Storage & File System Options

In this dialog you can configure various storage and filesystem settings to optimize your system’s performance, durability, and security. This guide provides detailed information on each available option.

1. Disable File Access Time Recording

Enable the noatime option when mounting the root file system to prevent the recording of the last access time of files. This configuration offers several benefits:

• Performance Improvement: Reduces the overhead associated with updating access times on each file read operation, leading to faster file system performance.
• Reduced Wear on Storage Devices: Minimizes write operations, which is particularly advantageous for SSDs by extending their lifespan.
• Optimized for Btrfs: Enhances snapshot performance by reducing the number of write operations required during snapshot creation and management.
• Enhanced Security: Prevents exposure of file access patterns, reducing potential information leakage.

Considerations: While noatime is beneficial for most users, it can be disabled if specific applications rely on access time information.

2. Install ZRAM

ZRAM is enabled by default to optimize memory usage by creating a compressed swap space in RAM. This setup offers several advantages:

• Memory Optimization: Efficiently uses available RAM by compressing unused memory pages, allowing more applications to run simultaneously.
• Reduced Wear on Storage Devices: Decreases the reliance on swap space located on SSDs or HDDs, thereby extending their lifespan.
• Enhanced System Responsiveness: Improves performance under memory pressure by providing a faster swap solution compared to disk-based swap.
• Automatic Management: Managed by the zram-generator, which configures and activates ZRAM without requiring manual setup.

Considerations: Only consider disabling ZRAM if you are certain that the system will not encounter high memory demand.

Additional Notes:

• With a Swap Partition:

  • If a swap partition is configured (e.g., $SWAP_PARTITION GiB), ZRAM will create an additional compressed swap layer. This compressed swap is utilized before accessing the SSD or HDD swap space to further reduce wear.

• Without a Swap Partition:

  • If no swap partition is configured, the system will rely solely on ZRAM to handle swap needs efficiently, utilizing compressed memory to manage occasional high RAM demand.

3. Make a RAM Disk Available

This option allows you to create a dedicated RAM Disk mounted within the user’s runtime directory ($XDG_RUNTIME_DIR) and symlinked to $HOME/RAMDisk. Key features include:

• User-Exclusive Temporary Storage: Provides a clean space for temporary data, separate from system files like $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR and /tmp.
• Controlled and Secure Access: Accessible only to the user, ensuring that temporary data remains private and secure.
• Easy Integration: Set up with the $RAMDISK environment variable for convenient reference in the terminal.

Ideal Use Cases:

• Fast Temporary Storage: Suitable for tasks that require quick read/write operations, such as video processing or caching.
• Automatic Cleanup: The RAM Disk integrates with the file manager on desktops and clears automatically upon logout, ensuring that temporary data does not persist unnecessarily.

Kernel Configuration Adjustments

Enabling certain options may modify kernel settings to ensure optimal performance:

• ZRAM Installation:

  • Modifies kernel settings related to swap management to ensure that ZRAM operates efficiently.
  • If ZRAM is enabled, specific kernel parameters are adjusted to balance performance and storage usage.

• Without ZRAM:

  • Kernel settings are adjusted to ensure that the system functions optimally without ZRAM, maintaining performance without the compressed swap layer.

These adjustments can be reviewed under the General Kernel Configuration section.