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GNOME Performance Enhancement Tips for the Solaris Platform

Here are a few changes you can make to improve GNOME performance:

1. You can improve the performance of the GNOME Desktop by optimizing the settings of GNOME Nautilus.
   1. Open a Nautilus window (Application -> Home Folder)
   2. Choose Edit -> Preferences.
   3. Select Performance.
   4. Make sure all options are set to Local File Only or Never.
2. The performance of GNOME desktop is related to the complexity of the background. If optimum performance is required, you should set the background to a solid color.
   1. Open the Applications menu.
   2. Choose Desktop Preferences -> Background.
   3. Click on the No Picture button.
   4. Select Solid color in the Background Style drop-down list.
3. You can change your window frame theme to a more basic selection to improve performance.
   1. Open the Applications menu.
   2. Choose Desktop Preferences -> Theme.
   3. Click the Window Frames tab.
   4. Select a basic theme, for example, Atlanta.
4. Reducing the number of applets in your panels can improve performance. Remove applets that you are not using from your panels.
5. Using terminals with transparent backgrounds can affect the performance of the GNOME Desktop. If your terminals have transparent backgrounds, then perform the following actions in a terminal:
   1. Open the Edit menu.
   2. Select Profiles.
   3. Open the Effects tab.
   4. Select the None (use solid color) option.
6. You can improve performance by enabling windows to move in wireframe mode. Run the following command. (Note: This command must all be on one line without line wrapping.)

     gconftool-2 -s /apps/metacity/sun_extensions/wireframe_move_resize -t bool
     true
   

7. The GNOME 2.0 Desktop includes support for the mediaLib software libraries. Installing these libraries can noticeably improve the performance of the GNOME Desktop.

   For instructions, see mediaLib Libraries.

There is also a script designed to improve GNOME performance by changing certain settings such as turning on wireframe window drags. While this was written primarily for SunRay ultra-thin clients, it should work fine with workstations as well.

Download script.

Also, if you want to start GNOME from fresh default, you can run the following command, which cleans your current settings and brings you back to default. This removes all special setups and puts you back to default, including removing all icons.

% /usr/bin/gnome-cleanup

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