I have found sparse details for something called "laptop mode" that will wait to put everything on disk until all buffers and caches on RAM are full.
I think it is a patch for 2.4.x, and as far as I can tell, it's included in 2.6.x--but I'm not positive on any of this!
1.) How do I get it for 2.6.x kernels
2.) How do I enable it for Slackware 9.1
Thanks a bunch
PS I searched for it here, but there was no real explanation of where it is found or how it is used