[TriLUG] Anyone play with this RH9 VM bug yet?

[Jon Carnes]

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=89226#c15

>> The problem when all memory is used, is that Linux seems to
>> prefer swapping over releasing memory from the cache. The
>> system (X especially) appears sluggish when this happens.

The "bug" is in the default tuning parameters released for RH9. 
The suggested fix is to run:
 /sbin/sysctl -w vm.bdflush="30 500 0 0 2560 15360 60 20 0"

And if that makes your system more responsive, then put:
  vm.bdflush="30 500 0 0 2560 15360 60 20 0"

in /etc/sysctl.conf

I stress tested my home system and this did make it more 
responsive - though it wasn't a dramatic difference.

Jon Carnes