Re: want to speed up laptop

["Alex Fernandez" <alejandrofer@gmail.com>]

Hi Preston,

>  my next step (which probably should have been my first), is playing with
>  bootchart and looking for areas to improve.  then i will get to
>  compiling my own kernel.  the generic one is great, but with one
>  specific to the machine i should pick up some more speed.

I don't know about speed, but you can certainly achieve better
responsiveness setting up preemption: under "Processor type and
features" set "Preemption model" to "Preemptible Kernel", or:
  CONFIG_PREEMPT=y
This helps the kernel switch between tasks faster, and therefore
respond to user events faster. The difference is noticeable when the
machine is quite busy doing different tasks in the background. Your
throughput may decrease a little bit, but unless your machine is a
busy server you will not miss that bit.

You can also try preempting the big kernel lock, although I don't know
if that helps too.

Cheers,

Alex.