Today, let’s take a look at a little housekeeping on Ubuntu – one of the most popular Linux distros of all time.

Reducing boot delay

Generally, the system boots up with the help of the bootloader. In case of Linux systems, it’s generally GRUB. After the bootloader starts up, it usually takes 5 seconds to start the OS booting. The time is 5 SECONDS only, not a big deal. However, in case you’re in a hurry, those 5 seconds can be very valuable. Moreover, the changing won’t make any bad impact on the hardware as well. That’s why it’s safe to reduce the time to a lower settings.

For changing the boot delay, run the following command in the terminal –

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

From the file, look for “GRUB_TIMEOUT”. Change the value from 5 to 1 (recommended). Then, press “Ctrl + O” to save the file and “Ctrl + X” to exit the editor.

Reboot your system for the change to take effect. The change should be noticeable if you observe a bit sharply.

Remove unwanted PPAs

Ubuntu features some of the easiest ways to manage your software source. PPAs (Personal Package Archive) is useful for getting numerous software directly from the developers. PPAs are also a great source for ported apps from other open-source projects and keeping them up-to-date.

Whenever you run “apt update”, it collects repository database and other information from all the software sources. PPAs are generally slower than the official repository and too much of them seriously hinders the speed. You should remove those unwanted PPAs.

Go to “Software & Updates” from the launcher of Ubuntu. Open the “Other Software” tab. There, you’ll find out all the unnecessary PPAs you’ve installed over time.

Select the unnecessary PPA, click “Remove”, enter the password and you’re good to go!

After you’re done removing all the unnecessary PPAs, you should reload the repo cache of your system. Run the command in the terminal –

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Remove unnecessary packages

Your system is also full of other dependency packages from different software. Those simply clog the system by eating space in the package database and hard drive. For removing all those unnecessary packages, run the following command –

sudo apt autoremove

Manage startup apps

You may have configured a number of startup apps. These apps load during the start of your system. Some of them may be necessary, but others will simply eat system resources. For removing all those unnecessary startup items, run the following commands –

cd ~/.config/autostart
ls

It’ll show the startup items as desktop shortcuts. Delete the unnecessary ones by running the following commands –

rm <program_name>.desktop

Reinstall your system

Note that it’s the very LAST step you want to perform. If your system is performing seriously bad and all the above steps didn’t work, you should reinstall Ubuntu. Currently, the latest version of Ubuntu is v18.04 LTS. Learn how to install Ubuntu.

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