I dont quite understand the 2.4 scheduler, but I'm, eh, guessing that there is about 10% chance the following patch might fix the problem: kjetism@notam02 ~/linux/linux-2.4.23-rc1/kernel $ diff -u sched.c sched_g.c --- sched.c 2003-11-16 14:18:08.000000000 +0100 +++ sched_g.c 2003-12-03 09:31:32.000000000 +0100 @@ -180,6 +180,7 @@ if (p->mm == this_mm || !p->mm) weight += 1; weight += 20 - p->nice; + if(weight>999) weight=999; goto out; } If someone bothers, please explain why it wont, if it doesnt work, and if anyone knows. This is quite interesting. :) --