Meowrch Performance Settings

Meowrch is a high-performance Linux distribution based on Arch that comes with a set of system optimizations to improve speed, responsiveness, and stability. All settings are automatically applied by the meowrch-settings package and are designed for safe operation on modern hardware.

Key Advantages

🚀 Instant System Response

ZRAM with zstd compression provides:

2-4x increase in effective RAM capacity
Virtually zero latency when accessing “swap”
No SSD wear from constant swap file writes
Priority 100 ensures ZRAM usage instead of slow disk swap

⚡ Optimized Disk Subsystem

Intelligent I/O schedulers:

SSD: none scheduler eliminates unnecessary queue delays
HDD: mq-deadline scheduler optimizes seek time and throughput
Automatic storage type detection on each boot

🎯 Aggressive Memory Management

Optimized virtual memory parameters:

vm.swappiness = 100 — maximum utilization of fast ZRAM
vm.vfs_cache_pressure = 50 — keeps important VFS cache in memory
vm.dirty_bytes = 268435456 — efficient write buffering (256MB)
vm.page-cluster = 0 — SSD optimization without fragmentation

🔧 Real-time CPU Optimizations

Dynamic processor management:

Automatic performance governor setting for all cores
Transparent hugepages in madvise mode for optimal memory usage
Defrag in defer mode prevents system lockups
NMI watchdog disabled to reduce kernel overhead

Protection Against System Failures

🛡️ EarlyOOM — Smart Freeze Protection

Out-of-Memory situation prevention:

Real-time memory usage monitoring
Triggers at 5% free RAM / 10% free swap
Critical process protection: init, systemd, Xorg, NetworkManager
Priority termination of resource-heavy applications: browsers, IDEs, games

This means your system will never freeze due to memory shortage — EarlyOOM will properly free resources before a critical situation.

Network Performance

🌐 Optimized Network Subsystem

net.core.netdev_max_backlog = 4096 — increased packet buffer
RPS (Receive Packet Steering) distributes load across all CPU cores
Network queue optimization for multithreading
Reduced latency and increased throughput

Gaming Performance

🎮 GPU and PCI Optimizations

NVIDIA optimizations:

Persistence mode for stable driver operation
Automatic setting of maximum GPU and VRAM frequencies
Minimized microstutters in games

AMD optimizations:

Manual frequency control mode
Maximum performance level by default

PCI Latency optimization:

Special pci-latency.service service
Minimized latency for all PCI devices
Critical for gaming mice, sound cards, network adapters

Fast System Boot

⏱️ Boot Optimizations

Boot process acceleration:

NetworkManager-wait-online.service disabled — saves 5-15 seconds
plocate-updatedb moved to timer instead of service at boot
Optimized systemd timeouts
Parallel service initialization

Result: boot to desktop in 10-15 seconds on modern SSD.

Security Without Performance Loss

🔒 Balanced Security

kernel.kptr_restrict = 2 — protection against kernel address leaks
kernel.kexec_load_disabled = 1 — protection against kexec attacks
kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone = 1 — container support
kernel.printk = 3 3 3 3 — kernel output optimization

Comparison with Other Distributions

📊 Practical Advantages

Parameter	Vanilla Arch	Ubuntu/Fedora	Meowrch
Boot time	20-30 sec	30-45 sec	10-15 sec
RAM usage (idle)	800MB+	1.2GB+	600MB
System responsiveness	Good	Average	Excellent
Gaming performance	Basic	Basic	Optimized
OOM protection	No	Partial	Full
SSD optimization	Manual	Basic	Automatic

Automatic Application

🔄 meowrch-settings Package

All optimizations are applied automatically during system installation via the meowrch-settings package:

# Check optimization status
sudo systemctl status meowrch-optimizations.service
sudo systemctl status pci-latency.service
sudo systemctl status systemd-zram-setup@zram0.service

# Manual application (if needed)
sudo systemctl start meowrch-optimizations.service

📈 Performance Monitoring

# Check ZRAM usage
zramctl

# Memory monitoring
free -h

# EarlyOOM status
journalctl -u earlyoom.service -f

# Check I/O scheduler
cat /sys/block/*/queue/scheduler

Conclusion

Meowrch offers scientifically-based optimizations founded on Linux community best practices and proven solutions from CachyOS. Each setting targets specific performance improvements without compromising stability.

Result: a fast, responsive system that maximally utilizes your hardware and will never let you down at a critical moment.

Even More

If you’re ready for extreme Meowrch optimization, follow this collection of ideas: https://github.com/ventureoo/ARU

All existing Arch Linux optimizations are documented there.