Basic Example: Getting Started with Preheat

A step-by-step walkthrough for new users.

Scenario

You have a laptop with a mechanical hard drive or SATA SSD. Applications like Firefox, VS Code, and other tools take several seconds to start. You want to speed up your daily workflow.

Step 1: Install Preheat

# Install dependencies
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential libglib2.0-dev autoconf automake

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/wasteddreams/preheat-linux.git
cd preheat-linux
sudo bash setup.sh install

Step 2: Verify Installation

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status preheat

Expected output:

● preheat.service - Adaptive readahead daemon
     Loaded: loaded (...; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since ...

Step 3: Use Your System Normally

Just use your computer as you normally would:

• Open Firefox to browse
• Launch VS Code to code
• Start Burp Suite for security testing
• Use the terminal

Preheat is learning in the background.

Step 4: Check Learning Progress (After a Few Hours)

# Dump statistics to log
sudo preheat-ctl dump

# View tracked applications
sudo tail -100 /usr/local/var/log/preheat.log

You should see output like:

[timestamp] 47 running processes, 23 tracked applications

Step 5: Notice the Improvement

After 1-2 days of normal use:

Before preheat: Cold-starting Firefox takes 4-5 seconds.

After preheat learns: Firefox starts in 1-2 seconds because it’s already in the disk cache.

Understanding What Happened

Day 1 (Learning):
  Morning:  You open Firefox, VS Code, Terminal
  Preheat:  "User often uses these together, I'll remember that"
  
Day 2 (Predicting):
  Morning:  You log in
  Preheat:  "Based on yesterday, Firefox is likely to be opened"
  Preheat:  Preloads Firefox into memory
  Result:   When you click Firefox, it starts instantly

Quick Commands Reference

Configuration (Optional)

The default configuration works well. If you want to view it:

cat /usr/local/etc/preheat.conf

See Configuration Reference for customization options.

What’s Next?

• Advanced Example - Power-user configuration
• How It Works - Understand the technology
• Troubleshooting - If something goes wrong

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