On Thursday, December 23, 2010 10:44:26 am Kristoffer Walker wrote: > > This is a good idea, but I want to point out that you can do the same > > thing using either a 'dd' command, or the 'wipe' command. Either of > > these can be run from a live CD or DVD, such as the Ubuntu install disk, > > or from Knoppix. > > I ended up booting from the Ubuntu install disk and running `shred > -vfz -n 1 /dev/sda`; filling it with zeros. I'm not so concerned with > privacy, but if you were, you could set `n` to a much higher value to > make more passes of randomness before finally filling with zeros.
That's another good way of doing it. Concerning the number of fill passes, we've had several discussions at dinner after MHVLUG meetings that have touched on that topic, and many are skeptical that any data is retrievable even after a single pass of simply writing zeros. I'm still mildly cautious, so I just sort of pick a middle ground -- two passes of random data filling the drive, and then directly use the drive from there. In other words, I leave the last pass of random data written on the drive and then use it immediately afterwards, rather than filling with zeros before using it. That works fine. > My swap space was indeed being used from time to time (with more than > 1 web browser open, image manipulation, etc). So I guess my Ubuntu box > needs more memory these days than it used to (I have 512mb). Hmm okay. 512 MB is usually enough for normal light work. > I installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, which I like much better than 10.10 > anyway. However, one thing I really dislike about it is that is does > package indexing as a cron job, sucking up almost all my resources for > several minutes at a time... Arggggg. `sudo apt-get purge > apt-xapian-index` took care of that problem. I don't use any GUI > package management tools, so this is no loss for me. Interesting... I have apt-xapian-index installed, but just just like you I don't use any of the graphical package managers, so I think I can also remove it, along with Synaptic and Adept. > I'm still looking for a way to disable desktop search functionality > (tracker I think). Maybe it's not even indexing until I actually use > it? If you're using Gnome, I'm not sure. On KDE4 (and thus in Kubuntu), Desktop Search indexing with Nepomuk and Strigi is turned on by default, and uses a MySQL back-end for index storage, and is also integrated with file manager programs. So for instance selecting a file in a file manager thus requires a MySQL connection to the back-end. I'm not sure specifically what Desktop Search features Ubuntu 10.04 LTS turns on by default, if any. Based on the first posting in the link below, it may not have this active by default (which I'd personally consider a good thing). http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1575054 > Overall, everything seems to have reached a level of performance I > haven't enjoyed on this machine in a long time. If it stays that way > as the disk continues to get used I'll be really happy. With some more > memory (and maybe a new HDD) this machine should live through several > more updates. Good to hear. > Thanks for all the advice. :-) -- Chris -- Chris Knadle [email protected] _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Jan 5 - Building a Community Site with Drupal Feb 2 - Zimbra Mar 2 - MHVLUG 8th Anniversary - Show and Tell
