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I've written a machine vision processing algorithm on an embedded board which is going to be installed in the outdoor environment. The embedded system consists of an Intel Atom Dual Core processor which clocks at 1.8 GHZ and has 4 GB of RAM.

My algorithm needs Qt and OpenCV to be installed on the operating system to run properly.

Can installing Lubuntu instead of Ubuntu help in decreasing the processing time of my program? For example, could I have a 20% or more reduction in my algorithm processing time by just replacing Ubuntu with Lubuntu? If yes, how could it be measured before installing Lubuntu on my embedded board?

I want to know if there's a huge reduction by just removing some fancy features of Ubuntu since I'm not going to use them at all. If not, I don't want to bother my self installing Lubuntu and perform all the tests again.

Aditya
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Parsa
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  • Welcome to askubuntu. In it's current state, the question is too broad to be answered. Please ask only one question at a time. You can ask other questions separately. – Registered User Apr 07 '14 at 11:05
  • Thanks aditya ...although it seems like multiple questions asked at once but really it's only one question !! is it worth to install lubuntu instead of ubuntu for processing purposes ?!! – Parsa Apr 07 '14 at 11:11

3 Answers3

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Rather than Lubuntu, I would suggest you to use Xubuntu, which is even lighter.Strip it down by unintaliing all unnecessary softwares like maybe transmission bittorrent client.
If you are more experienced user, get something very light like TCL and install only necessary software.

Considering that you install Stripped down Xubuntu and also taking in mind your system specs, it would surely give a performance boost compared to Ubuntu(stripped or not stripped). But it may or may not be 20%, depending on what you do.

Does your setup use something like 80% CPU? Then the gain would be higher.I think you should try Xubuntu(strip it), if you have time to do it. Using Ubuntu for your system is a lot of unnecessary wastage.

Registered User
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  • so you mean xubuntu for sure has equal or higher performance than lubuntu ? and if yes is there any dedicated operating systems for embedded systems or I should use the generic version ? – Parsa Apr 07 '14 at 16:33
  • @panahi there are dedicated OS for embedded system, though I don't remember one right now.google it. – Registered User Apr 08 '14 at 03:08
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The generic answer is Yes it could. But only testing it will tell you for sure. I have an Atom dual core board with 2 GB of RAM that run Ubuntu on and I never go for full blown Unity or Gnome desktop environment on it. I prefer Lubuntu or LXDE and I install stripped down versions of them (without bloatware).

Try this:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends lubuntu-desktop

Or if you want raw LXDE then this:

sudo apt-get install lxde-core

Or for a stripped down version of Gnome 3 use this:

sudo apt-get install xorg gnome-core gnome-system-tools gnome-app-install

Or if you want to stick to Unity (not recommended) then use this:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-desktop

My opinion is that you will see that LXDE or Lubuntu will help. But like Aditya mentioned, Xubuntu is also good. You may either of them and optionally include the --no-install-recommends modifier.

MordSith
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  • That's great ... but what do you mean by these commands ? you mean that first I should install lubuntu and then type these commands or what ?!! can I remove the unnecessary packages from ubuntu and reach the approximate efficiency as lubuntu ? – Parsa Apr 07 '14 at 16:29
  • If you have multiple desktop environments installed log into the other one, then run sudo apt-get remove lubuntu-desktop and sudo apt-get autoremove in sequence. This will remove existing lubuntu. Then run the first command to install minimal lubuntu. There are other ways to do it but in your case this might be simpler. I usually install minimal commandline only Ubuntu using the alternate CD and then install fresh minimal Lubuntu using the first command. Hope this makes sense. good luck. – MordSith Apr 11 '14 at 12:49
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Let me suggest another approach here.

It appears that your embedded system may not need a desktop at all. Rather than installing an Ubuntu desktop version to remove all unwanted components I'd go the other way and install Ubuntu server edition to then add all I need for my application to run. By this we will be able to control all processes which may interact with your application, and we will be able to control the ressources which should be left for our application.

It also may not really make much difference what desktop environment processes are idle in the background. Just imagine our process starting at boot before any user log ins. Then the desktop environment is not even running, hence not using any ressources. This can be done with any Ubuntu derivative, differences will then be more of what application are installed.

In any case we can nicely adjust process prority to give our application a high priority.

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Takkat
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