>
> It looks like the console output slowdown may be back again in 2.1.42. I
> just reinstalled my system under the latest Slackware. I was running
> development kernels before, so I went ahead and upgraded what needed
> upgrading and then compiled 2.1.42.
>
I noticed a problem that *looks* like this, but is not: under SMP
(on a UP machine), 2.1.42 takes several seconds to start any process under
load conditions (such as running a compile on another vt). Without SMP,
it behaves normally. Was your kernel compiled with SMP?
I looked briefly at the source for execve(), but I was not
enlightened about its cause. If I remember correctly, this was also a
problem in late 2.1.3x kernels, but I don't recall if I tested for it in
2.1.40 or 2.1.41.