Linux Kernel Secrets Revealed

00:00 The kernel you don't know
02:28 What the kernel actually controls
05:25 Swappiness: the parameter everyone gets wrong
07:58 VFS cache pressure and dirty pages
11:13 Transparent Huge Pages: not what you think
13:03 KSM, PSI, and max_map_count
14:49 Autogroup and CPU governors
18:50 CPU mitigations: security vs performance
21:06 Tickless kernel and RCU
25:02 I/O scheduler: choose the right one
27:53 Zswap, read-ahead, and kernel forensics
32:40 You're in control: don't accept the defaults

*Important:*
*If you really want to follow this video properly and understand the topic in depth, read the full written guide:*
https://youtux.org/Kernel%20Secrets.html

Your distro made hundreds of kernel decisions for you. Here's how to take them back.

Most Linux users have never touched the kernel beyond accepting whatever their distro shipped. But the kernel exposes hundreds of runtime parameters — and some of them will fundamentally change how your system feels and performs.

In this video: every command, every config file, every trade-off. No hand-waving.

→ vm.swappiness, vfs_cache_pressure, dirty_ratio
→ Transparent Huge Pages (THP): always / madvise / never
→ Kernel Same-page Merging (KSM) for VMs and containers
→ Pressure Stall Information (PSI): real kernel telemetry
→ Scheduler autogroup and CPU governors (schedutil, performance, powersave)
→ Spectre/Meltdown mitigations and their real performance cost
→ Tickless kernel (NO_HZ), RCU stall timeout
→ I/O schedulers: mq-deadline, Kyber, BFQ, none
→ Zswap with LZ4/Zstandard compression
→ Read-ahead tuning and kernel counter forensics
→ max_map_count: the silent killer for Proton, Elasticsearch, Java

RESOURCES
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References u0026 Documentation

Memory Management
kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.html — vm.swappiness, vm.vfs_cache_pressure, vm.dirty_ratio, vm.max_map_count
kernel.org/doc/html/latest/mm/transhuge.html — Transparent Huge Pages
kernel.org/doc/html/latest/mm/ksm.html — Kernel Same-page Merging

CPU u0026 Scheduling
kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/pm/cpufreq.html — CPU frequency governors
kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/hw-vuln/index.html — CPU security mitigations
kernel.org/doc/html/latest/timers/no_hz.html — Tickless kernel (NO_HZ)
kernel.org/doc/html/latest/RCU/index.html — RCU

Storage u0026 I/O
kernel.org/doc/html/latest/block/bfq-iosched.html — BFQ I/O scheduler
kernel.org/doc/html/latest/mm/zswap.html — Zswap

Pressure Stall Information
kernel.org/doc/html/latest/accounting/psi.html — PSI

Community references
wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sysctl
wiki.archlinux.org/title/CPU_frequency_scaling
wiki.archlinux.org/title/Zswap
wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Kernel/Gentoo_Kernel_Configuration_Guide