Dan Foulkes

Technical writings on site reliability engineering, devops, and system design.

Blog Posts

29 posts published

Stop Linux Gaming Stutter: Automatic CPU Scheduler Switching with sched_ext (2026)

linux gaming arch optimization performance sched_ext scx scx_lavd scx_rusty gamemode ryzen 7950x3d 3d-vcache dual-ccd core-pinning scxctl benchmarks

Complete guide to eliminating gaming stutter on Linux using sched_ext (kernel 6.12+). Automatically switch between scx_lavd (low-latency gaming) and scx_rusty (desktop throughput) schedulers using Gamemode. Works on Intel and AMD. Includes Steam integration, polkit setup, and optional Ryzen X3D core pinning. Same tech used by Steam Deck.

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Setting Up MetalLB on K3s

devops picluster metallb networking

How to install MetalLB on a bare-metal K3s cluster to get real LoadBalancer services without relying on a cloud provider.

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Setting Up Proxmox

devops proxmox homelab virtualisation

A practical guide to setting up Proxmox VE as a hypervisor for homelab virtualisation — installation, networking, and getting your first VMs running.

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Longhorn AWS S3 Backup

devops picluster longhorn aws s3

Setting up automated offsite backups for Longhorn persistent volumes on a Raspberry Pi K3s cluster using AWS S3.

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Using Longhorn with K3s

devops picluster longhorn

How to install and configure Longhorn distributed block storage on a K3s Raspberry Pi cluster to provide reliable persistent volumes.

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Pi Cluster

devops picluster

An introduction to building a home Kubernetes cluster using Raspberry Pis — why it's a great homelab project and what you'll need to get started.

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