[Solution] Speeding up Ubuntu 14.04 on a 1GB RAM

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So, I had installed Linux Mint Nadia on my home PC and was running fine, but to our dismay, the distro was outdated and even it sources went 404 on apt-get update.
So, first I tried updating my sources.list file to old-releases.ubuntu.com using -

but then I gave up, since it was so tiring updating the whole thing on my end-of-the-billing-cycle broadband connection.

I just formatted the whole partition and began installing Ubu14.04 LTS on the same. This time, it somehow clicked that I had to press F11 to get to the boot options. It was enough, and Ubu was installed in somewhat 15 mins.

(c) Softpedia

I, however wasn't yet entitled to a breath of relief, since it was soon palpable that the system was lagging, and that too badly! Trust me, I was seeing the Window trails, the feature windows is famous for! (:P).

www.dansdata.com/images/io163/ie6trail.png

Anyhow, I had learned not to give up, atleast when it came for Linux and related products. This time this blog came to rescue. Reiterating the steps here that worked for me -
 (Refer to my next post for detailed explanation, here we've just noted reqd. points)

1. First install gksu and leafpad, ignore if otherwise.
   

   sudo apt-get install gksu leafpad
   

   
   
2. Now we'll check for current swappiness value :
   

   cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

3. It would probably show 60. We would now be decreasing it to a more resonable value., say 10.
4. Your machine might benefit from an even bigger decrease in swappiness. A useful rule of thumb might be this:
   1 GB RAM or more: swappiness at 10
   Less than 1 GB RAM: swappiness at 5
5. Type gksudo leafpad /etc/sysctl.conf and make the following edit -
   

   #Decrease swappiness value
   vm.swappiness=10

    
6. Now save the changes and reboot the system.
7. After the system reboots, you'll notice the difference. However, to make sure you can reimplement Step 2, the swappiness will now show 10.

Now, all that was left was toning down the 3D-Graphics heavy Unity Desktop environment. I suggested him to use Gnome Fallback Session, since it would be the easiest, plus I kinda liked it. So - 

sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback

After installation, just Log out of current session. In the login window, click on the Ubu logo next to your username, and select Gnome flashback from the dropdown menu. Now login.

(c) /sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/

Enjoy your new Ubu14.04 in your Home PC.

For more information, head on to -
https://rudd-o.com/linux-and-free-software/tales-from-responsivenessland-why-linux-feels-slow-and-how-to-fix-that
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/speed