Is it possible to port certain packages that make Clear Linux optimised for hardware over to Arch Linux?

General Discussion
#1

image

Any Linux distro that I use on this particular laptop seems to underperform compared to Windows 10. While on the CPU side of things Linux actually performs better than Windows 10, but with graphics card related tasks, it underperforms, especially when scrolling on web pages - it lags.

When I read up about Clear Linux it seems interesting. I haven’t tried it yet (mainly because I don’t have a large USB drive to put the ISO in).

What packages does Clear Linux have that other distros don’t have that increases the performance? Does Clear Linux use a custom kernel?

Can I some how install the packages that Clear Linux has that deals with hardware optimisation and install it on an Arch-based distro?

1 Like
#2

There does exist linux-clear kernel in AUR but you won’t have the same performance gains you have with actual Clear Linux because of the way of Arch gcc compilers (per Reddit)

I’ve installed the kernel on my Arch system and I can attest that it hasn’t the same performance as the actual Clear Linux distro.

And then to get the same boot time (on my machine is less than a second) there’s a lot of scripting to add to Systemd-boot loader.

1 Like
#3

If you want to get a look at the Clear Linux kernel they have a GitHub page:

1 Like
#4

Is there a separate third party compiler I can use?

Are there other packages that help optimise the performance of Clear Linux?

Oh, I am not using Systemd-boot loader. I am using Grub.

1 Like
#5

Also you can always download there server iso (aka minimal version) and once installed you can download your desktop environment.

#6

Thanks for the link, I will git clone it :slight_smile:

I wanted to know is Clear Linux using xf86-video-intel drivers?

1 Like
#7

To be honest with you I am not a huge fan of flatpak or any of the current setup repositories. I rather use pacman instead.

1 Like
#8

Ya I use to be that way with Flatpak but certain entertainment program like oomox and gpmdp very thankful for, and now will only do with a Flatpak (way more reliable and less useless dependency libs clutter)

#9

Grub?

Ooohhh kaayy …

I’m slowly walking away from this conversation :joy:

#10

Doesn’t flatpak become more bloated though since less dependencies are shared amongst different applications?

I heard from a person that when they installed three different exact same applications from both flatpak and pacman, they claimed that their drive space was taken up 500 MB more when using flatpak.

Lol XDD What is wrong with Grub?

#11

I know they have i915 optimization, and they have a firmware package which might include xf86-video-intel but I’m not sure about that specifically. Arch actually advises against using it…

#12

Nothing other than It gets in the way of actual booting :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

1 Like
#13

I haven’t looked that far into it. There a linux-nitrous kernel that is pretty snappy if you want to go that route

1 Like
#14

Currently on Arch I am using xf86-video-intel but it runs terribly. I don’t know how Clear Linux configures this :confused: But that is good to know that i915 is optimised.

Is this what Clear Linux uses?

Have you ever used Arch or Debain based? Do you find flatpak becomes more bloated than apt or pacman?

1 Like
#15

I run Arch mostly as I’m a desktop user and not a system admin, so not too worried about stability, and I like to Uber customize my desktop with AwesomeWM and there’s a lot of packages in AuR for that, and I’ve never had arch shit the bed on me either.

I’ve had horrible experience with fan noise on Debian based distros so I’ve never gone back to them in years.

1 Like
#16

Beyond performance, I swear Linux clear added to my battery life. Running it on a 4th Gen i5 – Thinkpad T440p

1 Like
#17

Oh lol.

I am surprised it does that.

Oh wow nice it sounds tempting to use it then.

Do you dual boot Clear Linux with Arch on that laptop?

Does your laptop use an Intel graphics card? If so what driver is it using? Is it using xf86-video-intel?

#18

@unix_man linux-nitrous is optimized for Intel Haswell (but runs on newer CPUs, too), compiled using Clang 10 with -O3 enabled which means the compiler takes advantage of certain CPU features introduced with Haswell and tries to optimize the code harder so that the code runs more efficiently.
The kernel is also a bit more hardened than the stock linux or linux-zen kernels so you might get a tiny performance hit in some cases (I haven’t noticed this, though).

1 Like