Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
I have been a long time user of Ubuntu and a personal computer enthusiast since the Tandy 1000 with the operating system built into rom. I typically stay with the LTS releases because I need my computer to work well with the programs (apps, for the young readers out there) that I need to get things done, and sometimes upgrading versions can introduce unexpected results. I am currently running Ubuntu 12.04 and Unity.
I thought I might chronicle my move to a solid state drive or SSD. Most PC enthusiasts say that moving over to an SSD is one of the most noticeable speed upgrades one can make to a computer. When SSDs first came out, they were small in capacity and high in price, and reliability was questionable. Today, SSDs, while still more expensive per gigabyte than traditional hard drives, seem ready for prime time. With Ubuntu 14.04 LTS shipping with trim support enabled by default, it felt like it was time to give an SSD a try. My computer is far from new. My motherboard is an older socket 775 using a core 2 quad cpu and 4 gigabytes of RAM. It has SATA connections but only the slower 3Gb/s connections. So while it should be faster than my hard drive, it won't be as fast as one on a new modern motherboard.
I have a USB hard drive that I back up to regularly using the Deja Dup backup tool. It’s good practice to also back up your data without any compression. I'll copy and paste a second copy of everything into a different folder just before I'm ready to pull out the drive. (Don't forget your bookmarks!) I am also going to install the new SSD on its own at first. Although I intend to ultimately use the old hard drive as storage, I am not willing to risk everything on just one backup device holding all my data. Before I do anything, I'll write down all the programs that I need or want to reinstall on the new system, and verify my backup. My plan is to install the SSD, do a clean install of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and update it. At that point I'll install the programs I need and test them. If all seems fine, I'll move my data from the USB drive back into my new operating system. The Linux experts out there are, no doubt, saying right now that there are easier ways of getting this done, and they would be right. But I have ruined a perfectly good Ubuntu installation too many times to trust myself to untried command-line entries. The old hard drive will stay in the computer, disconnected for a couple of months until I am confident everything works. Ok, plan in place. Lets see if it works.
Choosing an SSD is harder than you might expect. Choosing a size that I can live with for a while was first on the list. If I'm going to spend hard earned money on an SSD, I want to use that SSD for almost everything. I currently have a 500 GB hard drive and have used 133 GB of space on that drive. A 256 or 500 GB drive should be fine for my needs, but the 500 GB would be a little more future proof. Price and warranty are the next factors to consider. I have found that price typically reflects the capacity of the drive, the type of memory and controller firmware used in the device, and the length of warranty the manufacturer provides. With my current setup, the speed of the drive isn't necessarily a deciding factor as most any SSD will be faster than what my motherboard can utilize. But, if a shiny new computer is on the horizon, and you want to migrate your new SSD to that computer, the speed of the device should be considered. Based on my needs and budget, I chose a Crucial M500 240 gigabyte drive.
Attaching the new SSD to the SATA cable and power was no problem but my old case doesn't have the proper bays for attaching the drive to the case. The solution is to order adapter brackets with the drive, or break out the zip ties and duct tape. A word on firmware. SSD makers are always refining and tweaking the firmware (or instruction set) that SSD's use to operate. Updating the firmware on your new SSD should be first on the list of things to do before you spend all that time setting up your new operating system. Although the process is usually safe to do anytime, why risk it? A quick trip to the manufacturer’s web site showed that there was an update available. Now a bit of panic set in. There is a file for Windows and a file for Mac, but no Linux. Fortunately the Mac file was an iso file to make a bootable cd. Once downloaded, I burned the iso to a CD with Brasero and rebooted with the cd in the drive. My computer is set up to boot from a CD but you may have to watch the prompts closely when you boot – to hit a function key and select your boot preference. I followed the prompts from the firmware update CD and, in moments, I had completed the update process. With the drive in place, and firmware updated, it’s time to boot the computer with the Ubuntu live DVD and see what it finds.
Ubuntu found the new SSD and in a few minutes installation was done. Had it not been for my slow internet connection pulling the updates and installing the restricted extras, it would have finished even faster. The reboot was where I first noticed the speed of this drive. A program I use regularly is LibreOffice writer. It opened almost instantly. Everything is fast on this SSD. It’s pure joy to turn on and play with. Click on something and there it is.
Ok, back to business. After purchasing my SSD, I found that Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is only enabling trim on Samsung and Intel SSD's out of the box. Without trim, my drive will surely slow as it ages. A search of the web turned up several sites detailing how to enable trim. I chose to follow an article on the Webupd8.org site. The article can be found here: http://www.webupd8.org/2013/01/enable-trim-on-SSD-solid-state-drives.html. Two methods are outlined. I used the recommended way and so far I have had no problems. Their write-up is excellent and I just copied and pasted the necessary commands into the terminal.
After installing all the programs I need and copying my data back to the new SSD, the speed still amazes me. Everything is working great except for one small problem. I use Audacity occasionally and the ffmpeg codec I need to convert files in that program is not available for 14.04 in the repositories. Because of this, I still need to keep my 12.04 installation handy. It’s not very convenient swapping cables to access the old hard drive, maybe a virtual machine with 12.04 will be on the short-list. Early adoption isn't always the best choice. This put a snag in using the old hard drive as storage for now. I found a Western Digital 1 terabyte drive on sale and a SATA cable at a local big box store that was too good to pass up. Here is where my second problem came up. As soon as I plugged my new storage drive in, the computer would no longer boot. An error message indicated that there was no operating system present. I unplugged the SSD and plugged in the old drive with 12.04. The machine booted right up. At this point my first thought was that my new SSD was dead. Don't panic I thought. Put everything back the way it was before it quit. The machine booted right up. Now add the new hard drive back and no boot. As it turned out my motherboard would favor the hard drive over the SSD in the bios. Setting the SSD as the primary drive and making sure the boot order was set correctly solved the problem. Using the disks program in Ubuntu, I formatted my new hard drive to Ext4. To do this, start by selecting the hard drive in the devices column and click on the gear icon in the right hand corner, then choose format. Give your drive a name. I called mine “storage”. Not very creative, but I know what it is. With this second drive now ready for storage and backup, I can now make a new separate backup on the USB hard drive and take it off-site in case of a major catastrophe. The only other side effect to this upgrade is that any other computer I use now feels so slow.
This project brought back that fun factor again. Knowing that I have good backups of my data, the fear one feels when doing an operating system overhaul was gone. If everything went belly up, I had my old hard drive with 12.04 on hand to go back to for answers. I can say without any reservation that an SSD is a great way to put that snap back into your rig. Take your time, do your homework, back up and back up again. It’s like having a new computer without the big cost and you do it yourself. Just make sure you have some fun with it too!