Better I/O Scheduler

Finding that when you run too many applications that require lots of hardware interaction (multimedia, etc.) that your system suddenly gets sluggish? Try switching to a new I/O scheduler!

I'm personally using CFQ (first added to vanilla in 2.6.6) in my Gentoo 2005.0, and its given me a dramatic increase in speed. I'm loving it. There are rumours that its going to be the new default for 2.6.12.

Why is it better? http://kerneltrap.org/node/580

How do you switch? Well, first make sure you have it in your kernel by typing dmesg | grep sched. If CFQ is listed, you can switch! Go into your GRUB or LILO config file, and add elevator=cfq to your kernel line, reboot, and you'll be good to go! Personally, I created a seperate listing for my CFQ-based config, just in case. Seems to be working well, and I'll be running some multimedia stress tests tomorrow afternoon.

~~ Andrew D.