Con Kolivas has resumed work on the MuQSS task scheduler and a set of “-ck” patches for the Linux kernel, aimed at increasing responsiveness and interactivity when performing custom tasks and games. Development of these projects was discontinued in 2021 due to loss of motivation and lack of time. Now Kon has returned to his previous activities and has released a set of ck patches and the MuQSS scheduler for the Linux 7.2 kernel. It is noted that the issue of lack of time was resolved thanks to the use of AI tools, which simplified the development and adaptation of changes to the new kernel.
The new version of the patches implements a scheduling mode for the distribution of CPU resources between processes, taking into account the activity of input/output and the execution of read/write operations in the called process (the load from input/output is now taken into account when calculating the CPU resources allocated to a process). In addition, errors associated with switching to sleep or standby mode have been fixed.
Patches “-ck” include the MuQSS task scheduler, which continues the development of the BFS project, and various changes affecting the operation of the memory management system, priority processing, generation of timer interrupts and kernel settings. The key goal of the patches is to improve the responsiveness of applications on the desktop. Since the proposed changes can negatively affect the performance of server systems, computers with a large number of CPU cores and work in conditions where a large number of processes are running simultaneously, many of Kon Kolivas’ changes were refused to be accepted into the main kernel and he has to support them in the form of a separate set of patches adapted to each new kernel release.