LM 18.3 Trim

Condobloke

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/etc/cron.weekly/fstrim

I have had it suggested to me to run the above in terminal as root (su)

What does it achieve ?

Does it present any complications ? / dangers to my pc ?

good idea/bad idea

Any other way of doing the same thing ?....perhaps in a safer manner..?
 


G'day mate ;)

Brian, I am taking it you have an SSD, is that so? Trim is advocated as a housekeeping exercise for keeping SSDs running in tip-top fashion, so I expect the use of a cron task to do so goes hand in hand with that.

I don't have an SSD so I am not able to help much, further, but likely others here, can :p.

Depending on your source, and its current status, for running the task, I would advocate doing your/our usual:

  • Run a Timeshift snap on what is valuable
  • Run the advised operation
  • Redial with Timeshift if things head south for the winter
Regrets I can't help more at the moment, gotta start cooking tea soon.

Cheers

Wiz
BTW got the piccies of the house, Elaine and I thought they looked nice :D
 
May 1 10:35:42 brian-desktop anacron[813]: Job `cron.daily' started

I found this in the syslog....no idea if it is relevant or otherwise...

Timeshift has done its thing this morning....

So...i ran the blurb...(/etc/cron.weekly/fstrim).....

How do I establish if it has in fact achieved anything....??

just for interest...a google search returned the following in pics...

(https://askubuntu.com/questions/761658/manually-run-an-anacron-job )


Screenshot_2018-05-01_16-20-18_copy.png


Screenshot_2018-05-01_16-21-00.png
 
Hope you're not asking me the above, :eek::rolleyes::oops:

Cron and anacron are two sides of the same coin to do with scheduling. Cron usually runs through a daemon setup to monitor system performance and run tasks, whereby you might set it up to run at eg 9:00pm at night after users have logged off, ie sysadmin stuff.

Anacron has more flexibility to set times, so that if a cron-style condition is not met (eg the computer is not switched on for a couple of days), the desired task will run at eg the next startup, or when a certain condition is met.

Admin @Rob and other sysadmins will likely have a better explanation.

Cheers gotta fly

Wiz
 
This page gives some excellent advice about not only TRIM, but also other care that you can take to protect your SSD with Linux Mint.

The author seems to know his stuff pretty well and offers many other tips, especially for Mint, but also for Ubuntu and a couple of others. Here is his home page... a very nice resource!

And for probably far more than you may want to know... it's hard to beat the folks at the Arch Wiki.

Cheers
 
Thanks for that atanere........good info !

I have seen that authors pages before, but not the ssd page.

Trim is now active....definitely.......i have saved the terminal command to run it manually on occasion....(maybe every week or so......just so i can see the result)
The steps I followed on THIS PAGE were ::
no. 8...trim is supported
8.2....a,b,c.
9.
10. ..a,b,c,d,e,
11.
12. (I use Firefox)
The changes to firefox are noticeable. They dont make the pc jump and leave the desk.....but the momentary "wait" when i click on something in the browser has changed.....for the better.


Upon reading the Arch Wiki page..(what do these guys do in their spare time !!!)......I was also led to a package in the software manager on LM 18.3 called GSmartControl.

It is similar (maybe even the same as) to https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-check-ssd-health-in-linux/ but i installed it from my own software manager.

I tested (long tests) my ssd and well as two hdd. All passed nicely. (I included my backup hd in the tests)

When all the garbage is wiped out of the picture, the action of Trim appears to be somewhat similar to defragmentation in hdd's. Ensures ongoing performance.

The job is done and all is well. And I have learned quite a bit. Linux is now less of a mystery than it was yesterday. Doing is way in front of reading/thinking about it.

Just keep Timeshift at the ready. :rolleyes:

ps....Wiz....time you got yourself a ssd mate.....you too can fly !!!.....think what the added impetus would do for your 'entry'/puff of smoke moment....:p
 
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ps....Wiz....time you got yourself a ssd mate.....you too can fly !!!.....think what the added impetus would do for your 'entry'/puff of smoke moment....:p

I'm waiting for the Good Fairy of Father's Day or for Santa, mate :(, that road trip cost us some G's.

Glad you're a happy camper though, and good work as usual Stan :D:D

Wiz
 

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