugar2k]

I'm running Kubuntu 10.04.1 netbook release on my Mini 9 at present and it's running well. Check out - https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Netbook

[PDR60]

Originally Posted by sugar2k

I'm running Kubuntu 10.04.1 netbook release on my Mini 9 at present and it's running well. Check out - https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Netbook

Thanks for the update i may give that a try. the last edition I tried was 9.1 and like I said desktop real estate was an issue. I'll check out your blog.