The Perfect Desktop - Fedora 9 - Page 3

4.2 Font Rendering

The general font settings are available in the GNOME system menu.

Select "Subpixel smoothing" if you're using an LCD monitor - click on "Details" to see further options.

Set the resolution to 96dpi.

4.3 Services

Some services are enabled by default on your system - maybe some of them are needless (depending on your hardware and your needs). The deactivation of needless services will save system resources, so it's worth to take a look at the service settings. The settings for services are available via the GNOME system menu.

Enter the root password

• bluetooth (disable this service if there is no bluetooth device connected to your system)
• mdmonitor (disable this service if you haven't set up a RAID-system)
• pcscd (disbale this service if there is no smart-card reader connected to your system)
• restorecond (disable this service if you deactivated SELinux)
• setroubleshoot (disable this service if you deactivated SELinux)
• sshd (disable this service if you're not planning to connect to this computer via ssh/scp/sftp etc)

4.4 Startup Programs

Handle the startup programs just as the services. The settings for the startup programs are available in the GNOME system menu.

Disable the startup programs that you don't need - e.g.: if you disabled the bluetooth service there's no need to start the bluetooth manager etc.

4.5 Reduce Power Consumption

4.5.1 GNOME Power Manager

Laptop users can save a lot of energy with the GNOME power manager - it is available in the upper GNOME panel. Right click on the symbol and choose "Preferences".

Switch to the second tab and adjust the settings as you like.

4.5.2 Powertop

With Powertop, a tool from Intel for Intel Platforms, you are able to find what software is using the most power on your system. Especially notebook users will benefit from reduced power consumption - there will be more time left on battery power.

If you want to use powertop, install the following package.

• powertop

Note: How you can install software is explained in step 5.1.

Afterwards you can run powertop within a terminal. It's recommended to run it with root privileges, otherwise you can't use all the features of this tool.

Run powertop (with root privileges):

powertop

Powertop will permanently collect data from the system. In intervals it shows you what is using the most power and at the same time how you can optimize your system. In certain cases powertop is able to optimize the system itself if you hit the key that is shown.

It's not improbable to save a few watts.

4.6 Yum

Install some recommended packages to prevent problems with yum and kernel modules (root privileges needed):

yum install yum-fastestmirror yum-skip-broken yum-fedorakmod yum-kernel-module

4.7 SELinux

SELinux should be disabled because it can cause many problems on a desktop system. The SELinux management is available in the GNOME system menu.

Enter the root password.

Disable SELinux and reboot the system.

4.8 Deinstall Software

Before you are going to update the system for the first time you should check if there is software installed that you don't need, or rather that you want to replace with another software. The goal should be a clean system with only the programs installed that you really need.

Which programs you should deinstall or replace with others is up to you - you'll find a summary of already installed software in step 6 and a little assortment of additional software (including possible replacements for already installed software) in step 8.

You can simply deinstall software with the Packagekit package manager - afterwards it's time for the first update (if there are updates available) - go to the next step.