here I talk
Brain Fuck Scheduler and Kernel 2.6.33 (2.6.33-final-bfs)
A couple of days ago, I discovered, thanks to PCLinuxOS, a new kernel scheduler, Brain Fuck Scheduler or BFS. The name of this kernel scheduler is not very attractive, but what this scheduler does, is. It seems that this scheduler is more simple and fast, especially when it comes to low spec computers.
Because I’ve tried it already for the past couple of days and I’ve found this scheduler to be really good, I also decided to make a new kernel release which includes this scheduler, so the kernel wont use the classic scheduler, but the new BFS one.
I’ve tested kernel 2.6.33 with this scheduler on my Lenovo T61 laptop and it does make things a bit faster, especially when it comes to desktop virtualization, like VirtualBox, video applications and even Firefox.
Because I don’t want to get into too many details and also I’m not much of a developer to understand what and how this scheduler is modified, I would recommend any of you to go to the project web site and check it out: http://ck.kolivas.org/patches/bfs/bfs-faq.txt.
Now the download part is the same like for any other release and here are the links:
Mirror US/CA: http://dl.robertalks.com/kernel/2.6.33-final-bfs/
Mirror EU/CZ: http://mirror.visualserver.org/kernel/2.6.33-final-bfs/
Download at least the linux-image package, install it and test it. I do hope it will help for most of you in speeding up a bit the computer and processing times.
Good luck and please let me know if you have any issues with it.
Thank you for this, I noticed you have an i386 and an all version. Which version should I use for an x64 Kubuntu installation.
Also, how does BFS compare with a realtime kernel for audio production?
Go to the main page on my blog and download the latest version of the kernel 2.6.33.3-soultrain. Regarding the BFS, I dont know, it should do much better.
Caveat Utilitor… BFS is one of the mistakes the distribution team made with PCLinuxOS 2010. “Badly F***ed System” might be a better translation for BFS, or Bull F***ing Sh*t. Roll your own.
If you use Synergy, BFS will keep killing it and you will lose your keyboard/mouse sharing between computers. Apparently, BFS cannot tolerate these low-cpu processes and terminates them.
I’ve installed three versions of PCLinuxOS 2010 (Gnome, LXDE, Zen) and NONE of them can keep Synergy running reliably with the BFS kernal, which is the default kernal with PCLOS 2010.
Therefore, I have removed BFS and ‘upgraded’ to the standard kernel… presto! Synergy is infinitely more stable (I’m typing this comment with it) and I expect other quirks will also disappear.
IMO, the 2009 PCLOS versions (.Tex kernal) were the best EVER versions of any Linux OS. Switching to BFS was ill-conceived.
Note that my chosen machine/hardware (local Linux based website staging/testing) is what BFS was targeted to ‘help’:
ASUS P2B-S (440 BX chipset)
Matrox G200 (Millennium)
P3 600 MHz
1 Gig RAM
Bottom line, install the standard kernel if you want stability.
I know, I also noticed some performance issues with it, plus in PCLinuxOS 2010, I noticed a lot of Out Of Memory issues. The next release of my kernel will not include anymore BFS… it is really not doing so well.
After posting my previous comments regarding BFS kernel results with the LXDE version of PCLOS 2010, I then proceeded to remove the same BFS kernel from my Gnome-based installation (I have multiple installs on the aforementioned machine) and ‘updated’ it to the non-BFS kernel (2.6.32.15-pclos1) as well.
Same result. Synergy now performs as intended and both PCLOS installations are running smoothly, with no discernible speed difference. Your mileage may vary.
BFS may be viable in the future, but needs more work.
PCLOS is a great distribution, so (for now) my advice is to remove the BFS based kernel after installation and promptly replace it with the 2.6.32.15 kernel. Enjoy!