Optimizing UNR when installing on SSD netbooks

Registered by David Sugar

Much has been said about concerns both with rewrite longevity and very poor write performance of SSD media, especially in respect to what is now being used in commercial netbooks. This blueprint looks to help address these issues and touches most strongly upon Ubiquity and options which could be auto-selected for the user when SSD target media is selected for installation. This includes not creating a swap partition when "erase/use full disk" is selected and offering a data-writeback option for ext4 (non-data journaling). It would also include adding a new package, ssd-optimize, to the list of selected packages to install. ssd-optimize would have tuning options for /etc/sysctl.d and a few other places to better optimize performance for netbook ssd/flash media. Based on work items identifier in kernel-karmic-ssd, the d-i backend may require support to create flash block aligned partitions and is perhaps the correct place to perform ssd specific fs tuning options as well. It is suggested further the newer kernel ATA TRIM option may be useful in management of SSD devices.

Blueprint information

Status:
Not started
Approver:
Rick Spencer
Priority:
Low
Drafter:
David Sugar
Direction:
Needs approval
Assignee:
None
Definition:
Review
Series goal:
Proposed for lucid
Implementation:
Not started
Milestone target:
None

Related branches

Sprints

Whiteboard

There was, I learned today, a Karmic SSD blueprint, and this one should be merged with it for more consistent and complete coverage of SSD issues.

[asac 25-11-09]: david, can you point us to that blueprint so we can merge them (somehow?)

[dyfet 25-11-09]: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/kernel-karmic-ssd

This blueprint was not at UDS, and may not be in Lucid, however I am completing it at least for review purposes. This is the proposed tasks:

Work Items:
Benchmark SSD optimized vs non-optimized boot time: TODO
Modify D-I to be able to perform SSD install-time optimizations: TODO
Modify Ubiquity with extra UI checkbox for passing d-i ssd options: TODO
Create SSD-optimize package for runtime optimizations: TODO

[rickspencer3 30-11-09]
Removing from alpha 2 commitments

(?)

Work Items

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