Yellowdog, by default, has several speed-enhancing features turned off to ensure it runs on as many computers as possible. Turn these features on to make the most of your hardware! This How-To covers harddisks and video.

Step 1: Faster video.
Xconfigurator, at least on my Powerbook G3 Wallstreet, generates an /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 that uses the generic fbdev driver instead of the proper, faster ati driver.I also experienced video banding and annoying glitches.
I overcame the glitches by running Xconfigurator from the console (as root), choosing 'custom' and selecting

as my default video setting.
Also note that on a Wallstreet, you should select 24 as your default video depth, as 32 crashes my X. I then logged into a Gnome session, and manually edited my /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file. This is the file Xfree 4 looks at to determine X hardware settings and fonts. Near the bottom, there is a section:


If you have 'Driver "fbdev" change 'fbdev' to ati (for Ati Mach64), radeon, rage128 etc. When you start your next X session (heck, restart X now!) you will have way snappier video, as it is using the proper driver for your video card. Whenever you compile a kernel, say a 2.4 kernel (much faster too!), make sure you add support for your video card when you make config.

Step 2: Speeding up your HardDisk:
You should have a utility called hdparm (/sbin/hdparm) installed. If not, install it! This utility allows you to set the hard disk parameters, for better performance.
For example, on a Powerbook,
makes the harddisk spin down after 5 minutes.
Go to /etc/sysconfig/ and you will find lots of goodies. If you edit (as root, duh) 'harddisks' as follows:
these alone will speed things up quite a bit! But we are not done yet!
Edit /etc/rc.local , and add to the very bottom:

• /sbin/hdparm -a24 -S60 -u1 -W1 /dev/hda
• The drive will read ahead 24 bits (default is 8), spin down after 5 mins inactivity, unmask the HD irq, and turn write caching on. Hda is my harddrive, you may need hdb, sda, etc.Use man hdparm to see all the variables you can tweak.
  Use these at you own risk! But they should make you disk reading and writing faster.
  Step 3:Changing the default mouse emulation keys (from F11 and F12) I use 'enter-next-to-space-bar' and F5 for my emulation keys, as Enter is useless (I use Return) and is close to the trackpad, so it is my 3rd mouse button, and I have never really used F5, so it is my second button. F12 is used in , and F11 is too out of the way, so I edited /etc/sysconfig/mouse to reflect these changes.
  
  EMULATION=yes
  EMU_BUT2=63
  EMU_BUT3=96
  TRACKPAD_OPT=notap
  
  Open a terminal, and type
  
  showkey -k
  
  and then press a key to get its corresponding number. Add the numbers into here, and they will be your new mouse emu keys next X session.
  Poke around in these files in /etc/sysconfig/ to see what they do, and tweak them as necessary.
  Enjoy!