Disabling Security Patches to Boost Your Linux Performance

Lately I’ve been feeling like my Ubuntu 20.04 laptop is kind of slow, but every time I complain about it on X, some people crawl out of the woodwork to tell me to switch to Arch + KDE.

And this is exactly why Arch users are so annoying. It’s like the moment you mention the word Linux, Arch people show up like they’ve been triggered into PTSD, frantically recommending Arch, and bundling KDE into the pitch while they’re at it, like cult members who never once consider whether the other person can even stand them.

Today I’m not talking about Arch, though. I’m talking about how to improve Linux performance—even if Arch users can do this too.

Everyone knows Intel CPUs had a bunch of vulnerabilities a while back, and patching them all costs you CPU performance. But we broke losers aren’t even qualified to use Arch Linux, and nobody who calls themselves a Real Hacker gives a damn about our beat-up Ubuntu machines, so naturally we can just disable those security patches and get the lost performance back.

https://linuxreviews.org/HOWTO_make_Linux_run_blazing_fast_(again)_on_Intel_CPUs

That page lists all the relevant kernel parameters, but us plebs only need the one-shot fix:

Add this to the kernel boot parameters in /etc/default/grub:

mitigations=off

Or, if you want to be safe, use the longer version:

noibrs noibpb nopti nospectre_v2 nospectre_v1 l1tf=off nospec_store_bypass_disable no_stf_barrier mds=off mitigations=off

In theory newer kernels don’t need the long version, but whatever.

Finally, don’t forget to update grub and the corresponding boot files:

sudo update-grub

Then enjoy the performance boost. Personally I feel it responds a bit faster—though I’m probably on battery most of the time, and you can’t get full performance unplugged. People who game plugged in at full power probably won’t notice a difference.

Oh right, if you’re a Windows user you can do this too:

https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm

After I did it, even eroge ran smoother.