How to Boost Performance of Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi 4 – Guide

Canonical is continuing to work on Ubuntu Desktop for Raspberry Pi devices, and the next major release of the popular GNU/Linux system, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, promises to give everyone a performance boost. The official version of Ubuntu Desktop on Raspberry Pi was Ubuntu 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla), but it was only recommended for Raspberry Pi 4 variants with 4GB or 8GB RAM, Raspberry Pi 400 and Raspberry Pi CM4 (Compute Module 4) devices ).

Ubuntu Desktop on the Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB of RAM will run smoother and faster with the Linux kernel’s zswap feature enabled. This is due to the compressed RAM cache providing a better performance for swap pages.

To define Up Ubuntu Desktop on Raspberry Pi 4

Ubuntu officially supports the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 8GB modules and 4GB RAM. You can, however, operate Ubuntu using Raspberry Pis equipped with 2GB of memory. Will require an affordable Linux kernel feature known as Zswap to do this.

Swapping compresses all processes before transferring them to the swap file. It also checks if the smallest and most compressed size can fit in RAM. Compressing a webpage with zswapped is much faster than using swap. This will give you a smooth user experience even after installing top Raspberry Pi apps.

Zswap is a new feature that can be activated on any existing Ubuntu installation. This feature will give you the performance boost right away. To activate this feature, start a terminal on your Raspberry Pi 4 and type the following command: sudo sed -i -e ‘s/$/zswap.enabled=1/’ /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt ..

After running the command, restart your computer to see if there is an improvement in performance. You may notice that web browsing is faster than before. ..

Configure Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB RAM

Zswap can help Ubuntu run faster on devices with lower settings, like Raspberry Pi 4. Canonical is also working on additional mechanisms like z3fold and LZ4 compression to help Ubuntu run faster on these devices. If you’re not satisfied with the performance, consider installing a lightweight OS on your Raspberry Pi.

Final note

Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi 4 can be boosted by following these simple steps. ..