Setting up a SSD in Linux

Software & Operating Systems Linux
1

So, I just ordered a MX550 for my netbook because the 5400rpm drive is gonna die sometime soon.

I know that under Windows you have to activate TRIM and deactivate hybernation and some other stuff. How does this work in Linux? (the netbook is an Acer Aspire One D257 and the BIOS version is 1) System BIOS version V1.06 and 2) the VGA BIOS version is Intel V2036, if that helps).

PS: I have installed and used for a bit Ubuntu (hated it), MInt 17 and Fedora 21 (currently using with Gnome 3.14) but I'm not very familiar with Linux.

btw, I'm not really sure if this belongs here or in the HDD/SSD section.

2

Pretty much all current distros have trim setup by defualt just check to make sure. 

3

hibernation: automatically

trim and performance: add "noatime,discard" to the parameter is fstab. Some distros provide a GUI for that, but on most distros, it has to be added manually. Don't add it to boot and swap partitions. It's almost never enabled by default, to my knowledge Manjaro is the only distro that tries to automate it, but then it still has to be verified.

4

Thanks, I'll look into that.

5

Here's some info, applies to Fedora too

6

Are there any downsides in not enabling TRIM in Linux? I'm not really confident in my skills and don't want to fuck something up :-/

7

You can do it during install of the OS. Especially with the OpenSuse distro. I like doing it when I use the BTRFS filesystem since there are clearly defined options for SSDs.

8

In Fedora 21 too? Should I re-install it?

9

NO.

This isn't Windows. Drive configurations are stored in a plain text file called /etc/fstab, you need root rights to modify it.

If you are using EXT4 as the file system, there are also default mounting options, and those can be viewed or modified by using tune2fs from your terminal.

Enjoy the read:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives

10

You can usually migrate from EXT4 to BTRFS using Gparted.

11

Yeah no garbage collection on devices without automatic chip level trim which means eventually your performance will be down the drain 

12

You said your not tech savvy so don't migrate.. Unless you know what your doing because things can go crazy.. That being said.. Always before editing fstab go ahead and use to cp command in the terminal to copy it to an easy backup location.. then make your changes so when you screw up you can access it via grub rescue and copy the backed up config back and boot up properly.. 

Add noatime and the discard flags to yourpartition.

IF YOU ONLY HAVE AN SSD

Consider enabling zram there are plenty of tutorials.. It basically allows you to compress your system memory to allow more to fit in there and less to the swap partition on an ssd only system..  It will hit your CPU duty cycles a bit but you'll be okay and it might help on low memory systems e.g below 3 GB systems with solid state disks..

All of this is for longevity

13

GParted doesn't let me do anything. I assume I'll need to install a live-version on a usb drive and use that (instead of installing the program in Fedora).

14

Thanks, that's very helpful! I'm still not really comfortable using the terminal because I don't really know that those commands mean (so I can just type them in and trust that nothing bad will happen).

Would you recommend doing the method with tune2fs? On the page you posted it says that this way is discouraged.