Con Kolivas has been maintaining an excellent set of kernel patches " designed to improve system responsiveness, with emphasis on desktop pcs." The latest patches are against the stable 2.4.19 kernel, adding the O(1) scheduler, batch scheduling, kernel preemption, low latency and Andrea Arcangeli's latest -aa VM improvements. You can optionally swap the -aa VM for Rik van Riel's [earlier interview] -rmap VM, as included in Alan Cox's [earlier interview] 2.4 -ac branch.

Applying the patchset is quite simple. Obtain the 2.4.19 kernel from a kernel.org mirror and the -ck patchset from here. Then, to apply the patch and compile the kernel you'll likely be typing something like this:

   # cd /usr/src
   # tar xvfj linux-2.4.19.tar.bz2
   # mv ck6_2.4.19.patch.bz2 linux-2.4.19
   # mv linux-2.4.19 linux-2.4.19-ck6
   # cd linux-2.4.19-ck6
   # bunzip2 ck6_2.4.19.patch.bz2
   # patch -p1 < ck6_2.4.19.patch
   # cp ../linux/.config .
   # make oldconfig
   # make dep && make bzImage && make modules && make modules_install
   # cd ..
   # rm linux
   # ln -s linux-2.4.19-ck6 linux

After moving the resulting 'bzImage' and 'System.map' into place, and adding the new kernel to your boot loader configuration, you're all set to boot the new kernel and enjoy an impressively responsive computer!

From: Con Kolivas
To: linux-kernel mailing list
Subject: Batch scheduling and fixes added to performance patches (-ck)
Date: 	Sat,  7 Sep 2002 15:28:23 +1000

I've updated the merged patches:

O(1) - now includes batch scheduling
Preemptible
Low Latency - now fully supported on SMP
AA memory mods

and some other minor fixes.

Get them here as -ck6 :

http://kernel.kolivas.net

Feel free to give me your thoughts, comments, suggestions and don't forget to cc
me to ensure I see your email.

Cheers,
Con.