The Zen Kernel

The Zen kernel is a kernel optimized for desktop usage at the cost of throughput.

Installation

On arch, it can be installed with the linux-zen package, although you’ll probably also want the linux headers as well

sudo pacman -S linux-zen linux-zen-headers

Bootloader

I added an entry for systemd-boot

/boot/loader/entries/arch-zen.conf:

Title   Arch Linux - Zen
linux   /vmlinuz-linux-zen
initrd  /intel-ucode.img
initrd  /initramfs-linux-zen.img
options rw cryptdevice=UUID=<UUID>:cryptroot root=/dev/mapper/cryptroot

Default

If you want to make this the default, change /boot/loader/loader.conf:

timeout 3
console-mode max
default arch-zen
editor no

Confirm after reboot

$ uname -a
Linux jonathanhodgson-laptop 5.9.14-zen1-1-zen #1 ZEN SMP PREEMPT Sat, 12 Dec 2020 14:36:44 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

References

Tags

  • Linux