[Wolves] Kernel 2.6

[Old Dan]

> Old Dan wrote:
>
> | I decided to try Kernel 2.6 (finally) on my laptop last night, so I took
> | the cop-out's way of doing it and installed a kernel-image.
>
> Which distribution image please.

2.6.3-1 from Debian Sarge.

> | It is a real speed improvement isn't it?
>
> The new Linux scheduler (which is not a clone of the Slowaris one, oh
> no...) is a lot less braindead in common cases and the IO scheduling
> again makes some reasonable assumptions for people on desktops by simply
> delaying io operations sometimes.

Yeah I heard about that.

 The scheduler is not O1 precisely -
> the schedule main loop is O1 in its choice of which process to run next
> time but this is because some calculations are now done elsewhere.

...but must confess to not having the foggiest idea what that statement
means.  I will google for a Clue(tm).  :)

> | mplayer no longer says 'Your system is TOO SLOW to play this'
>
> This might even be a case of your IDE controller now using DMA where it
> did not before or some simple change elsewhere.

'Some simple change elsewhere' it may be but it ain't DMA.  I've spent a
lot of time squeezing as much juice as I can from this lappy and 'hdparm'
is a command I'm most familiar with.  :)

Of course, it is possible I suppose that the IDE controller module was
misreporting but as it's a venerable 440BX I doubt it.

 On the whole I
> experience an improved sense of response from the desktop I use at home
> but I do not overall rate the system as being "faster".

Lots of other people seem to, as do I.  I suppose YMMV always seems to
apply in these cases.

> | when I'm playing video files and the whole system just feels faster,
> | although I did notice with big processes
> Define big processes please. The scheduler favours processes which are
> nice and well behaved by rewarding them with augmented quata should they
> not hog the CPU. It actually does this by tracking how long a process
> spends sleeping as this is a hard metric to intentionally break.

Er - I suppose 'big processes' is rather unscientific.  I just meant big
apps really.  As I say though, this may simply be my imagination. 
Probably is, now that I come to think of it.

> | What the hell is the deal with the mouse though?  Surely if you now need
> | to load a module the Debian kernel maintainer peeps could have inserted
> | a 'remember you have to add psmouse to /etc/modules if you use a ps2
> | mouse' or something to the config script.  Grrr.  That's ten minutes of
> | my life I won't get back... :)
>
> That is a debianism. Most Debian users I know build there own kernel,
> and no, I do not use a package build to install my kernel - Debian have
> some weirdisms with things like the kernel that I just plain cannot
> agree with and find a lot less hassle when I do it myself.

So do I normally.  Like I said, it was a cop-out.

> | That said, other than that hiccup the upgrade went smooth as silk.
>
> Good to hear that.
> Let us know how you get on then.

Ta.

-- 
Dan